$65 Million Reported Wasted in Indian Housing

Government auditors found that $65.5 million was wasted through mismanagement of housing construction programs for American Indians at a time when reservations face a critical housing shortage, it was reported Sunday.

Auditors for the Department of Housing and Urban Development cited “mismanagement” in the agency’s Indian programs division in Denver for cost overruns, “non-existent” projects and 911 homes that should have been available for occupancy by December, 1983, but never were completed.

Grady Maples, HUD’s regional director in Denver, said that his office is responding to the inspector general’s March audit with a “new management team to correct the problems and get the pipeline moving again.”

The Denver office oversees Indian housing programs in Utah, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska.

‘Undesirable Situation’

“From a social conscience point of view it’s a very undesirable situation,” Maples said.

Despite the mismanagement in the Denver region, HUD has no plans to audit housing programs in other regions, an official in Washington said.

With more than 33,000 homeless American Indians nationwide, “the situation is soon to be disastrous,” said Jim Wagenlander, a Denver lawyer who specializes in Indian law. “We’ll be back to the ‘60s, with people living in cars and chicken coops.”

“There are some gaps,” John Meyers, director of HUD’s Indian housing program in Washington, acknowledged. “I don’t think anyone would try to sell you the notion that we’re meeting the need.”