Round Valley Tribes receives $8.7 million grant to develop housing

MENDOCINO CO., 12/12/24 — State Route 162, also called Covelo Road, lies east of Highway 101, approximately halfway between Willits and Laytonville. After about 45 minutes of driving along windy roads and navigating tight turns, travelers emerge to overlook the green splendor of Round Valley, home to the town of Covelo and the Round Valley Indian Tribes—a confederation of seven tribes forced to live together on Yuki tribal land in the 1850s. The path to this remote corner of Mendocino County is beautiful but arduous, with travelers losing internet access for most of the journey. The trip ends with a view of some of the most breathtaking mountains in Northern California, where colorful orange and red trees contrast with white snow on the highest peaks.

Despite the solitude that Round Valley provides, the region’s remoteness has greatly contributed to its lack of resources, particularly in terms of housing for tribal members. High construction costs and limited access to funding have led to a shortage of affordable housing for people on the reservation. According to the Round Valley Indian Housing Authority (RVIHA) directors, 91 Round Valley tribal members are on the waitlist for affordable housing units.

Last month, the housing authority announced it will be receiving $8.7 million in grant funding from the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) through its Homekey Tribal Program. The funds will enable the housing authority to complete Phase 5 of the Tribal Winds project, a multi-family housing development that’s already partially completed. The housing authority will contribute $30,000 annually from its own funds to support the growing housing development.

According to the housing authority, the Tribal Winds project already has 43 housing units completed on the reservation, including a mix of two-bedroom, three-bedroom and four-bedroom homes. One housing unit has five bedrooms.

The next phase is to construct 18 permanent rental units on 9.6 acres of land on Hatchet Mountain Boulevard, a section of grassy fields next to a paved road located about five minutes from the housing authority’s main office on Concow Boulevard. The new phase will be for Round Valley tribal members who are currently homeless or at risk of homelessness. The homes will be single-family units, with priority given to tribal members on the authority’s housing waitlist. The housing authority’s directors stated they are still ironing out the details of the application process for members who wish to apply.

The new development will include 10 two-bedroom homes and eight three-bedroom homes, according to directors. Although the housing authority originally petitioned for units with attached garages, they realized there would not be enough funding for them. Construction should begin in 2025.

 Darlene Crabtree, the authority’s finance manager, emphasized that the next phase of development will support families that have had trouble getting into affordable housing.

“We just need to put families in them, we want them to have a home,” Crabtree said in an interview. “It’s rewarding to see people in homes, and originally I wasn’t sure we were going to get the grant.”

Crabtree said that LACO, a Native American-owned civil engineering firm based in Ukiah, serves as the housing authority’s grant writer and was instrumental in securing this most recent grant.

“There’s so many people out there in different situations asking for this money,” she said. “But LACO does a lot of our writing, our engineering and architecture. They helped us a lot with this process.”

According to an HCD employee who declined to be named, the application process for grants under the Homekey Program is much less competitive than other state housing programs.

The Homekey Program includes several non-competitive aspects, including that funding is given on a first-come, first-served basis rather than through a competitive scoring system. In competitive scoring programs, applicants are ranked based on the goals of the housing development, its impact on the community and other guidelines.

Nonetheless, the HCD staffer explained that because California tribes had been ineligible for HCD programs until 2021, many tribal governments were unprepared for the Homekey Program’s grant-writing process and lacked sufficient information to complete their applications in a timely manner, negatively affecting tribal authorities’ ability to receive grants for developing housing.

Thus, the nearly $9 million grant secured by LACO for Round Valley was a win that both surprised and exhilarated housing authority directors. Crabtree said a part of the application process involved seeking feedback from Round Valley’s homeless population to identify their greatest needs.

“One of the requirements for the grant application was to have a meeting and hand out a questionnaire on what individuals want, and they mainly talked about housing,” Crabtree said. “This is the biggest grant we’ve been able to get this year. The whole concept of kids and families getting their homes, it’s exciting.”