CONTENTS WITNESSES Bremner, Connie, executive director, Blackfeet Indian Housing Authority, prepared statement... Chase, Nadine, member, Leech Lake Housing Authority. Prepared statement... Chino, Barney, commissioner, All-Indian Pueblo Housing Authority. Chino, Mark J., commissioner, All-Indian Pueblo Housing Authority. Chopper, Johnnye, chairman, National American Indian Housing Prepared statement... Cleveland, Roy, executive director, the Navajo Housing Authority.... Prepared statement... Frague, Manuel, Authority... secretary-treasurer, All-Indian Pueblo Housing Garcia, Salome T., executive director, All-Indian Pueblo Housing Hallett, William, Commissioner, Bureau of Indian Affairs... Prepared statement.. Kitto, Larry, member, administrative staff, Leech Lake Housing Montoya, Donald R., executive director, Pueblo of Laguna Housing Nahkai, James, Jr., secretary, Navajo Housing Authority Parrish, Lamar, attorney, All-Indian Pueblo Housing Authority. Peake, Ronald G., Chief, Division of Housing Assistance, Bureau of Indian Perez, David, executive director, Northern Pueblos Housing Authority, Press, Daniel S., attorney, Washington, D.C., prepared statement.. Prepared statement.. Sherman, Thomas, Acting Director, Office of Indian Housing, Department Singer, Lawrence, chairman, All-Indian Pueblo Housing Authority___ Todacheene, Carl, chairman, Board of Commissioners, Navajo Housing Page 35 47 50 42 45 42 45 18 20 80 ******** *28* * *** * *8* Prepared statement. Toews, Virginia, executive director, the Northern Cheyenne Housing Prepared statement.... MATERIAL RECEIVED FOR THE RECORD All-Indian Pueblo Housing Authority, statement. Letter from Theodore J. St. Hilaire, executive director, Association of Letter from Renee Red Dog, director, community development, the FEDERAL INDIAN HOUSING PROGRAMS AUGUST 19, 1980 U.S. SENATE, SELECT COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS, Washington, D.C. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:03 a.m., in room 5110, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. John Melcher (chairman of the committee) presiding. Present: Senator Melcher. Staff present: Max Richtman, staff director; and Virginia Boylan, staff attorney. Senator MELCHER. The hearing will come to order. This morning we are meeting on Federal Indian housing programs. We are going to hear testimony from the administration and from several groups who work with the programs, right on the front lines. A number of Indian housing authorities have expressed to this committee their frustration with the management of HUD housing programs, both at the central office and at the regional level. Additionally, tribes are very concerned that new allocations are being withheld because of delinquent tenant accounts receivable and a variety of other management problems encountered by the Indian housing authorities. The need for effective and ongoing technical assistance appears to be critical and the committee is very interested in hearing about, not only what is being done now, but what can be done in the future. These management problems, coupled with a very high development cost for mutual help housing, appear to be counterproductive to building badly needed houses for Indian families on reservations. The committee hopes to elicit from witnesses today the most creative and innovative ideas for fostering much needed housing production, while at the same time reducing costs, or at least holding them stable, and improving management at all levels. We need to know how the redtape can be cut without cutting the quality or quantity of houses. We are looking for solid recommendations and ideas that can be incorporated into legislative proposals for consideration by the Senate. The first witness this morning is Bill Hallett, Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. All witnesses this morning will be limited to no more than 10 minutes total because we have a vote on at 11 o'clock. The hearing will conclude at 11 o'clock. The 10-minute limitation applies also to the time that we will ask for further comments on points in the testimony. So, we hope that no witness will actually utilize all of that 10 minutes in summarizing their statement because there may be an important point or two that we would like to elicit from the witness. Please proceed, Bill. |