BY MARK FOGARTY, INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY, RAPID CITY, S.D. Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News NEW YORK--May 12--Providing housing assistance for American Indians is challenging and costly, the federal government has ac-knowledged. The U.S General Accounting Office, in a recent report to a congressional subcommittee on government housing programs for American Indians, said there are ``unique challenges and costly conditions'' for housing in tribal areas. GAO, which studied the American Indian housing programs of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at the request of the Subcommittee on the Veterans Administration, HUD, and Independent Agencies, cited these challenges and conditions faced by HUD and Indian Housing authorities: -- the remoteness and limited human resources of IHAs; -- the lack of suitable land and the inhospitality of the >>climate<<; -- the difficulty contractors and IHAs have in complying with requirements to give hiring preference to American Indians; and -- the pressure that vandalism, tenants' neglect, and unpaid rent put on scarce maintenance funds. The GAO report gives a telling analysis of the cost of a typical home on the Gila River Reservation in Arizona due to lack of infrastructure. Of the $77,554 total cost of a home, only half is attributable to actual construction. The balance comes from large expenditures for infrastructure, site improvements, planning, surveys and administration, among other things. ``According to HUD officials,'' stated the report, ``the cost of site improvements -- creating and connecting to the Toff-site' infrastructure -- is 43 percent higher than for a public housing project in an urban area near the Gila River Reservation.'' The remoteness of many tribal areas, states the report, ``also increases the cost of transporting supplies, raises labor costs, and reduces the availability of supplies and of an 'institutional infrastructure' of developers and government and private entities.'' Another conclusion GAO comes to is ``the limited human resources of many IHAs also contribute to the high cost of developing and maintaining housing.'' It also called the lack of skilled workers in American Indian areas costly. HUD officials said that, as a general rule in the construction industry, labor costs should not exceed 50 percent of the total cost. But in tribal areas labor costs can run as high as 65 percent because contractors generally have to bring in skilled workers and pay for lodging or commuting costs, according to HUD officials. The government report cited land-use restrictions and inhospitable >>climates<< as getting in the way of developing low-moderate income housing for American Indians as well. Archaeological and traditional burial sites are unavailable, and >>environmental<< restrictions ``prohibit the use of much of it (land) for housing.'' Severity of >>climate<< is another hazard, according to GAO. At Gila River, government investigators found that high salt and mineral content in water damages water heaters and corrodes pipes. In addition, ``the high mineral content in the water also damages water circulation systems of large fans called Tswamp coolers,' used for summer cooling,'' and they must be replaced annually. GAO officials also were told that high salt content in the soil ``causes housing foundations and sewer systems to deteriorate.'' American Indian hiring preference, the investigators were told by IHA executive directors, ``adds to contractors' time and cost to bid on work for IHAs.'' They added other troubles with the requirement, set up by the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, include ``a lack of qualified American Indian contractors in the area, the creation of fraudulent joint ventures that are not owned or managed by American Indians, and the occasional need to use qualified firms outside the region that do not understand local conditions.'' The report notes pressure on maintenance budgets at IHAs, both because of the aging housing and costly repairs due to vandalism and poor maintenance. Unpaid rent by assisted families also hurts maintenance, the report says, as ``shortfalls in rental income will generally result in less funds to spend on maintenance.'' The government's conclusions on the challenges of assisting Indian housing come within a more comprehensive evaluation of HUD assistance to IHAs and directly to tribes. It tallied $4.3 billion for housing and community development in tribal areas for the 10 years ending in Fiscal Year 1995. $3.9 billion went to IHAs, which GAO said constructed 24,000 homes during the period, while $424 million was in direct block grants to tribes. HUD also has a housing modernization program for IHAs, totaling $121.6 million in FY 1992, $163.2 million in FY 1993, $172 million in FY 1994, and $161.4 million in FY 1995. IHA operating subsidies for the same years are $46.7 million in 1992, $51.5 million in FY 1993, $71.5 million in FY 1994 and $71.4 million in FY 1995. The agency noted that the $3 million commitment to the HUD 184 program was leveraged to $22.5 million in home loan guarantees in FY 1995 -- 74 for individuals and 403 to IHAs. The HOME program, GAO noted, was extended to American Indians in 1992, and ``since then, under the program HUD has awarded a total of $51 million to American Indian tribes, resulting in 560 new units constructed, 1,400 units rehabilitated, and 178 existing units purchased.'' The CD block grants total $370.2 million for 1986 to 1995, but GAO notes that projects that directly address housing -- ``new development, rehabilitation, and land to support new housing -- received a very small portion of the funding: $5 million, or about 13 percent of the grant funds approved.'' GAO also studied gaming operations of tribes because it said that while HUD doesn't factor in gaming funds directly when allocating for American Indian housing, ``tribes generally can use gaming revenues for many purposes, including education, health facilities and housing.'' GAO tallied 240 gaming facilities operated by 177 tribes in the continental US as of July 1996. It found that 85 of these tribes realized $1.5 billion after expenses during 1994 and 1995. ----- ON THE INTERNET: Visit Indian Country Today on the World Wide Web at http://www.indiancountry.com/ ----- (c) 1997, Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. ------------------------------------------------------------