Dive Brief:
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The housing stock in Native American tribal communities is more distressed and faces greater overcrowding compared to elsewhere in the U.S., according to Affordable Housing Finance, citing a set of recent reports from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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An additional 68,000 homes are needed to lessen overcrowding and replace dilapidated properties. The report noted that these groups have been constructing more housing, but recent funding has not kept pace with inflation and has therefore inhibited their ability to continue to build.
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More than one-third of tribal households reported both overcrowding and poor physical conditions in their properties, compared to 7% of U.S. households overall. Issues such as electrical, HVAC, kitchen, maintenance and plumbing were reported in 23% of tribal households versus 5% of all U.S. households.
Dive Insight:
Known disparity in housing conditions among U.S. racial groups is nothing new, but a handful of recent reports and cases call the issue to light once again.
Late last year, U.S. housing groups sued Fannie Mae in a federal district court in California alleging that the government-backed mortgage lender hasn’t maintained foreclosed properties in primarily black and Latino neighborhoods to the same level as it has those in mostly white ones.
Private lenders like JPMorgan Chase have also faced allegations of discriminatory behavior, settling a $55 million lawsuit last week with the U.S. Justice Department on claims that independent brokers working for the bank charged higher rates and fees to minority borrowers from 2006 to 2009.
In his recent exit memo, outgoing Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro outlined the disparity in homeownership rates among racial and ethnic groups in the U.S., with rates among white, Hispanic and African American populations at 71.9%, 45.6% and 43%, respectively.
Comparably, the homeownership rate among people reporting their race solely as American Indian or Alaskan Native was 50.3% in 2015 compared to 58.2% in 2005, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
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