The Mission of Ho-Chunk Housing & 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 their social, cultural, and community needs.
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.
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.
Ho-Chunk Housing and Community Development Agency (HHCDA) is a nonprofit provider of affordable housing and community services to Ho-Chunk Nation members and other Native Americans in the Nation’s 16-county HUD formula area. The agency has a staff of 35, many of whom have worked for us for 10-20 years. Originally established as Ho-Chunk Housing Authority in 1974, the agency initially developed 151 affordable rental units in the 1970s and 1980s, along with community buildings, in the different HHCDA 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:
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:
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.
Division Director, Ho-Chunk Nation Youth Services and Former Ho-Chunk Nation Legislator
Manager, Ho-Chunk Nation Independent Living
La Crosse Ho-Chunk Nation Community Member
Former Executive Director, HoChunk Nation Department of Housing
Accountant, Ho-Chunk Gaming Wisconsin Dells
Former Ho-Chunk Nation Legislator
Potch Chee Nunk Community Member
Nekoosa Area Community Member
Administrator, Milwaukee HoChunk Nation Branch Office
Chairman of HHCDA Board of Commissioners, Executive Director, American Indian Community Development Corporation and Former HoChunk Nation Legislator
Graphic Artist and Former HoChunk Nation Legislator
© 2020, Ho-Chunk Housing and Community Development Agency
