New docu-series highlights housing insecurity among Native Americans
By Jeanette DeDios
April 23, 2025 at 5:05 PM MDT
For many Native Ameicans, the dream of home ownership is often unimaginable, both on and off the reservation. That was certainly the case for Cheyenne River Sioux tribal member Tammy Granados.
According to the U.S. Census, in 2022 53% of Native Americans living in the United States are homeowners, compared to 74% of white people.
The new docu-series “From Hope to Home: What We Came Here For,” follows Granados on her path to buying a home, a dream that’s only achievable through the support of a community-led financial organization helping tribal members.
KUNM spoke with Executive Director of the Four Bands Community Fund Lakota Vogel and Ganados who says growing up she didn’t know people owned homes.
TAMMY GRANADOS: Because that wasn't really a concept that was given to me growing up. You know, everybody I knew lived in a housing authority house, lived in HUD housing. And as I grew older, I didn't really think that that was something that I could participate in, just because that it was never introduced to me. And I didn't know that that should be a part of my life and my future planning to make sure that I am in the position to be able to do that for myself.
KUNM: Could you give me a little background on what the situation has been for Indigenous people and sort of the impacts that are ongoing when it comes to the housing crisis?
LAKOTA VOGEL: Yeah, I think that it starts with that concept that time Tammy mentioned, with just us talking to the next generation about home ownership, we are so recent two-colonization, basically, that's just recently within our history. So the asset and wealth management that we've all been exposed to, or you're supposed to buy a home, pass on that home to the next generation. We've been left behind in that storyline. We've entered the game too late, and rounds and rounds of home ownership have passed by us. And so we're at the point right now where there's a lot of community organizations that are raising our hands and saying, ‘Look, we want that same opportunity,’ but you have to convince a lot of systems to get, you know, come into place, including private lending institutions. So I think in 2025 we're all standing up as Native communities and saying, ‘let's all share, find a narrative, share the narrative,’ and understand there are unique circumstances for the 576 nations that are out there, but there are so many throughlines and similarities that we can find a path forward together.
KUNM: Lakota, what are some of the obstacles that Indigenous people face?
VOGEL: A lot of it has to do with right now we've got low housing stock within most of our communities. People aren't building homes. And if you don't have a mortgage or a private lender saying, ‘I will lend you money to build a home’, your contracting industry hasn't even built up the skill set to build homes. So even on Cheyenne River, we have to ship most of our homes into the community, which is an added cost onto everything. And so we're making a market, basically, we're building the residential market within our communities, which takes time.
KUNM: Tammy, what was the process like, the timeline?
GRANADOS: I applied for the mortgage in May of 2022, me and my family moved into the home in June of 2023, and we didn't have all utilities and everything in place until September of 2024, so that is how long it took my home, to be a functional home. And where I placed my home, it was an undeveloped piece of land that had not been developed since, you know, a railroad ran through here, and so we had to do everything because I really just had to start from the ground up.
KUNM: How Is the Four Bands Community Fund helping to make home ownership affordable to Indigenous communities?
VOGEL: I think we start with not a loan product. We start with a story, and we start with working with Tammy and understanding where she wants to find her home, build her home because it's so customizable. Every person has a different starting point, and we want to make sure we meet our clients where they're at. We're a part of the community. We all live and work here. We're from the community. Our loan officer went to high school with Tammy, so I think that's really important for us to be part of the community, boots on the ground. We know the people, we know the utility providers. We know what to do. So community organizations that are Native-led are really important to moving the needle here.
KUNM: And Tammy, can you discuss how much of an impact you know working with the Four Bands Community has been for yourself, but also for your family?
GRANADOS: I was very thankful for it, because there are a lot of obstacles that come with placing a home here, and I was in a situation where me and my children were living in a two-bedroom apartment, and we needed something bigger, and we were at risk of losing that particular arrangement. And my rent was going to go up, and I just realized that I was at a place where I could not prolong this financial commitment. I couldn't be scared of it anymore. I had to figure out a way to provide a home for my children. And then we had a lot of things happen. And I didn't have the same energy level to complete those steps, and I definitely could not have completed them alone. April at Four Bands, I would not be sitting here in my family's home without her.
KUNM: So looking forward, what does that look like for the Four Bands community?
VOGEL: Our 10-year goal is to really make this possible. So we've only helped 85 people, which in a community of about 10,000 actually is a pretty big footprint. But we really have a demand. We have a wait list of over 120 families searching for this mortgage opportunity. But I can't fundraise fast enough as a nonprofit to ask people to give us money so we can re-lend it to our community. So we're really hoping to build a story where people want to invest and do this for themselves, so that our community members can get access to capital.
You can watch the docu-series “From Hope to Home: What We Came Here For” here . Support for this coverage comes from the Thornburg Foundation.
According to the U.S. Census, in 2022 53% of Native Americans living in the United States are homeowners, compared to 74% of white people.
The new docu-series “From Hope to Home: What We Came Here For,” follows Granados on her path to buying a home, a dream that’s only achievable through the support of a community-led financial organization helping tribal members.
KUNM spoke with Executive Director of the Four Bands Community Fund Lakota Vogel and Ganados who says growing up she didn’t know people owned homes.
TAMMY GRANADOS: Because that wasn't really a concept that was given to me growing up. You know, everybody I knew lived in a housing authority house, lived in HUD housing. And as I grew older, I didn't really think that that was something that I could participate in, just because that it was never introduced to me. And I didn't know that that should be a part of my life and my future planning to make sure that I am in the position to be able to do that for myself.
KUNM: Could you give me a little background on what the situation has been for Indigenous people and sort of the impacts that are ongoing when it comes to the housing crisis?
LAKOTA VOGEL: Yeah, I think that it starts with that concept that time Tammy mentioned, with just us talking to the next generation about home ownership, we are so recent two-colonization, basically, that's just recently within our history. So the asset and wealth management that we've all been exposed to, or you're supposed to buy a home, pass on that home to the next generation. We've been left behind in that storyline. We've entered the game too late, and rounds and rounds of home ownership have passed by us. And so we're at the point right now where there's a lot of community organizations that are raising our hands and saying, ‘Look, we want that same opportunity,’ but you have to convince a lot of systems to get, you know, come into place, including private lending institutions. So I think in 2025 we're all standing up as Native communities and saying, ‘let's all share, find a narrative, share the narrative,’ and understand there are unique circumstances for the 576 nations that are out there, but there are so many throughlines and similarities that we can find a path forward together.
KUNM: Lakota, what are some of the obstacles that Indigenous people face?
VOGEL: A lot of it has to do with right now we've got low housing stock within most of our communities. People aren't building homes. And if you don't have a mortgage or a private lender saying, ‘I will lend you money to build a home’, your contracting industry hasn't even built up the skill set to build homes. So even on Cheyenne River, we have to ship most of our homes into the community, which is an added cost onto everything. And so we're making a market, basically, we're building the residential market within our communities, which takes time.
KUNM: Tammy, what was the process like, the timeline?
GRANADOS: I applied for the mortgage in May of 2022, me and my family moved into the home in June of 2023, and we didn't have all utilities and everything in place until September of 2024, so that is how long it took my home, to be a functional home. And where I placed my home, it was an undeveloped piece of land that had not been developed since, you know, a railroad ran through here, and so we had to do everything because I really just had to start from the ground up.
KUNM: How Is the Four Bands Community Fund helping to make home ownership affordable to Indigenous communities?
VOGEL: I think we start with not a loan product. We start with a story, and we start with working with Tammy and understanding where she wants to find her home, build her home because it's so customizable. Every person has a different starting point, and we want to make sure we meet our clients where they're at. We're a part of the community. We all live and work here. We're from the community. Our loan officer went to high school with Tammy, so I think that's really important for us to be part of the community, boots on the ground. We know the people, we know the utility providers. We know what to do. So community organizations that are Native-led are really important to moving the needle here.
KUNM: And Tammy, can you discuss how much of an impact you know working with the Four Bands Community has been for yourself, but also for your family?
GRANADOS: I was very thankful for it, because there are a lot of obstacles that come with placing a home here, and I was in a situation where me and my children were living in a two-bedroom apartment, and we needed something bigger, and we were at risk of losing that particular arrangement. And my rent was going to go up, and I just realized that I was at a place where I could not prolong this financial commitment. I couldn't be scared of it anymore. I had to figure out a way to provide a home for my children. And then we had a lot of things happen. And I didn't have the same energy level to complete those steps, and I definitely could not have completed them alone. April at Four Bands, I would not be sitting here in my family's home without her.
KUNM: So looking forward, what does that look like for the Four Bands community?
VOGEL: Our 10-year goal is to really make this possible. So we've only helped 85 people, which in a community of about 10,000 actually is a pretty big footprint. But we really have a demand. We have a wait list of over 120 families searching for this mortgage opportunity. But I can't fundraise fast enough as a nonprofit to ask people to give us money so we can re-lend it to our community. So we're really hoping to build a story where people want to invest and do this for themselves, so that our community members can get access to capital.
You can watch the docu-series “From Hope to Home: What We Came Here For” here . Support for this coverage comes from the Thornburg Foundation.