Highlights from recent projects help tell the story of how and where we work.
Visit our Gallery to see samples of specific deliverables. Use the search bar below to find projects in specific regions, covering certain topics, or with a particular tribe.
All Projects
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Housing Study and Needs Assessment
This study 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 while additional surveys for reservation youth, employees, and tribal members living off-reservation round-out the storytelling effort.
Cow Creek Housing Needs Assessment
The Cow Creek Housing Needs Assessment seeks to answer this key question: what are the housing needs of Cow Creek members both inside and outside of the Tribe’s seven-county service area?
The project involved not only a household survey distributed to all Cow Creek member households (within and without the Tribe’s service area), but also an employer survey that sought input from major Roseburg employers to learn more about housing shortage in the broader community, and interviews with knowledgeable parties from Tribal and municipal leadership.
Dry Creek Community Needs and GIS Mapping
The Dry Creek Community Needs Assessment and GIS Mapping Project has been set in motion to assist the Dry Creek Band of Pomo Indians in collecting relevant, accurate, and comprehensive data about the characteristics, demographic trends, and other needs of both the community and physical environment of the Band.
Nch'i Wana Community Needs Assessment
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.
Nisqually Indian Tribal Needs Assessment
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.
Big Valley Rancheria Community Needs Assessment
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.
African Health Advocacy Project
Mission Africa’s African Health Advocacy Project (AHAP) aims to increase prevention and detection of COVID-19 by addressing misinformation and promoting services among K-12 children and caregivers of African communities in the Puget Sound region.
Fond du Lac Housing & Community Needs Assessment
The Fond du Lac Housing and Community Needs Assessment is being directed by the Fond du Lac Planning Division to collect actionable data that the Band can use to plan for future housing and community development projects.
Ending Rental Arrears to Stop Evictions (ERASE) Surveys
UNAHA received the Ending Rental Arrears to Stop Evictions (ERASE) grant from the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) to assist member Tribes and TDHEs in designing and implementing Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) programs.
Dry Creek Housing and Homelessness Needs Survey
The Dry Creek Housing and Homelessness Needs Survey will identify the range of housing needs and support services for the members of the Dry Creek Rancheria.
White Earth Housing Needs Assessment
The White Earth Housing Needs Assessment is being conducted to support the White Earth Nation in its efforts to implement a Housing Needs Study. For this project, the White Earth Housing Authority will conduct a survey of residents throughout the study area as well as focus groups, interviews and community meetings to help determine the availability of and need for housing on the White Earth Reservation.
Flathead Indian Reservation Housing Needs Assessment
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.
Muckleshoot Community Needs Assessment
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.
Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Community Needs Assessment and Housing Fabrication Facility Feasibility Study
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.
White Mountain Apache Housing Needs Assessment
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%.
South Dakota Native Homeownership Coalition Appraisal Market Study
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.
Use-Related Methamphetamine Contamination in Managed Housing
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.
2020 Census Outreach and Education (King County and Washington State)
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.
Red Cliff Housing Needs Assessment
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.
Maui Homelands Needs Assessment Project
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.