A Step Forward for Landmark Native Housing Bill

A landmark law that helps Native and tribal communities build housing is one step closer to reauthorization. In September, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs approved the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination (NAHASDA) Modernization Act of 2026 (S.5354), sending it to the full Senate. NAHASDA expired 13 years ago. Since then, its programs have been funded year to year through annual appropriations, with no chance for updates.

This action followed the previous week's oversight hearing, where senators and witnesses spoke on the depth and complexity of the housing challenges impacting tribal communities. During the hearing, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) spoke of overcrowding in a Native Alaskan household that resulted in family members taking different sleeping shifts to ensure everyone could get rest. While Congress still must take significant steps to pass a NAHASDA reauthorization bill, this markup was the most important related action during the 119th Congress.

NAHASDA Aims to Address Past Injustices

NAHASDA's passage in 1996 marked a transformational shift in federal housing assistance for Tribal Nations. Just half a century earlier, the U.S. government was still creating new policies adding to a long history of relocating tribal community members away from their reservations. Years of involuntary relocation compounded over time have led to the loss of tribal land, loss of connection to family and cultural heritage, and economic setbacks.

Earlier efforts aimed to provide housing assistance and address the discriminatory harms and destruction done to American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities. But the programs they created limited funding to the lowest-income tribal members, made it hard to build a market for homeownership or mortgage lending, and produced a system of quick-fix, scattered-site, box-shaped homes.

NAHASDA's most significant step toward the tribal self-determination promised in the bill's title was the establishment of the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) program, replacing the patchwork of funding and associated rules previously accessible to tribes. The IHBG provides formula grants based on tribal need and assisted housing stock, and funding can be spent on housing construction, rehabilitation, or other assistance for tribal members - all generally for households with incomes at 80% of area median income (AMI) or less.

IHGB creates an opportunity for tribes and tribally designated housing entities (TDHEs) to provide assistance toward rental housing, as well as support for homeownership and community development projects to meet communities' unique needs. IHBG funding can also be leveraged with other public and private sources, such as funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Rural Housing Service, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, and in partnership with other financial providers like Native Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs).

NAHASDA Today and Its Potential for the Future

Like many federal programs, Congressional appropriations for NAHASDA have continued despite lapsed authorization. The IHBG formula program received a much-needed 41% funding increase in Fiscal Year 2024, when Representative Tom Cole R-Okla.), a member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, became the first Native American to chair the House Appropriations Committee. However, despite this funding bump, updates to NAHASDA - including long-term reauthorization to offer program certainty, increased flexibility and eligibility for participants of housing programs, and enhanced tribal control over how programs are designed and operated-are still needed to strengthen efforts to address the housing instability, homelessness, and supply shortage that remain rampant challenges in tribal communities.

The Senate and House versions of the NAHASDA Modernization Act of 2026 contain many similar provisions, such as reauthorizing the existing programs of NAHASDA, consolidating the environmental review process for tribal housing construction, and providing flexibility for the tribes and TDHEs in receiving and using housing counseling grants. There are also some significant differences between the two bills, such as whether or not funding from NAHASDA would be exempt from Build America, Buy America requirements (only in the House version) or whether NAHASDA funding could be used to support homeownership for families with incomes up to 120% of AMI (only in the Senate version).

Despite differences between the bills, they share the same key principles. As Bryan Warner, Deputy Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, stated in his testimony before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, reauthorizing NAHASDA will allow tribes and TDHEs to spend "less time navigating bureaucracy and more time building homes."

With two versions of the bill and the fact that only the Senate's version is ready for a vote by the full chamber, the process for this bill to become law is not straightforward. Because identical bills must pass the full Senate and the House of Representatives to go to the president for signature, the two chambers would have to both approve an existing version of the bill or negotiate a compromise between them. Given the short amount of legislative time left for the 119th Congress and differences between the two chambers, independent passage of the bill is unlikely. A final NAHASDA reauthorization bill could become law, however, if incorporated as part of a larger legislative package, such as the National Defense Authorization Act.

Since it's been 30 years since NAHASDA's original passage and 13 years since its last authorization expired, it is imperative that Congress consider these bills as quickly as possible. While the passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act this summer included major improvements for housing programs across the federal government, it did not include any provisions specific to tribal housing. A reauthorization of NAHASDA is essential to recognize the importance of tribal housing programs and strengthen the critical role they play in the relationship between the federal government and Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian families and tribes.
________________
This piece is part of our series, Policy Actions for Racial Equity (PARE), which explores how housing policy contributes to racial disparities across the United States. We encourage all who believe in the need to create a just society to read, discuss, and share the PARE series as we learn and act to address the impacts of housing policies on racial equity in America. We invite you to join us in this conversation by suggesting additional topics and sharing resources on advocating for greater racial equity. To offer feedback, reach out to our Policy team. To stay up to date with critical housing policy news, subscribe to our bi-monthly Capitol Express newsletter.