Big Water Consulting had the honor of giving three presentations during the 2021 NAIHC Legal Symposium, held in person in Las Vegas.

Rachel Kramer and Kevin Klingbiel had the opportunity to present findings from recent work regarding research surrounding thirdhand methamphetamine exposure. This project was funded by an NAIHC T&TA grant to the Salish and Kootenai Housing Authority.

In January 2021 we released a report documenting 2020 Census Outreach work completed by the We’re Here We Count campaign, a coalition of partners that was funded by the Washington State Office of Financial Management and included United Way of King County, King County, Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, Pyramid Communications, Washington Census Alliance, Na’ah Illahee Fund, and Big Water Consulting.

Big Water Consulting had the opportunity to present initial findings from the Assessment of the Housing Needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians in Washington State to the WA Senate Housing Stability and Affordability Committee work session.

On behalf of Big Water Consulting, Kevin Klingbeil presented a webinar to the Enterprise Native Homeownership Learning Communities Cohort about what their Designated Housing Entities, Tribal Housing Authorities, and Native Community Development Finance Institutions can do to prepare for a housing needs assessment during the current pandemic, and what they can do with collected housing needs assessment data.

Click here to download a PDF of the slides presented by Big Water Consulting.

Kevin Klingbeil participated in the NAIHC Legislative Conference in Washington, DC in order to address data-related tribal issues and directly assist tribal housing staff in their efforts to convey their concerns to elected officials and agency staff regarding recognition of tribally collected data by federal programs and static tribal housing funding levels as well as present ideas to improve the deployment of federal grants and housing loans in Indian Country. Kevin accompanied housing authority staff and representatives of the South Dakota Native Homeownership Coalition (SDNHC) to Congressional offices and met with senior staff from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Big Water staff members Harry Maher and Kevin Klingbeil visited the snowy Red Cliff Indian Reservation to launch the Red Cliff Housing Needs Assessment in cooperation with the Red Cliff Housing Authority and representatives from the Tribe’s planning, health, education, public works, communications and other departments. Big Water met with division heads and department directors and the Housing Authority Board to discuss tribal history, current initiatives and future plans, and desired survey content. Betty Kerr from the Housing Authority gave Kevin and Harry a guided tour of the reservation, including a visit to Frog Bay Tribal National Park, Little Sand Bay, land recently purchased from Bayfield County by the tribe, and visits to low income housing tax credit (LIHTC) and supportive housing projects around the reservation.

During the course of its 2-day consultation session with representatives from Pa’upena CDC and other homestead organizations, staff members Harry Maher and Kevin Klingbeil visited the majestic and remote Kahikinui homestead as well as the more urban Pakupalo and Lahaina homestead areas. Session participants discussed Pa’upena CDC’s recent receipt of its Right of Entry (ROE) for 127 acres of Hawaiian homelands and its authorization to engage in community design that could lead to a subsequent ROE for an additional 5,000 acres as well as an array of historical, legal, regulatory and other issues that have limited the number of native Hawaiians who have received leases to occupy Hawaiian homelands.

In an effort to complement the community engagement, housing managing and law enforcement efforts described by other presenters at the HUD/NAIHC Crime Prevention Summit in Denver, Big Water presented an array of data collection techniques and data storage and sharing tools that could enable tribes and tribal programs to better coordinate with other tribal and non-tribal agencies, mobilize their communities to gather critical information, better target the use of limited law enforcement resources, and integrate available data to allow for identification of critical patterns and timelines concerning issues such as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons, gang activity and methamphetamine use in tribal housing units.  

In cooperation with its partner on the project, Akana Big Water presented to the members of the Northwest Indian Housing Association (NWIHA) at the Skagit Casino Resort in Bow, Washington and the Housing Committee of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI) in Portland, Oregon to launch the Assessment of the Housing Needs of Native Americans in Washington State funded by the Washington State Department of Commerce’s Community Services and Housing Division.  The final report for this project will in part address state, federal, local and industry investments in rental and homeowner housing for Native Americans and provide policy recommendations to support the development of sufficient and safe housing for Native Americans on and outside of tribal areas and address other systemic barriers that prevent or impede access to safe and sufficient housing by Native Americans.