The Eastern Shoshone Children's Lodge is a new tribally owned development on the Wind River Reservation that serves as a temporary home for children placed into protective custody. The focus of the Economic Feasibility Assessment will be to provide insights and recommendations to support the lodge’s programmatic operations.

The Warm Springs Housing Study and Needs Assessment will provide the background necessary to develop a comprehensive housing plan that meets the needs of current and future community members. The household survey seeks to gather accurate information about the residents and households of the Warm Springs Reservation which will ensure that CTWS’s divisions and programs have up-to-date information to guide decision making while also helping the tribe build tribal data collection capacity.

The Cow Creek Housing Needs Assessment will help Cow Creek quantify its housing needs by answering two key questions:

1. What are the Housing Needs (of Membership) both inside and outside of the Seven County Service Area?

2. What are the housing needs and what demand exists for housing in Roseburg?

The Tulalip Tribes Community Needs Assessment has been set in motion to assist the Tulalip Tribes in collecting relevant, accurate, and comprehensive data about the characteristics, demographic trends, and other needs of the communities of the Tulalip Tribes. The project presents an exciting opportunity to shape housing, health, education, and economic development strategies that meet the collective needs of Tulalip community members.

This project will take place as a part of a larger statewide Tribal health and housing study that will incorporate new data collection in Tribal and Native communities and an overarching stakeholder-driven framework of meetings, discussion sessions and working groups involving Tribes, Tribal programs, Native organizations and the agencies and organizations serving and supporting Tribal and Native communities to revisit outdated approaches, foster innovation and advance more proactive policies.

We are honored to be partnering with the Urban Institute and the National American Indian Housing Council to coordinate Indigenous Economic Development through a community of practice funded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA). This initiative is designed to convene current and potential EDA tribal grantees to build capacity for project planning and implementation via training and technical assistance for indigenous communities, and to facilitate expanded access to EDA’s economic development funding opportunities for tribes.
 
"Sustained progress across Indigenous communities has commonly resulted from sharing experience, knowledge and successful models and strategies,” said Kevin Klingbeil, managing director of Big Water Consulting. “Big Water looks forward to facilitating this critical knowledge sharing process at a time when Tribes and Native communities are increasing their planning capacity, capitalizing on new opportunities, responding to unforeseen challenges, and incorporating new sources of funding and technical assistance.”

The Nisqually Indian Tribe is working with Big Water Consulting to conduct a Tribal Needs Assessment of households living on the reservation. The Nisqually Tribal Needs Assessment Survey aims to provide a better understanding of how Nisqually tribal members prioritize treaty rights issues and develop a better understanding of the Tribe's current circumstances. The survey will determine current housing conditions, which tribal services are known to the community, which programs are used by households, and how connected they are to community services and activities such as fishing, hunting, and gathering. The Needs Assessment will also provide an opportunity to better understand how the Nisqually tribe can communicate with the community and how tribal members feel about long-term vs. short-term investment in tribal resources.

Nch’i Wana Housing is working with Big Water Consulting to conduct a Community Needs Assessment of people living along the Columbia River at treaty and in-lieu fishing sites and adjacent communities. The Community Needs Assessment will collect actionable data that Nch’i Wana Housing and its partners providing services to tribal members and residents of these sites can use to plan for future housing and community development projects and to strengthen their programs and services.

Lake County, California
Big Valley Rancheria is home to the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians, descendents of the Xa-Ben-Na-Po Band of Pomo Indians that have inhabited the Clear Lake area of present-day California for thousands of years. The Big Vallery Rancheria Community Needs Assessment seeks to gather data on the housing and other programming needs of Big Valley residents and Tribal members. The needs assessment will also inform renovations to rental housing being conducted by Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab at MASS Design, a Native-owned architecture firm.

Seattle, Washington
Native Action Network is conducting the Native Women’s Leadership survey to collect qualitative and quantitative information from Native women throughout Washington state interested in all forms of leadership. These include all levels of government, business, nonprofits, activism, and community leadership. Native Action Network will use this information to strengthen and develop its programs supporting Native women’s leadership, to identify opportunities and barriers, to facilitate mentorship and partnership opportunities, and to build a sisterhood of Native woman leaders in the state of Washington.

The Salish & Kootenai Housing Authority is working with Big Water Consulting to convene a regional coalition of governments and non-profit organizations to address the housing crisis facing the Flathead Indian Reservation. The Housing Needs Assessment will collect actionable data that communities can use to plan for future housing and community development projects.

Auburn, Washington
Muckleshoot Indian Tribe is composed of descendants of the Duwamish and Upper Puyallup peoples of Central Puget Sound. The Muckleshoot Community Needs Assessment seeks to gather data on the housing and other programming needs of Muckleshoot Reservation residents and Tribal members. The needs assessment will also inform a permanent supportive housing development in partnership with BeauxSimone Consulting and RTHawk Housing Alliance.

Fort Hall, Idaho
The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes are federally-recognized tribes residing on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, located in the eastern Snake River Plain of southeastern Idaho near the town of Pocatello, Idaho. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Fort Hall comprise the eastern and western bands of the Northern Shoshone and the Bannock, or Northern Paiute, bands. After the success of the 2016 Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Community Needs Assessment, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes have launched the 2021 Shoshone-Bannock Community Needs Assessment and Housing Fabrication Facility Feasibility Study.

Whiteriver, Arizona
The White Mountain Apache Housing Authority (WMAHA) initiated the White Mountain Apache Housing Needs Assessment on behalf of the White Mountain Apache Tribe (WMAT) in order to develop forward-looking planning and program management and to identify and measure the needs of communities throughout the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. The Tribe selected Big Water Consulting to coordinate the effort and provide training and technical assistance throughout the project. This housing needs assessment included a household survey that collected data from 654 homes on the reservation and had an overall response rate of 97.2%.

The Appraisal Market Study was commissioned by the South Dakota Native Homeownership Coalition (SDNHC) to describe the market for home appraisals on the nine Indian reservations in South Dakota and enable appraisers to evaluate the potential business opportunities available to them on reservation lands. Big Water Consulting used existing, available data from federal, state, and Tribal sources and interviewed and surveyed appraisers, lenders, and Tribally Designated Housing Entities (TDHES) to help determine the composition, size, value, and growth for valuation services on reservations within South Dakota.

In cooperation with Seven Sisters Community Development Group (Seven Sisters) and the Salish & Kootenai Housing Authority (SKHA), Big Water Consulting conducted research to evaluate the spectrum of current standards for safe or acceptable levels of use-related methamphetamine contamination in managed housing to facilitate SKHA’s development and adoption of new meth standards and policies. Big Water Consulting reviewed available scientific literature and legal standards to provide a comprehensive summary of the standards for safe use-related methamphetamine contamination levels in occupied housing units that have been adopted by local, state, and federal agencies in the United States and other countries, as well as a comprehensive review of how each standard was evaluated and finalized.

Washington State
Big Water Consulting created a coalition with United Way of King County, Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, King County and Pyramid Communications which was funded by the Washington State Office of Financial Management to conduct 2020 Census outreach and education in King County, Washington. The scope of the effort was later expanded to cover the entire State of Washington.

Bayfield, Wisconsin
The Red Cliff Reservation is located on the shores of Lake Superior in north Wisconsin near the town of Bayfied, Wisconsin. This area experiences an extreme winter climate and a highly seasonal economy focused primarily on tourism. After completing a successful Tribal Census and Community Needs Assessment in 2018 (97% household survey response rate), the Red Cliff Chippewa Housing Authority launched the Red Cliff Housing Needs Assessment in February 2020 in order to gather data to support and guide planned housing development and which could be used to challenge and replace the Census Bureau data used to determine the Tribe’s housing funding allocation.

Kula, Maui
The vision of Pā‘upena Community Development Corporation (CDC) is to fulfill Prince Kūhiō’s century-old dream for native Hawaiians to reconnect with Waiohuli ahupua‘a in thriving agricultural and pastoral communities, and to share this paradigm throughout the pae ‘āina (archipelago). Pā‘upena CDC launched the Maui Homelands Needs Assessment project in February 2020 in collaboration with a number of native Hawaiian homestead organizations and participating staff from the Department of Hawaiian Homelands (DHHL). The project will include a representative household survey involving native Hawaiian households in each of the homestead areas on Maui, a random sample of native Hawaiians on the DHHL waiting list for land leases for Maui, focus groups with community members, community meetings and interviews with knowledgeable local and state-level sources.

Hayward, Wisconsin
The Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation is a largely wooded area in north-central Wisconsin that is punctuated by lakes, streams and the Chippewa flowage. Big Water Consulting trained the local Survey Manager and field staff to canvass the reservation and update the Tribe’s housing unit map prior to conducting a household survey involving a random sample of 945 housing units on the reservation. A paper survey form was also mailed to off-reservation members living in Sawyer County. An online survey form was also made available to the on-reservation and off-reservation survey respondents via a survey code provided to households included in the sample.

Pablo, Montana
Big Water Consulting developed and facilitated the Meth Testing and Remediation Survey of United Native American Housing Association (UNAHA) members. This survey was designed to assess the impacts of meth use and manufacturing in tribal housing authority units on the administration of tribal housing programs, including the cost of meth testing and remediation and the exacerbation of existing housing shortages by the temporary removal of meth-contaminated housing units from service. The data collected via this survey will allow UNAHA to inform elected officials and agency staff at the state and federal levels about the extent of the meth problem and provide concrete numbers to funding sources that may be able fund efforts to address this problem.

Eagle Butte, Pine Ridge and Sisseton, South Dakota
With support from SDNHC, Enterprise Community Partners and Lakota Funds, Big Water worked with the Cheyenne River Housing Authority, Oglala Sioux (Lakota) Housing, and Sisseton Wahpeton Housing Authority to design and implement the Veterans Housing Needs and Homeownership Study. Data collected through an intercept survey and focus groups conducted on each of the three reservations will enable housing authorities, Tribal Veteran Service Officers and others to identify the housing and service issues most important to veterans and then develop and fund tailored programs that help address these concerns.

Barrow, Alaska
The Native Village of Barrow (NVB) is the northernmost community in Alaska, located north of the Arctic Circle. Data collected through a household survey enabled NVB to refine their housing map and illustrated a number of challenges faced by the community, including high costs of living (beyond rent, mortgage, and utilities), limited housing stock, and prevalent overcrowding. Results will be used to engage the Native Corporation and Borough partners in shared planning and provision of services.

Dowagiac, Michigan
The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi has no reservation and its members are distributed throughout the United States and the world. The Band has made great efforts to spur economic development within its service area in Michigan and Indiana and the surrounding region. The Tribal Census, conducted every five years to support a constitutionally mandated comprehensive planning process, was implemented through a mail-out survey delivered to all households with an enrolled Pokagon citizen, regardless of whether they lived inside or outside the Band’s service area. The resulting dataset is now being used to inform decisions related to land acquisition, economic development, education spending, program administration, and the development of new services.

Bayfield, Wisconsin
The Red Cliff Indian Reservation is a remote community located on the shores of Lake Superior on the northern tip of the Bayfield peninsula in Wisconsin. It has a recreation and resource-based economy and a large number of seasonally vacant units and second homes. The project, which included a reservation-wide household survey, enabled the Band to correct distortions in existing data resulting from the income disparities and demographic differences between full-time residents (who are generally Native) and seasonal residents (who are generally not). In addition, the data will be used to develop a Comprehensive Plan and identify specific options to address resident needs and create opportunities for individual and collective development.

Sells, Arizona
The Tohono O'odham Nation is a large tribe whose lands are located along the US-Mexico border in southern Arizona. Many Tohono O’odham move between Tucson and the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation, where there are a substantial number of traditionally constructed homes. Data collected through a housing unit condition assessment and a household survey documented every structure on reservation and trust lands, successfully enumerated the non-transient population, revealed the challenges of households living in traditional homes, and is being used to support comprehensive planning as well as challenge U.S. Census data used in the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) formula.

Fort Hall, Idaho

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes are federally-recognized tribes residing on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, which is located in the eastern Snake River Plain of southeastern Idaho near the town of Pocatello. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes 2016 Tribal Needs Assessment includes a Household Survey, Homeownership Survey, and a Youth Survey. This project helped the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes launch their Tribal Homeownership Opportunities Program (THOP) which coincided with the launch of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). The findings from this project will continue to help the tribal government and its programs attract new funding, better plan for tribal programs, improve services, and address homebuyer readiness through preparation courses.