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BAY MILLS - As part of the Indian Housing Block Grant program, Bay Mills Indian Community has recently received $1.26 million in funding. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Midwest Regional Director Joseph P. Galvan and HUD Administrator for the Eastern/Woodlands Office of Native Americans Kevin Fitzgibbons were in Bay Mills on Friday, May 5 to present the tribe with two grant checks.
The first check, which totaled $500,000, was given to the tribe to improve housing and spur economic development. The second check, which totaled $761,366, was given to the Bay Mills Housing Authority to be used for improving housing conditions for Native Americans.
"This money helps Native American communities do the critical work of providing housing opportunity, facilitating economic development and improving living conditions," Galvan said. ""These grants do so much good for so many people and are evidence of our continuing commitment to provide communities with the resources they need to meet the needs of their residents today and for future generations."
HUD's Indian Community Development Block Grant Program was established in 1977 to provide a special funding mechanism for Indian tribes and Alaskan Native villages to meet their community development needs. Federally recognized Indian tribes, bands, groups or nations, including Alaskan Indian, Aleuts and Eskimos, or Alaskan Native villages compete for this funding.
Recipients use the funding to develop viable communities, including rehabilitating housing or building new housing, or to buy land to support new housing construction. The funding can also be used to build infrastructure - roads, water and sewer facilities to create suitable living environments. To spur economic development, recipients use the grants to establish a wide variety of commercial, industrial and agricultural projects.
Bay Mills Indian Community will use their grant monies for a Community Resource Center, a 3,800 square-foot building that will provide a one-stop information, history and resource center. The center will house a library/resource area and the Bay Mills History Department and will include library books, reference materials, audio and video resources and computers with Internet access.
The History Department will provide to historical resources and lessons to area schools, youth groups and others who have an interest in the Ojibwe culture. The center will provide the community with the resources necessary to improve literacy skills by hosting literacy evens, such as reading hours for children and families, literacy fairs, and reading groups for adults.
"The development of the Community Resource Center will prove to play an instrumental role in the continued growth of Bay Mills," said BMIC Tribal Chairman Jeffrey Parker. "A facility that not only provides for history preservation, but also learning opportunities for our younger generations is an absolutely incredible undertaking. The Community Resource Center will become a focal point here because it will become the keeper of information that will always remind us of who we are and where we have been. Access to that kind of knowledge will be helpful to our leaders of the future."
The IHBG program provides tribes and tribally designated housing entities with funds for a full range of affordable housing programs, including housing development, modernization, management services and operating assistance, housing counseling, crime prevention and safety training and technical assistance. The block grant approach to housing for Native Americans was created in 1996, when the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act was passed by Congress, giving tribes the authority to determine how funds should be used to address the specific needs of their communities.
The Bay Mills Housing Authority plans to use these funds to offer down payment assistance in purchasing a home to a minimum of three to five families. They also plan to offer credit counseling, assistance with obtaining financing and other forms of housing-related assistance. They will continue to work with the Bay Mills Police Department to institute crime prevention and safety initiatives.
"The funding that we receive, via NAHASDA, allows us to provide assistance to help tribal members find quality housing solutions that meets their families' needs," said Bay Mills Housing Authority Executive Director Cheryl Parish. "What's really rewarding is knowing that the housing assistance and support that we provide is helping to establish a home."
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