Top U.S. housing official met with the state's tribal leaders. What they discussed

Funding and regulatory issues are making it more difficult for tribal nations to expand housing in Oklahoma, U.S. Rep. Tom Cole and U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner said after meeting with tribal leaders from across the state.

Turner joined Cole for a listening session in Oklahoma City to discuss ways to increase housing supply and homeownership in tribal communities.

The roundtable, held at the Chickasaw Nation Community Center on Thursday, Aug. 6, focused on several challenges facing tribal housing, including the need for flexibility in how tribes use federal housing dollars. Representatives from several tribal nations, including the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, attended the meeting.

Turner said excessive regulations are one of the biggest barriers to increasing the nation's housing supply. Calls to cut red tape have been a hallmark of Turner's tenure in office since President Donald Trump appointed him in February 2025.

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"The number one thing to building housing in our country, the number one thing crippling housing, is the regulatory environment," Turner said. "When you think about a single-family home, about $100,000 of the final price of a single-family home is in regulatory fees. And so that is not sustainable in our country."

Turner said those costs can include paperwork, fees and duplicative processes. He encouraged state and local governments to examine their regulatory requirements and identify ways to reduce barriers to housing construction.

HUD recently released a report outlining steps state and local governments can take to lower construction costs, expand available housing land and shorten approval times.

Turner also emphasized the importance of flexibility for tribal governments, particularly in how they use federal housing dollars to meet the needs of their communities.

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Oklahoma is home to 38 federally recognized tribes, with the U.S. Census Bureau estimating about 523,360 people identifying as Native American or Alaska Native. Many Oklahomans struggle to afford housing. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, nearly one in five Oklahomans working a single, full-time job cannot afford a modest one-bedroom rental at fair market rent, while two in five Oklahomans cannot afford a two-bedroom rental.

Cole, a Republican who represents parts of central Oklahoma in Congress, said funding remains one of the most common concerns among tribal leaders.

He leads the powerful House Appropriations Committee. The committee's fiscal year 2027 bill proposes a 15% increase in funding for tribal housing programs, said Cole, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation.

Cole said funding for tribal affordable housing has declined from about 2.8% of the federal budget to 1.8% over the past two decades. He said lawmakers have since been able to bring that figure back to 2.8% and that he wants to build on that increase in the next appropriations bill.

"We want to keep that top line where it's a reasonable number, where people can use that," Cole said. "Most of these tribes add to it. They are not looking for a handout, they're looking for a way to leverage money that they're bringing to the table themselves."

Cole pointed to the Cherokee Nation as an example, saying the tribe has invested roughly $40 million of its own money in housing.

Cole also highlighted the Section 184 Indian Home Loan Guarantee Program, which was created by HUD in 1992 to increase homeownership among American Indians, Alaska Natives and members of federally recognized tribes.

Under the program, the federal government guarantees eligible home loans through HUD's Office of Native American Programs, encouraging banks and other lenders to provide mortgages to Native American borrowers.

Cole said the federal government needs to update the regulatory framework governing tribal housing programs under the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996, known as NAHASDA.

The law is intended to be reauthorized every five years, but it has not been reauthorized in more than a decade. Although NAHASDA expired in 2013, Congress has continued funding its programs through annual appropriations bills.

The Senate passed a bipartisan NAHASDA reauthorization bill in 2023, but the legislation did not advance in the House.

This year, bipartisan companion bills were introduced in the House and Senate that would reauthorize NAHASDA through 2033. Cole said he is working to build support for the legislation this year.

Tribal leaders have long called for Congress to reauthorize NAHASDA. The executive director of the Choctaw Nation Housing Authority testified before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in 2015 in support of renewing the program.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Top U.S. housing official met with the state's tribal leaders. What they discussed