FINLEY — Five Lake County tribes received help on their critical housing problems Thursday. At Big Valley”s Konocti Harbor Casino & Conference Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture – Rural Development State Director Ben Higgins presented $100,000 to California Coalition for Rural Housing (CCRH).
The five tribes include Big Valley Rancheria; Elem Indian Colony; Habematole Pomo of Upper Lake Rancheria; Robinson Rancheria; Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians.
The grant will enable CCRH to work with the Pomo tribes on training, capacity building, identifying good partnerships, and developing institutional relationships. And ultimately, leave them to be self-reliant in these areas.
The day began with a one-hour presentation by Rob Wiener, executive director of California Coalition for Rural Housing, and Dewey Bandy, deputy director of CCRH. They explained the capabilities of CCRH and outlined three phases of the planned tribal housing capacity development project: Capacity needs assessment; training on core competencies; and housing and community development applications.
“We focus on affordable housing,” said Wiener. He said his agency is among the oldest statewide low-income coalitions in the U.S and advocacy groups and then listed some resources they might provide.
“We”re not your traditional consultants in three-piece suits and alligator shoes,” said Bandy. “We want to identify what you want done and the obstacles you face and then help you get things done.”
He went on to give examples of how they had worked on various projects, the skills they were able to develop in their clients, and the clout they could bring to overcome bureaucratic roadblocks.
“This grant is no silver bullet,” admitted Bandy, but it will enable CCRH to focus on housing for the low and very low income, developing tribal skills in acquiring first-time homeownership, credit building, increasing each tribe”s knowledge and capacity to acquire more resources.
Lunch followed the formal photo opportunity to mark the check”s presentation. Then the Konocti Vista bus gave a tour of Big Valley (formerly called Mission) Rancheria and its low- and very-low-income housing situation.
Tribal Administrator Anthony Jack and Housing Director Linda Hedstrom moderated the tour, pointing out what visitors were seeing and what was desperately and eventually needed.
As the tour progressed past compelling lake and frontage, then crumbling garages and five and six trailers of extended families that were hooked up to a main house by extension cords for electricity and garden hoses for water all on a 100-year flood plain the visitors became quieter and quieter.
“Everyone thinks that because a tribe has a casino, it”s rich. But today, it”s so competitive that we just make enough to pay our debts,” said Jack. Even the housing office is without heat or plumbing.
“When children are taken from their parents by Social Services because there is not a proper home no electricity or plumbing we try to see that they are placed in foster care with a Native American family,” explained Hedstrom.
Near the end of the tour, Wiener rose and said, “This is the worst I have ever seen.”
“In a country as rich as ours, conditions like this are a disgrace. It”s a disgrace to have let this happen,” said Bandy.
He estimates that the contracts and paperwork should be signed so CCRH can begin work with the tribes by April.
