Coalition aims to increase homeownership rates in tribal communities

BROWN COUNTY – With the help of a grant from the Wisconsin Bankers Association (WBA) and Bay Bank, a new initiative in Wisconsin is tackling a persistent challenge in tribal communities: the struggle to achieve homeownership.

The WBA recently announced $60,000 in housing and economic development grants, $10,000 of which will be invested in the Wisconsin Native Homeownership Coalition through a partnership with Bay Bank.

This coalition is designed to increase homeownership rates among Native Americans, providing tools, resources and education on purchasing a house, as well as working with an affordable housing developer and housing authority executives to increase the number of housing units available for Native Americans.

“Tribal communities have lower home ownership rates than the mainstream. Part of that is just a lack of supply — we haven’t been building new homes,” said Jeff Bowman, CEO of Bay Bank and
member of the coalition. “The bank is interested in this because we have full service bank operations in tribal communities. We’ve always been a strong mortgage lender in tribal communities, so partnering up with a housing coalition is an awesome way for us to see that in action. Instead of just waiting for a loan

The grant from the WBA and Bay Bank will help to further develop the coalition and create its strategic directives, explained Cheryl Cloud, executive director of the Red Cliff Chippewa Housing authority and member of the coalition.

“The coalition’s overarching goal is to unify and leverage the abundance of knowledge and expertise in Native American housing in Wisconsin into a combined group that does collaborative problem solving, highlights best practices, develops new products and culturally relevant financial education and promotes the interests of mortgage lending and housing development on trust land,” said Cloud. “Support from the WBA grant will help the coalition with its strategic directions for 2025-2028, which are to build coalition capacity and structure, engage stakeholders, initiate coalition programming and to gather, measure and evaluate data.”

The coalition was modeled after similar initiatives in other states, and then brought to life by Fern Orie, CEO of the Wisconsin Indigenous Housing and Economic Development Corporation, along with her team, then looping in leaders and stakeholders from across the community.

As a stakeholder in the coalition, Bay Bank will be involved in its development, but Bowman added that they will continue to be invested in housing opportunities for all people, regardless of tribal affiliation.

“Increasing home ownership opportunities is always going to be important regardless of where that community is located — what city, what county, if it’s in a tribal community or not,” said Bowman.
“There’s homeownership opportunities for low and moderate-income people out there, and we have to uncover them... Wherever our banking offices are located, those backyards are important to us....Homeownership is a goal for many people, so it’s really important for us to use our capital to help people achieve that dream.”