Oklahoma Tribes, Veterans To Benefit From $1.2M Grants

The government is giving nearly $1.2 million in grants to help homeless American Indian veterans in Oklahoma.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veterans Affairs are teaming up for the project. In Tulsa on Saturday, they announced which 26 tribes across the country will part of the windfall.

Five of those are here in Oklahoma. 

The money will be used to offer rental assistance and support services to about 100 veterans who live on or near Cherokee, Choctaw, Osage, Muscogee Creek and Cheyenne-Arapaho tribal land.

"One of the things we see in Indian Country is, we don't see homelessness as much in Indian Country as we do in other folks, cause our people take care of one another,” Executive Director of the Cherokee Housing Authority Gary Cooper said. “We don't kick people out on the streets.  … But what we face, our biggest problem we have in Indian Country is overhousing, overcrowding.  Overcrowding is a huge issue, where we have generations, a couple generations living in the same household."

HUD's grant program has been in place since 2008, but this is the first time they are focusing on veterans who live on tribal land.