The New Indian Housing Act and Some of its Environmental Implications

Abstract

In October 1996, the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act (NAHASDA) became law. The Act created a fundamental change in how American Indian Tribes and the federal government operated and funded housing assistance programs on Indian reservations. Such assistance was and still is drastically needed. Indian people live in third-world conditions on most reservations and safe, adequate, and sanitary housing is in very short supply. This Article dissects and analyzes the Act and also sets out the history of federal housing assistance to Indian reservations, which only began in 1961. Professor Miller worked with the Negotiated Rulemaking team under the Federal Advisory Committee Act that drafted NAHASDA's regulations and the Article discusses that process and the regulations that resulted. The authors also address the environmental implications of the Act and from expanding the housing supply on reservations.