The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes recently received affordable housing grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Tribes around the country receive federal support through the annual Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) program, but the future of funding for tribal housing assistance is uncertain.
This year, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe was awarded about $2.3 million and the Northern Arapaho Tribe received roughly $3.6 million, which are both slight increases from funding awarded last fiscal year.
HUD’s webpage about IHBG states that the program is “the primary means by which the Federal Government fulfills its trust responsibilities to provide adequate housing to Native Americans and is the single largest source of Indian housing assistance.”
Emery’l LeBeau, director of the Northern Arapaho Housing Authority, explained that the block grant is based on a formula.
“ We have 166 [housing] units that this formula calculates, and then the other part of it is based on our need,” she said. “That's how they calculate the amount that we are awarded every year.”
According to LeBeau, the funding helps keep the local housing authority operating and supports the rehabilitation and modernization of its current housing units. She said it can also be leveraged to apply for other housing-related grants and opportunities related to economic development.
“ When we can, we do use it to match other grant funds that we are awarded, for example, the ICDBG [Indian Community Development Block Grant], IHBG-ARP [Indian Housing Block Grant – American Rescue Plan] or the IHBG Competitive Grant,” she said. “Sometimes we'll have to provide a match to those, and so that's what we use this for as well, to receive more funds.”
But, the more than 1,200-page technical supplement for Trump’s proposed budget for the fiscal year 2026 (FY2026) outlines a plan to decrease overall funding for the IHBG program by about 20% next year. More specifically, dropping the funding from its FY2025 level of roughly $1.1 billion to $872 million in FY2026.
The Trump administration’s initial budget overview, clocking in at 46 pages, also called for eliminating all competitive grant programs underneath HUD’s Native Programs umbrella. That would include Indian Housing Block Grants Competitive Grants and the competitive grants within HUD’s Indian Community Development Block Grant program (ICDBG).
Funding for the competitive grants was restored in the technical supplement to the budget request, which was released about a month after the initial “skinny” budget.
Gilbert Riche, housing services director for the Eastern Shoshone Housing Authority, said losing ICDBG competitive funding would have a direct impact on future projects for the tribe.
“ That's the primary funding source for us to spearhead new housing development,” he said. “ We wouldn't have those funds available to promote more home ownership development or more rental units.”
Riche said the Eastern Shoshone Housing Authority’s waiting list is up to 200 people, and added that “the need is really more than that.”
Riche expressed concerns about other proposed cuts to other housing and loan-related programs within the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
“ It’s super concerning because we're already limited and the opportunities are becoming diminished as well,” he said.
The federal government’s 2026 fiscal year starts on October 1, 2025.
