BOIS FORTE RESERVATION— Officials here have given six families facing eviction from tribal housing more time to come up with partial payment on their outstanding arrears. The tribal council, last Thursday, gave housing officials the authority to make the offer to the affected families.

Under the offer, the families will have until Dec. 19 to pay fifty percent of the arrears they currently owe as well as remain current on their ongoing rental payments. The tenants will have until April 30, 2015, to pay off, in full, the remainder of their arrears.

“The mission of the Bois Forte Housing Authority is to provide band members with affordable places to live,” said Housing Commissioner Carol Burr. “Our goal is to keep people in their homes, not to remove them.”

Tenants reacted positively to the news, although most still weren’t sure if they were supposed to appear at eviction hearings in tribal court, as had previously been scheduled. Roberta Chavez, who lives with her daughter and newborn granddaughter on the Vermilion Reservation, said she was optimistic that she would be able to meet the new terms being offered by tribal housing officials.

She was still waiting, however, to find out how much she actually owes. Housing officials have given Chavez conflicting information regarding the number of payments outstanding. “I still haven’t gotten a clarification on that,” she said.

While Rhonda Hoaglund, who lives with four grandchildren on the Nett Lake Reservation, said she was grateful for the offer, she noted she’s had to turn down work as a union laborer in recent weeks over the uncertainty surrounding her potential eviction. “I didn’t know from day to day if they were going to come and evict us. There was no way I was going to leave my kids like that,” she said.

Hoaglund said she not only plans to get caught up on arrears by next April, she plans to pay off the full remaining amount on her rent-to-own contract. “I’m paying off my house all the way,” she said. “I’m going to have it all done by April 15.”

Hoaglund said she’s grateful for the reprieve, but said she suspects some of the families that had been facing eviction may still have trouble coming up with enough money to meet housing’s new requirement. “Thank goodness this worked out for most people, but there are others who are still in jeopardy,” she added.

Not everybody is sold on the new arrangement. Tribal council member Karlene Chosa had pushed her fellow council members to enact a cold weather exemption that would have made it harder to evict tenants with household incomes below 50 percent of the state median, between Oct. 15 and April 15.

The policy would not eliminate the possibility of eviction, but it would have required tribal housing authorities to consider income in any payback agreement. It would also require that housing officials make referrals to financial management programs that could help reduce the likelihood of future payment defaults.

Chosa said she sent the policy out to council members last week, but they never responded, instead voting to authorize the extension offer.

Chosa said she’d like to see tribal authorities do more to address the range of issues that have put many tenants in difficult financial circumstances. “There are things the council can be doing, but they have to be willing to it,” she said.

According to Burr, Bois Forte Housing has consistently tried to work with tenants to avoid arrears, but has to take action when tenants fall too far behind.

“Like any professional organization that supplies housing, we have established clear terms that our tenants agree to when they rent from us. We also have processes in place to help tenants who struggle to pay their rent, including an arrears program,” stated Burr.

 “The tenants who faced eviction had entered into payback agreements more than a year ago that were intended to resolve arrearages that had been building up and they were in default on those payback agreements. The new opportunity requires them to get back on track with their payback agreements so that by next April 30 they are current.”