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This issue of Community Dividendis the first of two addressing community development in Indian Country. The Ninth Federal Reserve District is home to 43 Indian reservations. These reservations, as well as other Indian communities, often have been pockets of poverty within otherwise prosperous states. A major factor contributing to this situation is that lending on Indian reservations, whether for mortgage, consumer or business purposes, has long presented challenges to lenders.
In this issue, we focus on housing issues and the role of credit in Indian Country. In the cover article, Thomas Moore and Margaret Tyndall discuss the HUD 184 loan guarantee program for home mortgage loans made in Indian Country. Note the sidebars accompanying this article. In one, we outline the roles of all the partners in a HUD 184 loan. In another, we offer a list of lenders in the Ninth District that have made HUD 184 loans. A third provides quotes from people who have used the program.
Two additional articles round out this issue. First, we have reprinted a speech given by Gary Stern, president of this Reserve Bank, at last year's Nation Building Conference in Missoula, Montana. In this feature, Stern discusses the importance of credit to the development of Indian Country. Second, we present an article about the rule-making process for the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996. This rule-making process involved 48 tribal representatives from across the country, and we had the opportunity to interview one of those representatives.
Credit and other sources of capital are as vital to long-term community development in Indian Country as they are in other parts of the United States. We hope the information contained in this Community Dividendhelps develop your understanding of the issues surrounding lending in Indian Country.
P.S. A special supplement to this issue is an overview of our recently published second edition of Principles & Practices of Community Development Lending. We updated the popular handbook to reflect current community development investment practices.
