On the Road Again

Private lenders have extended nine mortgages to residents of the San Felipe pueblo in New Mexico. While that may not sound like a lot for a village of 3600 people, it's a start. It's a lot harder lending in San Felipe than it would be in most rural villages of its size. That's because San Felipe is Indian Country, one of 19 such pueblo (village) tribes in New Mexico. So it has complicated land issues even before the issues of poverty and credit and federal bureaucracy and perhaps some deep background racism are factored in. It's a long process to get private lenders on a reservation, but San Felipe has made a start with nine mortgage loans through Bank of Albuquerque, Wells Fargo, Gem Mortgage, and Aztec Mortgage. Others are pending the tedious lease approval process at BIA. "That number needs to increase dramatically," said Isaac Perez, executive director of San Felipe Pueblo Housing, a "TDHE" or tribally-designated housing entity. The pueblo, halfway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, has also done some housing-related loans through the state housing finance agency, the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority, which runs a "Primero" loan program for affordable housing loans. The tribe is leveraging HUD Rural Housing and Economic Development money through NMMFA on 17 rehabs and 18 single-family homes being done on the reservation. The rehabs combine a $6000 RHED grant with a 4.5% mortgage of $23,500 through NMMFA's Primero loan program. The single-family homes are financed with a $6000 RHED grant (provided through NMMFA's Revive program) and money the tribe gets from the Indian Community Development Block Grant program and the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act. According to Eric Schmieder, NMMFA's Native American housing consultant, 13 of the rehabs are done, as well as ten of the single-family homes, with another five under construction. Perez said the pueblo receives between $480,000 and $550,000 a year in federal ICDBG and NAHASDA funds, enough to finance 20-25 rehabs a year. The tribe has used this annual money to leverage another $5 to $8 million in funds. "We're out there as much as we can, trying to get money," Perez said. His goal is "to provide every tribal member some housing assistance regardless of income, status or anything else," he said. His agency, has also constructed 25 stick-built houses since 2003, and done another 11 constructions through the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Home Improvement Program. The tribe has also built ten houses for emergency housing for families that have suffered a fire or some other emergency. The TDHE has also done construction for tribal non-housing projects, such as San Felipe's new Administration building. In addition, it is planning a $7-$10 million housing development that will build more than 100 homes to put a dent in the "huge" housing need on the tribal homeland. It likely will partner with the NMMFA on homeownership counseling and downpayment assistance to support the ambitious project. The tribe and the NMMFA are currently partnering on projects to build or rehab 35 houses on the reservation, with more than 20 already completed. Perez said more than 150 families are on the SFPH new home waiting list, and another 50 are waiting for rehabs. The 104 home project (28 of which will be modular) will be located south of the pueblo's elementary school on a 100 acre site, and 80% of the project is planned to be built in-house. Perez said the project may be done in three phases. The bulk of the financing would come from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, in the form of section 184 or Title VI loans, and HUD's RHED program. The NMMFA Revive program has leveraged RHED money in several other New Mexico tribes, Schmieder said, including the Mescalero Apache, the Alamo chapter of the Navajo Nation, and the Tesuque and Laguna pueblos. Fourteen rehabs have been financed at Mescalero, 8 at Zuni, and 12 new homes at Alamo, he said. Eleven are being done at Laguna through RHED and NMMFA's Housing Trust Fund. Revive has also been used for rehabs at Tesuque and San Idlefonso pueblos. According to NMMFA, "the Revive program is designed to be as flexible as possible to meet the housing challenges in New Mexico Indian Country." That means that Revive "is a process for combining various federal, state, tribal and MFA resources to address housing needs on reservations in New Mexico." The program seeks to increase capacity for TDHEs and non-profits working on New Mexico tribal land, give tribal members greater access to credit and financial literacy training, and providing more housing money for tribal members. "With Revive, the housing partners gain skills in loan qualifying and processing, homebuyer and financial literacy skills are enhanced on the reservation and additional housing repair funds are provided to the tribal members."