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Rocky Boy receives grant for senior housing

The Chippewa Cree Tribe received $4,945,214 from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to construct 31 new two-bedroom single-family low-income homes for senior citizens on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation under the Indian Housing Block Grant Competitive Program.

“We’re very happy,” Chippewa Cree Housing Authority Executive Director Allen J. LaMere said. “We’re very excited and we are very pleased that this grant got funded. It’s just a significant thing for our community out here, especially for our seniors.”

LaMere said that Michael LaValley, Native American liaison for U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., contacted the tribe and notified the tribe it would be awarded the grant. RJS and Associates Inc., the corporation which wrote the grant was notified the following Monday.

RJS and Associates Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jim Swan said that RJS was contacted by the tribe to look into a grant to fund the project last year, and RJS started looking into the grant that fall. Swan said the Department of Housing and Urban Development notified them the grant was going to be available in May of this year.

“This is probably the largest housing project that has happened in Rocky Boy, easily, in the last 20 years,” he said.

LaMere said the Housing Authority will use the grant to build seven to eight houses a year for the next five years, building a total of 31 houses, specifically for senior citizens. All of the homes will be approximately 1,100 sq. feet and be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act to be handicap accessible, with things such as wider doorways to allow wheelchairs, ramps, and handles within the bathrooms. These features will make it easier for elderly and people with handicaps who will be living in the homes, he added.

The grant will only cover the construction of the homes and any other amenities will have to be funded outside of the grant, he said.

“Housing is one of our biggest shortages out here,” LaMere said. 

He added that the community will be positively affected by constructing these homes. The reservation has a large number of multiple families living in the same home, much of the time grandparents living with their children and grandchildren, and as generations get older the need for more housing grows. He said that the tribe has about 80 elderly people on a waiting list for housing.

Any additional housing can help alleviate the problem, he said. The more housing that is available for the community the greater the benefit is for everyone.

LaMere said the site where the homes will be built will be on an 8.4-acre lot on the south side of Upper Box Elder Road, east of the new health clinic and west of Stone Child College. He added that by having the homes near the health clinic, seniors will be in close proximity to the services they may need. 

The project also falls in line with the tribe’s master plan, he said. The tribe developed a master plan in the 2000s to move most of tribal operations to where the clinic is located, planning to build facilities such as a new tribal office, homes and a community store.

“I’m happy,” LaMere said. “I’m just excited. I can’t wait to get started on this and make sure we get this thing going and get this thing done in quick order.”

Swan said having the seniors living in their own community also helps with socialization. Rather than living miles from friends or relatives, they will be living in close proximity. He said that people will be able to walk next door or down the street and be able to have coffee or tea with friends and create a comfortable community atmosphere. 

“When you are talking about senior citizens, that socialization really helps with the quality of life,” he said.

He added that it feels really good to have gotten funding for this project and RJS would have not been able to get the funding without having a strong team behind it. He said RJS had a large number of people working on the application for the grant in addition to the lead writer, who did a fantastic job. A number of the RJS team worked on several important components of the grant and pulled together to get a big win for the reservation, he said.

“This is a really huge boon for the reservation, to be able to construct this many houses and to do so for such an important population within the community,” Swan said. “So it feels really, really good.”  

He added that RJS will also be available to the tribe or the housing authority in the future if they need help with the project, but it is the tribe’s project to run with.

LaMere said the Housing Authority and the tribe have not gotten an official letter about the grant, but as soon as the letter is received they will be able to able to move forward with the project. He added that the next step is getting the site ready for construction. He said the Housing Authority will need to work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to make sure the tribe can build on the land as well as have a historical preservation assessment and environmental assessment done.

“There is a lot of work before we actually start breaking ground,” he said.

He said the Housing Authority is optimistically looking to break ground on the project in March or April of next year. He said that although the reservation has its own construction corporation, Chippewa Cree Construction Corp., the Housing Authority will be opening bids for the project, awarding the project to the lowest responsible bid.

The Housing Authority is also subsidized low-rent public housing authority, and although they have to charge rent on the homes, the amount charged to renters is based on income with the authority making up the rest, he said. He added that the highest people pay is $150 a month, based on a family size and income, although seniors generally are either a single person or a couple who are already living on a fixed income. The lowest people can pay is $30 a month, and because the new housing is for seniors, he expects the majority of the residents will be paying the $30 a month rent.

“It’s really good for the community,” LaMere said.

 

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