All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

18 Tribes Receive HUD Funds to Address Mold Issues

HUD Secretary Julián Castro and Nick Tilsen, director of Thunder Valley Community Development Corporatioin on Pine Ridge visit last fall.

HUD Secretary Julián Castro and Nick Tilsen, director of Thunder Valley Community Development Corporatioin on Pine Ridge visit last fall.

Published September 21, 2015    

WASHINGTON – Eighteen tribal communities in 13 states were awarded on Monday, September 21, 2015, $12,4 million by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to remove and prevent dangerous mold in more than 1,000 homes. This is the largest amount to date awarded by HUD for this purpose.

The grants are being made available through HUD’s Indian Community Development Block Grant (ICDBG) program, which addresses a wide variety of community development and affordable housing activities.

These grants will support mold remediation in housing owned or operated by tribes, tribally designated housing entities, or tribal organizations, with priority given to units with the most evidence of mold. (See chart below for list of winners.)

“Every family in America deserves a safe and healthy place to call home,” said HUD Secretary Julián Castro.“These mold remediation grants demonstrate HUD’s commitment to partnering with Native American communities to improve tribal housing and create healthy communities where families can thrive.”

All the grantees will address moisture issues by using construction materials and techniques known to resist mold, and ensuring that staff or contractors use safe practices for identifying and remediating mold.   They will also educate residents on ways to prevent mold from reoccurring in the future.

For example, the Blackfeet Tribe in Montana will address mold problems in 16 homes with wooden construction, by building and sealing new concrete foundations in the homes, installing exterior drain systems and installing sump pumps.  The White Earth Housing Authority in Minnesota will use its grant to repair 21 homes that were originally constructed without proper ventilation. It will also work with Indian Health Services and the tribe’s own Natural Resources Department to prevent future mold problems. And the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe in Alaska will use its grant to assess and remediate mold in 20 units with priority given to elders, households with children, and tribal members with asthma.  Many of the homes in this region were not designed for the damp, southeast Alaska climate but were prefabricated out of state.

The grant funding was first made available in Fiscal Year 2014 through a set-aside to remediate and prevent mold in housing units owned or operated by tribes and Tribally Designated Housing Entities.  Last year, nine tribes received grants to remove unhealthy levels of mold, including the Havasupai Tribe in Arizona where mold is a common problem partly because of frequent flooding in low-lying areas of the Grand Canyon.

Established in 1977, HUD’s ICDBG program assists Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages to meet their community development needs.  Federally recognized Indian tribes, bands, groups or nations (including Alaska Indian, Aleuts and Eskimos,) Alaska Native villages, and eligible tribal organizations compete for this funding. A second more general round of ICDBG funding will be announced later this year.

HUD administers six programs that are specifically targeted to American Indian, Alaska Native, or native Hawaiian individuals and families, and federally recognized tribal governments.  In Fiscal Year 2015 HUD received approximately$732 million to fund programs to support housing and development initiatives in American Indian, Alaska Native, and native Hawaiian communities.  Through innovative programming, American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments have created sustainable and community-driven solutions to their housing and community development challenges.

The winners of grants to address mold today are:

 

State Recipient City Amount
Alaska Cook Inlet Tribal Council Anchorage $ 800,000
Craig Tribal Association Craig $553,150
Yakutat Tlingit Tribe Yakutat $300,000
Arizona Tohono O’odham Ki:Ki Association Sells $800,000
Pascua Yaqui Tribe Tucson $800,000
California Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe Benton $800,000
Maine Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians Presque Isle $605,000
Michigan Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Baraga $800,000
Minnesota White Earth Reservation Housing Authority White Earth $600,000
Montana Blackfeet Housing Authority Browning $800,000
New Mexico Ohkay Owingeh Housing Authority Ohkay Owingeh $798,787
San Felipe Pueblo Housing Authority San Felipe Pueblo $397,378
North Dakota Spirit Lake Housing Corporation Fort Totten $800,000
Oklahoma Tonkawa Tribe Tonkawa $658,858
South Dakota Oglala Sioux (Lakota) Housing Authority Pine Ridge $800,000
Yankton Sioux Tribal Housing Authority Wagner $800,000
Washington Colville Indian Housing Authority Nespelem $486,827
Wisconsin Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Hayward $800,000
TOTAL: $12,400,000

 

The post 18 Tribes Receive HUD Funds to Address Mold Issues appeared first on Native News Online.

Hungary empowers military to act against refugees | News | DW.COM | 21.09.2015

The measures come into effect a week after illegal border crossing was made a crime punishable by up to five years in jail, and as populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban warned that Europe was being “overrun” in the worst refugee crisis since World War II.

Source: Hungary empowers military to act against refugees | News | DW.COM | 21.09.2015

After WWII hundreds of thousands of refugees were taken in with grace and mercy – including many from shameless Hungary now pimping the right-wing fear mongers.

Big Price Increase for Tuberculosis Drug Is Rescinded – The New York Times

Cycloserine was acquired last month by Rodelis Therapeutics, which promptly raised the price to $10,800 for 30 capsules, from $500.But the company agreed to return the drug to its former owner, a nonprofit organization affiliated with Purdue University, the organization said on Monday.“We discovered literally on Thursday the strategy that had been undertaken” by Rodelis, said Dan Hasler, the president of the Purdue Research Foundation, which has oversight of the manufacturing operation. “We said this was not what we had intended.”By Saturday, he said, Rodelis had agreed to give back the drug. Rodelis confirmed this in a brief statement on its website.The foundation now will charge $1,050 for 30 capsules, twice what it charged before, but far less than Rodelis was charging. Mr. Hasler said the new price was needed to stem losses.Cycloserine is used to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, a serious form of the disease that does not respond to the usual drugs. There are only about 90 new cases a year in the United States, Mr. Hasler said, and about half those patients get treated with cycloserine.

Source: Big Price Increase for Tuberculosis Drug Is Rescinded – The New York Times

Schoolboys’ chant/President’s rant

Feminist Conversations on Caribbean Life

I.

A 2012 youtube video shows Barbadian schoolboys chanting an original pro-rape song: Tek dickey and roll

Tek dickey and roll (x2)

Yuh wan charge me for rape

Who see? Not a soul

II.

Reports that Haitian President, Michel Martelly, threatened a woman with sexual violence because she sought to hold him accountable to the people:

On Tuesday, June 28, 2015, during a campaign rally in the city of Miraguane, president Michel Martelly did not use any diplomacy in addressing a woman in the crowd who was challenging his accomplishment in the region. The President replied to the surprise of many by telling the woman in Haitian Creole she should undress and allow the men at the campaign rally to sodomize her. He also stated that he would bring her on stage and do the same. The Haitian Head of State furthermore said if he was not president he would have broken her…

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