The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians recently opened its first affordable housing development in Salem. The city is the second-largest population center for tribal citizens outside of Siletz, according to tribal housing officials.
As reported in Underscore Native News, the complex includes two- to four-bedroom homes, with half of the 39 units reserved for residents who make below 80% of the area’s median income.
Vera Vasquez just moved into a home in the development, known as Kloshe Illahee Haws. Sami Jo Difuntorum is the executive director of the Siletz Tribal Housing Department.
They join us to talk about the importance of creating affordable housing and fostering tribal culture outside of the Siletz reservation on the Oregon Coast.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians recently opened their first affordable housing development in Salem. As reported in Underscore Native News, the new complex includes two, three and four-bedroom homes. Half of the 39 units are reserved for lower income renters. The other half are around market rate.
Vera Vasquez just moved into a home in the development, known as Kloshe Illahee Haws. Sami Jo Difuntorum is the executive director of the Siletz Tribal Housing Department. They both join us now. It’s great to have both of you on Think Out Loud.
Vera Vasquez: Thank you.
Sami Jo Difuntorum: Thank you.
Miller: Sami Jo, the last time we talked, we were at your tribal office on the Siletz Reservation, about a dozen miles from Newport. How did you all decide to build a development in Salem?
Difuntorum: Yes, great question. We didn’t have housing opportunities in Salem for tribal members. We have rent subsidies that we provide, but there’s a waiting list. It takes a very long time to get to the top of that, and when you look at the data, that’s our second largest population center for tribal members – the Salem area. So it made sense that we developed there and that’s really what the community had been looking for. They had been looking for a tribal housing community.
Miller: Were there challenges to building in Salem as opposed to on tribal land on the reservation or closer to the biggest population center for tribal members?
Difuntorum: Gosh, that’s a good question. Nobody has asked me that yet. I would say, no.There weren’t really any challenges with respect to development. I found the city of Salem staff very easy to work with. So it came together pretty well.
Miller: And did you already own land in Salem as a tribe?
Difuntorum: Yes, the tribe had purchased the land. And when we were looking for how to expand services and really start meeting tribal members where they lived, or where they wanted to live, they just happened to have a parcel in Salem and they dedicated it for tribal housing. So it worked out really well. That would have driven the cost up quite a bit if we had to purchase land, in addition, to build.
Miller: Vera, how long have you lived in Salem?
Vasquez: My entire life. I’ve lived outside of Salem for small periods of time, but I always come back.
Miller: So a lifelong Salem resident – what has your experience of finding housing been like over the years?
Vasquez: Challenging for sure. Just for personal reasons and then just things that are outside of my control. But overall, it’s been hard.
Miller: Can you give us a sense, to the extent that you’re comfortable, of your various living situations over the years?
Vasquez: Just mostly living in apartments, staying where I can. I’ve experienced some homelessness a few times, had to stay in a shelter at the Simonka Place in Keizer. But otherwise, mostly apartments. I’ve never owned a house or anything. I’ve never been able to afford things like that. So just living, just staying where I can, couch surfing.
Miller: What were your first thoughts when you found out that there was going to be a new tribal housing development in Salem?
Vasquez: I was really excited. Well, I’ve been on the list in Siletz and stuff, but those lists are really long, so I just kind of gave up on that. But I was really excited to hear that Salem was going to have housing here available. There’s housing in Portland as well, but I didn’t want to move to Portland – it’s too big for me. So I was really, really happy.
Miller: If the list you’ve been on for housing in Siletz had been shorter, or let’s say that you’d gotten a spot from that, how would you have felt about moving away from the city where you’d spent your whole life and moving closer to the coast?
Vasquez: Well, it would have been hard. I would have had to find a new job and uproot the kids. It would have definitely been a challenge, but I would have went with it, though, because I know it’s more affordable. Plus we could be on the Rez. Like, that’s been my goal is to be more closer to the tribe, closer to our culture and being a part of all of that. I would have made it work, but I’m just grateful that it didn’t come to that.
Miller: Right. In some ways, it almost seems like this is the opposite. That you, now, have been able to move into a new development in your home city and a tribal community is growing up in that new development. What does that mean for you?
Vasquez: That means that we can participate and be a part of it. We would travel back and forth to Siletz for pow wows, culture camp and everything. Having it here in town, it’s going to make it so much easier, and it’s an opportunity for us as a community to grow and strengthen our bonds as well.
Miller: Sami Jo, the complex, as I mentioned, includes two, three and four-bedroom units. That seems larger than some affordable housing projects that we’ve talked about. How did you all decide what kinds of housing to build here?
Difuntorum: Townhomes were, in large part, because of the configuration of the land that we had to work with. It’s kind of like a puzzle, where you put the pieces together to see how they really will fit on a parcel.
As far as the unit size, it was based on the need on our current waiting lists which, as Vera mentioned, are for Salem and Neotsu, where we have additional housing. We didn’t really have that level of data for Salem, so it was just based on historic waiting list information in other places.
Miller: And then how do you figure out the ratio of deeply affordable units and then ones that are near market rate?
Difuntorum: Well, I will say they’re all deeply affordable. So, 20 units, they’re based on income. Those are federally funded with the Indian Housing Block Grant. You can only charge up to 30% of a family’s adjusted income and then we capped the rent to keep them affordable.
Now the other 19, we took market rates from 2023, I believe it was, and we reduced it by 20%.
Miller: Oh, so even those, you took a market rate that itself was a little bit below current market rate, and then you provide a discount to that?
Difuntorum: Yes. Correct.
Miller: How are you able to make that pencil out? Because when we’ve talked to affordable housing developers in the past, the ratios that I feel like I’ve heard more often are a combination of some kind of truly subsidized housing and then something much closer to market rate for the rest.
Difuntorum: You know, I can only speak for us and how we develop. Our goal is to house tribal families and we do not expect to make a profit on our housing. We expect to, best case scenario, break even, because we do have operation and maintenance costs. For example, insurance, we pay for water, sewer, trash collection. So the only reason we have any units that are not low income is to use that revenue to balance the costs.
Miller: So you do have to do that to some extent…
Difuntorum: Yes.
Miller: But it does seem like you’re able to provide a steeper discount than some developers we’ve talked to in the past, overall.
Difuntorum: Yeah, it could be how we fund development, but our intent is never to make a profit. That’s not why we provide affordable housing. It is to house people.
Miller: Vera, what is your home like?
Vasquez: It’s beautiful. Nice hardwood floors in the living rooms, the dining room, kitchen and hallways. And then our bedrooms have very plush carpet. It’s so big, we have so much space. I have a front yard. I have a little back patio. I mean, this is everything we could have ever wanted. We were living in a two-bedroom townhouse, bursting at the seams.
I’m caring for my elder brother, and my daughter and my son are both here. We have a garage. I’ve never had a garage before. It’s really exciting. And a laundry room, a linen closet. I know that probably seems silly, but for us, it’s a big deal.
Miller: Four of you now, in sort of intergenerational living, in a four-bedroom apartment as opposed to in a two-bedroom apartment?
Vasquez: Yes.
Miller: Do you feel moved in right now? Do you feel like it’s your home?
Vasquez: I mean, -ish. I’m still unpacking. I still have boxes. I don’t really have enough furniture to fill it up, so I’ve been working on that. I feel moved in-ish, like our rooms are full … the beds and the TV set up, and things like that. The kitchen’s all put together. So we’ve been making meals and stuff, but otherwise, I mean, it’s not fully ready yet.
Miller: What about neighbors? I mean, how much is there a community yet?
Vasquez: Well, so far the neighbors have been really nice. We are all friendly to each other. I’ve talked to and met the ones right directly next to me. We don’t have anybody to the right of us just yet. They’re still working on some of the other units, so not everybody’s fully moved in yet, but so far so good.
Miller: Sami Jo, what are you hoping that residents there will use the tribal office and the community room for? Both of those are on site.
Difuntorum: Yes. Well, we hope that they use them for, as Vera had mentioned, gatherings, cultural classes, holiday gatherings. In our other communities, people use the community rooms for family birthday parties, anything related to community or family for the people in the community. I hope they use it often.
Miller: Sami Jo, I’ve read that the name of the new development in Chinook jargon translates to “Good Valley Homes.” What does that phrase mean to you?
Difuntorum: Good Valley Homes, well, to me, it means that we have created community, that we have created a place for community. And I think that’s one of the things that has always stood out to me when we went to community meetings throughout the Siletz service area. Our tribal members really want to live in community with one another. I’m hoping that’s what this is, [that] this is just like the first part of that in Salem, and it grows from there and we can develop more. And we’re also looking toward Eugene for affordable housing as well.
Miller: I want to hear more about those future plans in just a second, but Vera, you were talking earlier about housing insecurity or instability at various points of your life. What do you think this home is going to give you in the years to come?
Vasquez: Give me status or safety and security to know that we’ll be able to afford this. I don’t have to worry about what if something happens, we have no money and we’re going to be booted out onto the streets? So, for me, it’s security and safety.
Miller: Sami Jo, you mentioned that funding for this project came in part from the Indian Housing Block Grant. Where does that program stand right now, as all kinds of federal programs and federal money is slashed?
Difuntorum: Well, ours has not been. We’ve been very fortunate.
Miller: And the hope is that will continue.
Difuntorum: That is definitely so.
Miller: OK, we’ll leave that there. Just briefly, you mentioned Eugene as a possibility for the future. What’s next for you both, outside the tribal reservation and in the broader areas in the Willamette Valley?
Difuntorum: Yeah, that’s a fair question. We’re always looking to develop. We want to bring affordable housing to wherever tribal members are, but I think it isn’t just like we did in Salem, developing a rental opportunity. I am a strong believer and supporter of creating homeownership opportunities whenever possible. How we’ve done that in the past is we’ve developed the homes and then tribal members buy them in a lease option scenario. I’m hoping that we can expand that outside of Siletz. That’s certainly my top priority.
But it depends on data, in terms of Eugene and what the need is. So we have some outreach to do in the community to see what the need is for affordable housing, what type of programming we need to do, and that will really inform our planning.
Miller: Sami Jo and Vera, thanks very much.
Difuntorum: Thank you so much.
Vasquez: Thank you. You’re welcome.
Miller: Sami Jo Difuntorum is the executive director of the Siletz Tribal Housing Department. Vera Vasquez just moved into a home in their new affordable housing development in Salem, known as Kloshe Illahee Haws.
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