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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Nevada Tribes Get a Bit More for Housing

RENO, Nev. (CN) - A northern Nevada tribe will collect $769,645 in federal housing money, and a second tribe will not have to repay a $110,444 overpayment - at least for a while.

The Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone Indians will recoup the $769,645 in block grants for low-rent housing and a mutual-help home ownership program.

The tribe sued the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2008, saying it improperly denied them partial funding from 2002 to 2008.

U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks on March 28 ordered HUD to repay $769,645 in recaptured funds to the Te-Moak Housing Authority, within 24 months.

HUD claimed the Administrative Procedures Act does not give the court the authority to order it to restore the money, because it already disbursed it to other tribes.

Hicks disagreed, saying the money can be recaptured through future block grants. The recaptured money will be added to funding the Te-Moak tribe will receive in future housing block grants.

On the same day, Hicks ruled in favor of the Walker River Paiute Tribe.

The tribe sought to stop HUD from recouping a $110,444 overpayment for housing services. HUD claimed it overpaid the tribe in 2008 and sought to reclaim the money in 2009 by reducing its funding.

The tribe sued and in a 2011 stipulation order HUD agreed it would suspend its efforts to recoup the money during pendency of the case.

A court error made it appear that HUD already had reduced the funding from the tribe's federal housing grants, but Hicks ordered the language changed to indicate HUD has only suspended its efforts.

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