The Oklahoma City listening session focused on affordability, federal red tape and giving tribes greater flexibility to build housing.
OKLAHOMA CITY — HUD Secretary Scott Turner and U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., met with Oklahoma tribal leaders Thursday to discuss how the federal government can help expand housing supply and homeownership in tribal communities.
The listening session at the Chickasaw Nation Community Center focused on housing affordability, access to financing and the federal requirements tribes encounter when combining government assistance with their own money.
“We had a lot of tribes here talking about their concerns,” Cole said. “A lot of our tribes raised with the secretary just the need for flexibility in the regulatory framework that they operate.”
Turner described the discussion as productive, saying tribal leaders spoke about problems they face as well as their successes.
“Today we had a very productive discussion about some of the needs, some of the issues that the tribes do have, but also some of the victories that they’re having to promote self-sufficiency,” Turner said.
Flexibility and fewer barriers
Turner said HUD has made reducing regulatory barriers a central part of its housing strategy.
“The number one thing crippling housing is the regulatory environment,” Turner said.
He estimated that regulatory fees account for about $100,000 of the final price of a typical new single-family home nationally. Turner said the median home price is approximately $426,000, making those regulatory costs unsustainable.
HUD recently published a report recommending steps state and local governments can take to reduce construction costs, make more land available for housing and shorten approval timelines.
“These are not mandates. These are recommendations,” Turner said. “It’s a culmination of research from our team at HUD about what are the best practices being utilized and executed around our country to help builders build and construct affordable housing.”
Turner said tribal leaders raised similar concerns about federal requirements that can slow housing projects.
“When we’re talking about red tape, we’re talking about those things that hinder building — things like paperwork, fees, duplicative processes and unnecessary burdens that builders and developers and localities face,” Turner said. “That was the number one thing.”
He said tribes also want greater freedom to decide how federal housing money should be used in their communities.
“When you receive federal dollars, flexibility allows you to create your strategies that meet your unique needs in your city or in your tribe,” Turner said.
HUD’s existing tribal housing assistance includes the Indian Housing Block Grant program, which tribes can use for locally developed housing initiatives. The department also administers the Section 184 Indian Home Loan Guarantee Program, which encourages mortgage lending to Native American borrowers by guaranteeing loans made by participating lenders.
Section 184 loans may be used to purchase, build, rehabilitate or refinance a home. The program offers low down payments and more flexible underwriting than many conventional mortgages.
HUD also works with the Department of Veterans Affairs through Tribal HUD-VASH, which combines rental assistance with case management and clinical services for Native American veterans experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
Cole said tribes frequently combine federal assistance with their own money, extending the reach of the federal investment.
“When they get federal dollars — and, of course, they quite often combine their own money with federal dollars — you get a lot of bang for the buck,” Cole said.
Turner and Cole also pointed to opportunity zones as a tool that can encourage private investment in housing and other development. Turner helped lead the opportunity zone initiative during the first Trump administration.
“Opportunity zones are one tool, a transformative policy that we believe will not only help our tribal nations but really help people across our country as it pertains to building affordable housing,” Turner said.
Funding and unfinished legislation
Cole, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said money remains one of the most common concerns raised by tribal leaders.
“The big complaint I always hear about is money,” Cole said. “In this case, we had a good answer.”
Cole said tribal housing once accounted for about 2.8% of HUD spending but had fallen to approximately 1.8% after roughly two decades without substantial increases. Congress has restored the earlier funding level in recent years, he said.
“We’d honestly gone about 20 years and had not done very much,” Cole said. “It didn’t matter what the administration was.”
The House Appropriations Committee’s fiscal year 2027 bill proposes an additional 15% increase for tribal housing, Cole said. The measure has cleared the committee but has not received a House vote.
“We’re making good progress,” Cole said. “It’s out of committee.”
The Senate had not produced its version of the funding legislation as of Thursday. Cole noted that the delay is not limited to tribal housing or HUD.
“They haven’t passed a single appropriations bill out of the 12 we have,” he said.
Cole said tribes contribute substantial amounts of their own money to housing projects and are seeking a federal partner rather than complete federal financing.
“They’re not looking for a handout,” Cole said. “They’re looking for a way to leverage money that they’re bringing to the table themselves.”
Cole also said Congress needs to update the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996, commonly known as NAHASDA. The law established the Indian Housing Block Grant program and gave tribes greater authority to design housing programs around their own needs.
NAHASDA’s authorization expired in 2013, although Congress has continued providing money for its programs through annual appropriations bills.
“It’s supposed to be reauthorized every five years, and we continue to appropriate a lot of good things,” Cole said.
The Senate passed bipartisan reauthorization legislation in 2023, but the proposal did not advance in the House. New bipartisan companion bills introduced this year would reauthorize the programs through 2033, streamline environmental reviews and reporting requirements, expand tribes’ flexibility in using federal money and strengthen federal loan guarantees and housing assistance for Native American veterans.
Cole said the House Financial Services Committee has jurisdiction over the legislation. Oklahoma does not have a member on that committee, but he said he is trying to build support for action this year.
“That’s not the administration’s fault,” Cole said. “That’s Congress’ fault. That’s just not getting our work done.”
