American Indian Housing Council Moves to Boost Mortgage Lending
Story-Date: 11:21 a.m. PST Tuesday  , February 16, 1999

------------------------------------------------------------

American Indian Housing Council Moves to Boost Mortgage Lending


By Mark Fogarty, Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D.
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Feb. 15--WASHINGTON, D.C.--The National American Indian Housing Council has
signed two partners to help it increase mortgage lending in Indian country.

At the NAIHC's recent legislative conference here, the National Community
Reinvestment Coalition and the National Association of Affordable Housing
Lenders agreed to partner with the group.

NCRC is a coalition of non-profit organizations dedicated to fair housing
issues. It plans to work with the council to train Indian Housing Authority
officials to use the Community Reinvestment Act to increase American Indian
access to mortgage credit, and to lobby against any efforts to cut back the
act.

The housing lenders group announced it will work with the council in three
areas: developing a clearinghouse of information and showing bankers models
of successful Indian lending; developing publications and conference panels
on the topic; and providing technical expertise.

The group has hoped to get lenders to join in its Mortgage Partnership Plan
but to date, none has.

According to Chester Carl, Navajo, council chairman, increased mortgage
lending "can answer the prayers of families that have waited for years to
have a home of their own. We can help families who live in overcrowded
houses. We can alleviate the despair of families who live in homes without
plumbing, without running water, without insulation."

Carl estimated that 200,000 housing units are needed immediately to provide
adequate housing in tribal areas, where 40 percent of American Indians live
in substandard units.

And he noted that only 91 conventional mortgages were made on Indian trust
land for the five years between 1992 and 1996, and the fact that Indians
were the only minority group to show a decrease in mortgage loans for 1997.

The council estimates that for fiscal year 2000, government funding of $972
million is needed for Indian housing. The 1999 appropriation was $620
million, an increase from the $600 million for FY 1998.

The group also distributed a fact sheet on Indian housing at the
conference, which added the following items:

-- 21 percent of homes in tribal areas are overcrowded, compared to a
national average of 2.7 percent.

-- 16.5 of tribal homes lack complete plumbing.

-- The poverty rate for rural Indians is 37 percent, three times that of
rural whites.

-- 30,000 people are on tribal waiting lists for rental housing.

-- 71 percent of those in Mutual Help units are wage-earners.

-- The Bureau of Indian Affairs has a 113-staff year backlog on title
search requests.

The council publishes a newsletter, Native American Housing News, runs the
housing clearinghouse the Native American Housing Resource Center, and
provides training and technical assistance in addition to the lobbying it
does on legislative issues.

-----

Visit Indian Country Today on the World Wide Web at
http://www.indiancountry.com/

(c) 1999, Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D. Distributed by Knight
Ridder/Tribune Business News.



------------------------------------------------------------