Umatilla Reservation Housing Authority
Pendleton, OR
Represented by Pamela Ranslam Schofield
Description of Contribution
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) comprised of the Cayuse, Walla Walla and Umatilla Indian Tribes is located in Mission, Oregon just outside the city of Pendleton, Oregon (population 16,605).
In 2001, the Umatilla Reservation Housing Authority (URHA) developed the multi-faceted Homeownership: Financial, Credit & Consumer Protection Program also called “Wapayatat” meaning “to learn or to teach” in the Umatilla Language. Our initial purpose was to help move households into mortgages addressing the increased number of people on the waiting list. URHA possesses 234 rental units, an additional 67 mutual help homes totaling 301 units and a steady 100 people on the monthly waiting list with little or no movement.
Identified trends were prevalent in the community from lack of credit, no credit, bad credit, high credit, no savings, distrust of banks, high predatory lending cases to limited housing and expensive car ownership. How could someone become a homeowner if you can’t pay your bills on time, can’t live within your income, have no saving or even understand how to get a loan or the concept of being a homeowner?
We teach long-term asset building strategies through self-sufficiency and integration of the individual development account (IDA) concept using First Nations/Fannie Mae curriculum: Building Native Communities. Tribal members learn about a healthy economy parallel to traditional values and cultural practices, savings, budgeting, credit reports, interest rates, insurance and predatory lending.
Indian people have always retained their sovereignty that includes homeownership, and in today’s world are now achieving the goal of homeownership on our reservation. The Homeownership Program is working with Tribal people to help make a significant change in the Tribal community and economy.
Impact
The Homeownership Program provides services to community residence, employees and family members of CTUIR with 2500 enrolled tribal member with 1200 members living on the reservation along with 300 other Native Americans; one of nine federally recognized Indian Reservation in the State of Oregon.
The program’s mission is to help achieve homeownership by providing long-term financial and credit sustainability better preparing participants in purchasing a home. Along with the seven –week Financial Literacy and Homebuyer Classes, we also provide debt / credit management, credit repair, credit counseling, HUD Section 184 loan counseling and packaging, Individual Development Accounts for down payment assistance, Summer Youth Financial series and workshop focusing on car buying & understanding investments.
The focus is creating the foundation for homeownership starting with financial education to give tribal members the tools they need to sustain a 30 year mortgage. Since 2001, more than 300 tribal members have participated and completed the Financial Literacy & Homebuyer Series with 16 of families becoming homeowners and another 20 saving in our Umatilla Saves (IDA) Individual Development Account Program. With the first ever sell and purchase of a home on Allotted Trust land using a 30-year mortgage. We work one-on-one with participates giving them a tri-merge credit report, so they can start the process of working to building good credit.
A very important element is how participants are also first-generational home owners, not just first-time home buyers. For Umatilla Tribal Members homeowner, Naomi Stacy “you have to be a “Super Indian” it’s is not only the financial hurdles, but working with banks and dealing with multiple-land ownership, site development costs and perhaps never owning the land if held in trust.
The Financial Literacy & Homebuyer Series is required for tribal member to participate in our Umatilla Saves and Builds.
2006 Honoring Nation Harvard Award
Innovation
One of the significant highlights of the program has been the development of Individual Development Accounts (IDA). In 2001, Umatilla was one of seven tribal entities receiving First Nations Development Institute grant dollars of $30,000 to develop a saving-match concept, now called the Umatilla Saves Program.
Umatilla Saves was created to help tribal members with down payment and closing cost assistance; participants are required to save $1,500 for a period of six months or longer learning how to develop saving patterns. The program would than match $4,500 at the loan closing. The approach was unique; participants had to complete the classes first, determine readiness, pay debts and save in order to get to the next step to participate in the Umatilla Saves IDA program.
Furthermore, Umatilla has played an active role in not only policy making, but helping offer best practices for other tribes to model. The Homeownership Program became an approved mentor for the National American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC) to help other tribes nationally.
First Nations Development Institute (FNDI) often asks Umatilla to speak at various conferences and has highlighted them in many of their publications. Along with other collaborating partnerships, Umatilla was asked to help develop a national IDA curriculum with the Center for Enterprise Development (CFED) to be showcased across the United States to all native communities.
Minority Focus
The start of the Homeownership Program was a challenge dealing with acceptance. URHA has not looked upon as a department wanting to help. Developing trust and follow-through would time take and it has worked. The Homeownership Program has grown from word of mouth and trust has been established. We have shown that we are here to help and want to make a difference in the community and the community is responding. For example, one Native household saved over three years to finally achieve their dream of owning a home; they have seven children and went from an 800 square foot two bedroom home to a 2200 square foot home with five bedrooms. “You can’t imagine how excited those kids were when they moved in,” said the head of household.
This is history on our minority reservation, meaning people want to change and they do want to learn about the importance of financial literacy.
As of today we’ve had 16 Tribal members that really took the life changing process to the next step and got approval for a 30-year mortgage for their family.
So the evidence of acceptance has been shown but also the CTUIR Tribal Government has also approved URHA’s Homebuyer Classes as well. The Homebuyer Class was honored by Harvard in early October. They were recognized by their efforts in teaching financial literacy and consumer protection. The Tribal government wrote a letter of support to URHA’s Homeownership Program. They also recognized the need for more funding for the Homeownership Program, this was the first time they’ve allocated funding to URHA.