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- By Chuck Hoskin Jr
Guest Opinion. Housing has been one of the highest priorities of my administration.
It is time to admit that our efforts have not been enough. Cherokee Nation is in a housing crisis, and we need to face it together.
When Deputy Chief Bryan Warner and I took office in 2019 we faced an already daunting challenge on housing: federal resources to help those most in need were lacking and Cherokee Nation’s home construction program, though incredibly impactful, was falling short.
So, we worked with the Council of the Cherokee Nation to enact the historic $30 million Housing, Jobs and Sustainable Communities Act of 2019 (HJSCA). For the first time, we injected substantial funding from our Cherokee Nation Businesses profits into housing rehabilitation to assist our most vulnerable citizens, low-income elders and those with disabilities. We committed $22.5 million for that cause, and an additional $7.5 million to upgrade local community centers.
As the COVID-19 pandemic, and the economic fallout of the crisis, gripped our nation, we did not just double down on our effort; we quadrupled down.
In 2022, the Council approved our renewal of HJSCA at $120 million, dedicating a full $60 million of that funding to build new homes. This effort was atop other housing initiatives, including upgrading and expanding low-income rental units, temporarily expanding emergency rental assistance, special services for fluent Cherokee speakers and a host of other measures.
Now we see the fruits of that investment. HJSCA, the largest housing investment in Cherokee history, has led to hundreds of new homes in some phase of construction, both new housing additions and individual lots, as well as hundreds of housing rehab projects.
HJSCA says that we refuse to be reliant on only federal housing dollars to address the Cherokee peoples’ needs. HJSCA says we must commit our own resources and develop our own policy to addressing the issue. By any measure, HJSCA has been a success.
But, we ought to admit it that it has not gone far enough, and we ought to do something about it.
Too many families are still struggling for safe, affordable housing. Economic pressures and a lack of enough decent housing leads to crippling monthly rent payments. Too many of our precious elders are living in homes that you would not want your grandparents living in. Too many of our citizens are close to homelessness or cannot invest in their future because they struggle to pay rent.
As Chief, I am proud to say that we’ve made historic strides in improving housing conditions, and we committed more funding for that cause under the Hoskin / Warner administration than any other five-year period in Cherokee history.
But, I would not be serving you well if I did not admit that more action is needed.
Deputy Chief Warner and I have called on the Housing Authority of the Cherokee Nation to conduct our first comprehensive housing needs study. Under the leadership of my senior adviser and Executive Director of Housing Programs Todd Enlow, the study will be revealing and, I predict, it will be jarring.
The study will analyze demographic data, current housing inventory, and pathways to housing that make the most sense for our citizens. Our review will consider other quality-of-life factors impacting community life, such as broadband connectivity. The study will help us prioritize the right mix of new home construction, mortgage assistance, rental unit construction and rental assistance.
We should all brace for what I predict the study will show: hundreds of millions of dollars in immediate need for shoring up a huge deficit in affordable housing.
This will come as no surprise. The country, the region and the state of Oklahoma are all to some degree in a housing crisis.
According to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, the United States saw a 25% increase in homelessness between 2021 and 2022 and, even as the pandemic receded, another 12% increase between 2022 and 2023.
According to Moody’s Analytics, the United States has a housing deficit of 1.5 million units.
Closer to home, the Oklahoma Policy Institute reports that Oklahoma is short 77,000 rental units. The city of Tulsa recently analyzed the housing need and identified a shortage of nearly 13,000 housing units.
Against this backdrop and based on what Cherokee Nation citizens share with me daily, I know that the housing situation across our reservation is troubling.
But the housing crisis does not need to endlessly plague us. After all, we are Cherokee. We look, with courage, at our challenges. We lean in, together, with solutions. Other governments and the private sector must do their part, but we were never a people content with letting others solve our problems; Cherokees were meant to lead.
After the housing study is released, the Deputy Chief and I will propose a new housing policy, building on the success of HJSCA. It will take, I predict, a historic commitment of our funds — not relying on inadequate federal dollars — to fill enormous gaps in rental housing, new home construction, infrastructure, and the building trades workforce.
In the final analysis we must decide if Cherokee Nation has a role in solving the housing crisis and, if we decide it should, we must be open and honest about what it will take to meet the challenge.
Chuck Hoskin, Jr. is the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.
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