WASHINGTON – Rachel Joseph has seen entire American Indian families living in one room, children huddled in housing so poorly insulated that shafts of light could be seen through the wooden walls.
Now a report by the National American Indian Housing Council highlights what Joseph, chairwoman of the Lone Pine Paiute Tribe in California, has known all along, that substandard and overcrowded housing contributes to a plethora of health, social and family problems within her community.
Joseph, co-chairwoman of the national steering committee for reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, says the federal government has, over decades, failed to address the needs of American Indians.
“What do we have to do for our voices to be heard?” she said at a news conference to release the housing report.
While proposing a multifaceted approach toward solving the housing crisis, the National American Indian Housing Council said the federal government has a trust responsibility to support tribal development. The organization called for federal legislation to create a block grant for infrastructure funding.
“Very few places in our nation have children hurting as much as on our Indian reservations,” said Chester Carl, chairman of the National American Indian Housing Council. “It is up to the federal government to uphold the trust responsibility – an obligation it has made to tribes through treaties and laws – and make good on promises ratified centuries ago. We, as native people, will also continue to work together to make a better life for our children.”
The survey of 246 NAIHC housing authority members found that:
* Fifty-nine percent of respondents reported overcrowded housing on their reservations, and 83 percent described housing as substandard, with problems such as inadequate insulation, lack of proper sewage treatment, mold and lack of clean water.
* A total of 94 percent indicated such poor conditions affected tribal members’ health and the well-being of their children, linking an increase in cases of colds, flu and skin disorders to overcrowding and substandard housing.
* Almost 90 percent of the respondents said poor housing contributed to social problems such as alcoholism and abuse.
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights last year published a study that estimated 200,000 new housing units are needed to ease the housing crisis in Indian Country.
The civil rights commission study had found that 14.7 percent of the dwellings in tribal areas are overcrowded. It reported about 90,000 Indian families are homeless or lack adequate housing.
“Native Americans living on reservations have some of the worst housing conditions in the United States,” Carl said. “Native Americans are three times more likely to live in overcrowded housing. Native Americans are more likely than other Americans to have a lack of sewage and water systems, telephone lines and electricity.”
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