The money from the Department of Housing and Urban Development totals $4.4 million. The funds come from a competitive grant program that targets Native housing projects.
The project will help the tribe meet demand from members that want to move onto tribal lands, said Reno-Sparks Indian Colony Chairman Arlan Melendez.
“Housing has been a priority of mine and the Tribal Council here for a long time because we have a lot of people that want to come back to the reservation that are living in the city,” he said. “And I think it’s a priority to try to make sure that they become part of the community by living on tribal land.”
Melendez said most people want to move back onto the reservation because of high housing costs elsewhere in the Truckee Meadows.
In a press release, Nevada’s Democratic senators Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto said the goal is to lower housing costs for Native residents.
In Reno-Sparks, average rent now sits almost two times higher than it did in 2013, according to real estate appraisal firm Johnson Perkins Griffin. And median home prices jumped 300 percent over the last decade, resulting in ongoing housing affordability issues.
The tribe is looking to complete infrastructure upgrades in Hungry Valley next year before starting construction on the homes in 2025.
Jose Davila IV is a corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project.
