POJOAQUE PUEBLO, N.M. ? The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas has granted nearly $100,000 in financing to rehabilitate housing here.

The Pojoaque project, which has a total tab of $238,000, will rehabilitate 14 rural rental homes on the pueblo north of Santa Fe.

The $98,000 “gap” grant through the Dallas bank’s Affordable Housing Program (AHP) is intended to leverage other financing, in this case by the tribe.

Families eligible for the rehabbed units will have incomes at or below 50 percent of area median income. The tribe has contributed $100,000 to the project, as well as $40,000 from its federal housing block grant under the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act.

Developers of projects seeking AHP money need to be sponsored by one of the 52 New Mexico financial institutions that are members of the Dallas district bank, which includes New Mexico in its multi-state territory.

Century Bank of Santa Fe sponsored the Pojoaque Housing Corp. for the grant. Three others grants for non-Indian projects were awarded at the same time.

The Pojoaque project is the 16th Indian housing development grant made in New Mexico under the AHP since 1995. The running total of the assistance by the Dallas district bank to the state’s tribes and pueblos is $2.75 million.

With grants made in other states in its district, the Dallas FHLB has made available $3 million to Indian housing projects through its Affordable Housing Program, helping to finance 364 units.

Eight of those grants have supported single-family home ownership, six single-family rentals and two multi-family rentals, according to data supplied by the district bank.

Amounts have varied from $40,000 for four single-family units at the Taos pueblo to $400,000 for a 50-unit single-family development on the Isleta pueblo.

FHLB-Dallas has two yearly rounds of awards under the Affordable Housing Program. The Bank is required by law to plow 10 percent of its earnings back into supporting affordable housing projects.

The Dallas district bank has also supported Indian economic development projects under its Community Investment Program (CIP). CIP funding is earmarked for loans rather than grants.

For instance, it provided an advance (loan) to First National Bank of Farmington, N.M. for $3.7 million to finance activity by Presbyterian Medical Services that served mostly Native Americans.

It also gave First National of Farmington a CIP loan of $750,000 to finance a plant expansion that created new jobs for an employer whose workers were mostly Indians.

First National has since been acquired by Wells Fargo Bank.