TULALIP – Following sanctions by a federal agency, the Tulalip Tribes could begin work on new low-income housing projects early next year and already have two on the drawing board.
Michael V. Martina / The Herald
Federal Housing and Urban Development officials expect to award the Tulalips’ $2.04 million grant for 2005 within the next month.
Two hundred families are on waiting lists for HUD housing, but many more actually need homes, said Charles Anderson, the tribes’ new housing department executive director. With up to a four-year waiting list, many people simply don’t apply, he said.
“Housing is a big need (on the reservation),” said Melissa Bumgarner, who has lived in tribal housing for more than a decade. “My oldest daughter is on the waiting list. She got on trying to get an apartment for nearly two years.”
Now, her daughter is in the top 10 waiting for a home, Bumgarner said.
“I’ve got a five-bedroom house, and it ain’t cutting it with five kids,” she said.
In addition to her children, she’s caring for her brother’s children and other relatives, with a household totaling 13.
“I also have people come and stay with me for a couple of days because they have no place to go,” she said, adding that she also has sheltered foster children.
“I try to help as many as I can.”
The Tulalips and HUD officials this week reached an agreement on how to resolve $4.8 million in sanctions the agency imposed after it took control of about $6 million in unspent grant money the tribes have received since 1997. Completing audits is key to ending the sanctions.
The tribes have been working for months to correct problems that occurred, some dating as far back as 1997, while administration of the grant money was managed by seven housing authority commissioners elected by the tribal confederation.
The Tulalip board of directors disbanded the authority and fired the commissioners last year, putting control of the HUD grant program directly under the tribes’ general manager. They discovered the program was in disarray, with little accounting completed between 2001 and 2004.
Since 1997, the tribes have received more than $12 million. Federal officials questioned about $500,000 in expenditures between 2001 and 2004.
Dale Micheal Jones, the former head of the tribes’ housing authority, was sentenced in June to three years of supervised probation, six months of electronic home detention, 200 hours of community service, and a $100 fine after he pleaded guilty to embezzling $23,500. He avoided a 10-year prison sentence and was repaying the money.
Several other housing authority commissioners who were not prosecuted were required to repay some funds.
The questioned expenditures included whale-watching trips, expensive meals in restaurants and the purchase of night-vision goggles and laptop computers.
The Tulalips will repay the federal government for any expenditures that are disallowed after HUD receives and reviews the four audits, which must be completed by May 31.
Renee Ostler, an independent auditor hired to help the Tulalips resolve problems in managing HUD grants, said most of the problem was the authority’s failure to document how money was spent.
“They were building houses and fixing houses; they just didn’t know how to put it on paper,” said Ostler, a certified public accountant assisting the tribes and an independent review panel in getting the Tulalips back in federal compliance.
“Generally accepted accounting practices weren’t required in 1997 when this (grant program) started. A bunch of new government regulations came into play. This was a whole new program, and they didn’t know how to do it. By the time they got people in here who did, it was a disaster,” Ostler said.
She estimated the Tulalips might have to repay $30,000 to $50,000 for each year between 2001 and 2004. Some of those things, such as Christmas parties, were morale boosters for housing authority members, but were not allowed under the federal grant, Ostler said.
She also discovered there were a number of allowable expenses the Tulalips never billed the federal program, so the government may actually owe the tribes some money.
“We came a long way with HUD, working together,” tribal Chairman Stan Jones Sr. said. “We have so many houses to build out here, and I think they’ve done a good job on making homes out here for our people, but we still have a long way to go. I’m elated about getting the settlement so we can continue on. It was a lesson learned.
“We just have to really make sure we have the right people in there and to monitor it. We go out and hire the best managers we can get, people (trained) in housing.”
Reporter Cathy Logg: 425-339-3437 or logg@heraldnet.com.
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