Money for Native Alaska and Hawaiian higher education going unclaimed

WASHINGTON – The federal government has earmarked $10 million to assist tribal colleges this year, but it may have trouble giving the money away. Last year, $4 million designated to help Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian higher education went unclaimed.

According to the just-issued Super NOFA (Notice of Funds Availability) put out by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD can grant $6.9 million for colleges benefiting Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian communities for fiscal 2003.

That money includes $4 million unspent last year, which was rolled over into fiscal year 2003.

For tribal colleges and universities in the lower 48, $3.2 million is available. This includes a small rollover amount unexpended from last year, of $194,522.

According to HUD, $3.4 million is available for Alaska institutions, and $3.4 million for Hawaiian institutions.

The $4 million unspent represents almost half of all the money allocated over the past three fiscal years. Since the Alaska-Hawaii initiative began in fiscal year 2000, $4.8 million has been given out in 11 grants.

In 2000, two institutions got grants totaling $666,034. In fiscal year 2001, this increased to five grants, for a total of $1,990,413. Fiscal year 2002 has been the largest to date, $2,164,497 given out in four awards.

The most an institution can apply for is $800,000. None of the grantees to date has gotten that much, with the largest award being $599,875 to the University of Hawaii – West Oahu Campus. Hawaii’s Windward Community College got nearly as much with an award of $590,036.

In Alaska, the Bristol Bay Campus of the University of Alaska appears to be the biggest grantee, at $400,000, while UOA’s Fairbanks-Chukchi Campus received $395,000.

Institutions eligible are those that have at least 20 percent Native Alaskan undergraduate enrollment, and in Hawaii, at least 10 percent Native Hawaiian enrollment.

The money is to be used for community development activity, “including neighborhood revitalization, housing and economic development, principally for persons of low and moderate income.”

Some eligible activities include acquisition of property; clearance and demolition; structure rehab including lead paint hazard reduction; construction of water and sewer facilities and streets; relocation payments; homeownership assistance; and technical assistance.

Getting matching money from other sources will help an application’s chances of success.

In the lower 48, maximum grant size is $400,000, to be used “to assist tribal colleges and universities to build, expand, renovate and equip their own facilities, especially those facilities that are used by or available to the larger community”

Some eligible activities for TCUs include a small business assistance center; new gymnasium; student union rehab; equipping a computer lab, dormitory or administration building, and long-term leases of property.

In fiscal year 2001, seven grants were given, for a total of $2.8 million, including grants of $400,000 to Oglala Lakota College, South Dakota, Fort Belknap College, Montana, and College of the Menominee Nation, Wisconsin.

For 2002, eight grantees split $3 million. They included Fort Peck Community College, Montana, Little Priest Tribal College, Nebraska, and Si Tanka College, South Dakota, which received $400,000 apiece.

Deadline for applications for grant money for both the AN/NH and TCU programs is June 12.

Although the higher education grants are the only ones specifically Native-related in HUD’s Super NOFA, Natives are eligible for many of the other grant programs, which total $2.3 billion.

For instance, HUD’s Rural Housing and Economic Development program (RHED), which has $24.8 million available this year, has frequently made awards to American Indian projects.

In 2002, more than two dozen Native groups or tribes received money from this program, which the Bush administration has repeatedly tried to kill, saying it is redundant because of the Rural Housing Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Top awards of $400,000 went to groups like the White Mountain Apache CDC of Arizona, the White Mountain Apache tribe itself, Walking Shield American Indian Society, California, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Michigan, and many others.

Other tribes getting RHED money in fiscal 2002 include the Blackfeet, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, Fort Belknap Indian Community, Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska, and Citizen Potawatomi Nation.

A check of awardees for HUD’s section 202 supportive housing for the elderly program shows several Alaska Native-related awards, including several to the Tagiugmiullu Nunamiullu Development Corp. on the Northern Slope. Typically they were to construct five one-bedroom units for very low income elderly people, at a total award of about $1 million per project.