Study Finds Severe Housing Needs Among American Indians and Alaska Natives
A groundbreaking HUD study documents the severe housing needs of the American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) population and calls for an increase in public and private investment to alleviate these conditions.Assessment of American Indian Housing Needs and Programs: Final Report is the most comprehensive examination of the housing needs of this group ever performed. It finds that the AIAN population faces more frequent -- and often more severe -- housing problems than the non-Indian population. The housing needs and underlying socioeconomic conditions of the more than 2 million Native Americans vary greatly across the States, cities, and the 508 federally recognized Tribal Areas where American Indians and Alaska Natives live.
The intensity of AIAN housing needs and problems, particularly in Tribal Areas, is illustrated by the following:
Fifteen percent of all AIAN households and 28 percent of AIAN households in Tribal Areas are either overcrowded or lack kitchen or plumbing facilities, as compared to the national average of 5 percent.
Twenty-nine percent of all AIAN households and 44 percent in Tribal Areas have a housing affordability problem, as compared to the national average of 23 percent.
If recent trends continue, the number of AIAN households in Tribal Areas that are overcrowded or have facility problems will grow by an estimated 3,700 per year in the 1990s.
Federal housing programs have been a critical source of affordable housing for the AIAN population and will continue to be so. However, Federal assistance by itself never will be able to meet all AIAN housing needs, nor will it create a self-sustaining housing system, the report concludes. Because of this disparity, the report analyzes options for fostering private-sector housing finance institutions. This report and its companion studies, Housing Problems and Needs of Native Hawaiians and Housing Problems and Needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives (a more detailed presentation of the analysis in the Final Report), are now available from HUD USER for $5 each.
