TAHLEQUAH – To help address seemingly endless housing needs across the reservation, Cherokee Nation leaders have expanded and made permanent their landmark Housing, Jobs and Sustainable Communities Act.
“Today, we’re going to be signing a piece of legislation that’s going to put permanent funding – $40 million to be exact – into housing every three years,” Deputy Secretary of State Canaan Duncan said Sept. 27 during a signing event in Tahlequah.
Proposed by Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner with support from the Tribal Council, the Housing, Jobs and Sustainable Communities Act was initially enacted in 2019. The act earmarked $30 million for housing rehabilitation and repair/remodel of Cherokee community buildings. Amendments to the law were passed in 2022, boosting funds to $120 million, which included $60 million for new homes. The current law was set to expire in September 2025.
“We’ve got to keep this going,” Hoskin said. “We’ve got to keep the urgency of addressing housing needs going. We can’t keep that urgency up if we’re not transparent about it, if we’re not straight forward about it, if we don’t tell the Cherokee people that yes, we do have a housing deficit, but we’ve got a plan to fix it. That plan is $40 million every three years into perpetuity for housing and community buildings.”
Surrounded by tribal leaders, Hoskin signed legislation reauthorizing the act permanently. Less than 24 hours earlier, the Tribal Council voted in favor of the move at a special-called meeting.
“I am proud to be a yes vote on the Housing, Jobs and Sustainable Communities Act,” District 2 Tribal Councilor Candessa Tehee said. “But I’m even more proud to sit with fellow councilors who were unanimously in favor of that Housing, Jobs and Sustainable Communities legislation. We’re in the midst of a national housing crisis that is impacting people in all walks of life, but specifically people who are at our lower and middle incomes. I’m proud to be part of a Nation that is doing something about it, that is doing the right thing, that is helping our people to find safe, high-quality, affordable housing.”
Hoskin praised past and present tribal leaders for their “desire and passion” to address housing.
“The difference between now and then is really one of resources,” he said. “We are in an era in which the businesses of the Cherokee Nation are generating a great deal of resources, hope and opportunity and jobs, and yes, revenue. An era in which the Cherokee Nation is generating its own revenue ought to be an era in which the Cherokee Nation is putting historic resources into housing. We’re going to do that.”
When it comes to funding needs like tribal housing, Hoskin said, the United States government is lagging.
“The effort of the government of the United States is being lapped by the effort of the Cherokee Nation,” he added. “We’re making historic efforts, and the government of the United States needs to catch up. We need to continue to push them to catch up, including on the issue of housing. But we are in an era in which we don’t have to wait on the government of the United States.”
According to the tribe, the housing act has paved the way for thousands of home repairs for low-income and elder Cherokee citizens. It has also funded 363 new homes with more in the planning phases.
“If we didn’t spend a penny of our own dollars on housing in the last five years, thousands of housing projects big and small would never have been done,” Hoskin said. “That’s hundreds of elders who’d still be waiting on a roof to get fixed or a ramp to get built. It’s hundreds of Cherokee families who would still be living in conditions that are unacceptable to the Cherokee Nation where rent or their housing cost is completely out of reach. We’ve got a housing waiting list that measures in the thousands, and we ought to talk about it, and we ought to be frank about it. And we ought to recognize that but for the previous versions of the Housing, Jobs and Sustainable Communities Act, that list would be so much longer.”
