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Our Mission

The mission of the Ho-Chunk Housing and Community Development Agency is to foster a strong, healthy community of which Ho-Chunk Nation members can be proud – through providing members with quality, affordable housing and programs that help meet the Ho-Chunk Nation’s social, cultural, and community needs.

Our Vision

Ho-Chunk Housing and Community Development Agency shall work to assure that our communities are affordable and safe by providing quality homes and services to our tenants and community members. HHCDA is united to work with other agencies in promoting self-sufficiency.

HHCDA Mission Statement

Foster a strong, healthy community of which Ho-Chunk Nation members can be proud – through providing members with quality, affordable housing and programs that help meet the Ho-Chunk Nation’s social, cultural, and community needs.

About

The Ho-Chunk Housing and Community Development Agency (HHCDA) is a non-profit organization that offers affordable housing and community services to members of the Ho-Chunk Nation and other Native Americans residing in the Nation’s 16-county HUD formula area. HHCDA has a team of 35 dedicated staff, some of whom have been with the agency for 10-20 years. Originally known as the Ho-Chunk Housing Authority, HHCDA was established in 1974 and developed 151 affordable rental units and community buildings in various Wisconsin communities.

The Nation’s (and HHCDA’s) formula area includes the Wisconsin counties of Adams, Clark, Columbia, Crawford, Dane, Eau Claire, Jackson, Juneau, Monroe, Sauk, Shawano, Trempealeau, Vernon, and Wood, and Houston County, Minnesota. All housing services provided through IHBG funding are targeted at low-income households (those with household income less than or equal to 80% of area median income), with 10% of funding eligible to households whose income is between 80% and 100% of median.

The agency incorporated with the Internal Revenue Service in 2003 as a 501(c)(3)—one of the first such nonprofit Indian Housing agencies in the country. In the 1990s, HHCDA added 32 homeownership units, and from 2000 to 2020, added another 122 rental units, some of which are Nation-owned units that HHCDA manages for the Nation. As part of these additions, HHCDA added communities in:

HHCDA programs and services span a range that includes:

  • TRIP (Tribal Rehab Improvement Program)
  • Weatherization
  • Homeownership Seminars
  • Homeownership Counseling
  • Self Help Homeownership
  • Rental Management
  • Rental Housing Maintenance
  • Parks Maintenance
  • Veterans Supportive Housing
  • Rental Assistance
  • Metro Rental Assistance (for residents of Chicago, Madison, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis)
  • Post-Secondary Education Rental Assistance
  • Community Organic Gardens
  • Housing Development
  • Solar Development
  • Community Buildings Management
  • Clean Sweep (safe disposal of hazardous household substances)

In addition to the annual Indian Housing Block Grant, which provides the majority of funds for operations, HHCDA has benefited from HUD Indian Community Development Block Grants (ICDBGs) that have helped develop: (1) water and sewer infrastructure for new housing development; (2) solar renewable systems; (3) community buildings; and (4) a Montessori childcare center.

In 2005, HHCDA implemented one of the first multimillion-dollar NAHASDA Title VI Loan Guarantee programs in Indian Country, through which we developed 36 new affordable rental units in Ho-Chunk Village—a combination of elder duplexes, townhouses, and fourplexes. An ICDBG grant funded the infrastructure for the project.

In 2009-2010, HHCDA also benefited from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, with optimal ARRA funding, which defrayed development or acquisition costs for 28 affordable rental units. Other distinctions for HHCDA, which for decades has been recognized as a national leader in Indian housing, include:

  • • The Wisconsin Fair Housing Partnership Award, shared with partner Neighborhood Housing Services of Richland Center
  • • One of three HUD Office of Native American Programs awards “For Outstanding Contribution in the Area of Sustainability”

Board of Commissioners

HHCDA is governed by an 11-member policy-making Board of Commissioners, representing the different areas served by HHCDA. All commissioners of the board are tribal members.

District 1

Lori Pettibone

Division Director, Ho-Chunk Nation Youth Services and Former Ho-Chunk Nation Legislator

Kelly Jo Funmaker

Chair of HHCDA Board of Commissioners, Manager, Ho-Chunk Nation Independent Living

District 2

Vacant

Francis Decorah

Former Executive Director, HoChunk Nation Department of Housing

Lucinda LoneTree

Sauk County

Jim Delerosa

Juneau County

District 3

Leonard Walker

Chak-Hah-Chee Community Member,

Kelly Lamere

Potch Chee Nunk Community Member,

Marlys Whiteagle

Dane County, WI Community Member

Cheri Byhre

Administrator, Milwaukee HoChunk Nation Branch Office

District 4

Mike Goze

Executive Director, American Indian Community Development Corporation and Former HoChunk Nation Legislator

Benjamin Krause

Vice Chair of HHCDA Board of Commissioners, Chicago Area Community Member