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<h1 class="title">Eight more tribal housing agencies suing HUD</h1>
<h3 class="author">By Rob Capriccioso<br>
</h3>
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<p><span>Story Published: Dec 5, 2008<br>
</span><span class="fonttitle">Find this article at:</span>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/living/35562009.html">http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/living/35562009.html</a><br>
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<div class="storybody"><font size="2"><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><span
style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">WASHINGTON
– Eight more Indian housing agencies have sued the U.S. Department of
Housing & Urban Development and its Office of Native American
Programs in federal court. </span><br style="font-family: Arial;">
<br style="font-family: Arial;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">They claim the department illegally
reduced the amount of annual block grant funding they’re entitled to
under federal law.</span><br style="font-family: Arial;">
<br style="font-family: Arial;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The tribes have joined more than 25
other reservation-based housing agencies in suing HUD to recover money
that the federal agency had allocated to tribal housing programs and
then took back after conducting internal financial audits.</span><br
style="font-family: Arial;">
<br style="font-family: Arial;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The first tribal housing agency to
sue HUD over the issue was the Fort Peck Housing Authority in January
2005. That case is currently in the appeals process before the 10th
Circuit Court of Appeals in Colorado.</span><br
style="font-family: Arial;">
<br style="font-family: Arial;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The latest spate of suits occurred
after Congress this fall passed reauthorization of the Native American
Housing and Self-Determination Act. The legislation, which was signed
into law by President George W. Bush on Oct. 13, placed a deadline on
when any program had to file suit against HUD for its prior actions.
That deadline was Nov. 28.</span><br style="font-family: Arial;">
<br style="font-family: Arial;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">In the new suit, filed Nov. 26, the
tribal agencies asserted that HUD has unfairly “recaptured” funds and
did so in an arbitrary way, hurting their ability to address housing
needs on their reservations. The plaintiffs said HUD recaptured funds
by reducing future NAHASDA allocations to tribal housing agencies after
it conducted internal reviews in the early 2000s.</span><br
style="font-family: Arial;">
<br style="font-family: Arial;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">According to lawyers for the
plaintiffs, the housing entities have ended up losing millions of
dollars that are badly needed to manage existing Indian housing and
build new housing.<br>
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Article continued at: </span></span></font><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/living/35562009.html">http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/living/35562009.html</a></div>
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