Native American Reservations

Having a place to live is important since where we live influences many things in our lives; whether or not we are healthy, whether children get the proper education they need or how much streets we build up during the day. In many Native American reservations housing is a huge problem. In a reservation it was noted that in a four bedroom home there can be as many as 17 people living there including families that may live in the basement. Furthermore, creating projects to address housing needs in Native American communities is very critical to improve people's living conditions in reservations.
Creating homes in Native American communities can help recruit quality educators since it is hard to find new teachers because of the lack of housing.

Matthew Morton the executive director of Native American Youth and Family Center created a program called Generations with the purpose of providing intergenerational housing in Portland, Oregon. The program aims to help children in the foster care system by providing a stable home for them. The program also works with elders in order to create a home for them thereby allowing them to be more involved within the community. Matthew states that there's a clear relation between housing, stability, and poverty; if people don't have a stable house the ability to get and to keep a job can be a huge challenge and for children that do not have a stable home it is hard for them to focus on school. Many of this is problems are addressed by the Generation project.
Further, Nick Tilsen from Oglala Lakota and the executive director of the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation believes that creating a systems that promotes economic prosperity within the Native community can be beneficial. Moreover people that work in reservations usually don't live in the reservation because of the lack of housing thereby they don't spend resources into the community. Nick States the way in which build houses can also create permanent jobs for Native people and increases the ability of them to contribute to the community. The process of building the houses can also create construction jobs for his native people. Getting local community members involved in housing projects is key to the success of the project. When the project is centered around the community instead of looking for outside ideas, it has been discovered that the community has great ideas and by looking at what the community needs, by asking for their input, their suggestions, and their ideas for what would really work as well as to find ways to make that possible is the best way of improving their living condition. To conclude adequate and safe housing is the beginning to help a person start on a positive direction in their lives.