Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Housing Retreat by LeeAnn Nelson

THE UTE MOUNTAIN UTE TRIBE HOUSING

was held July 21 to July 23, 2025 at the Holiday Inn and Suites in Durango, Colorado. This event brought together members of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, housing experts, and community leaders to discuss and develop strategies for improving housing conditions on the reservation in Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico.

KEY OBJECTIVES

REVIEW STATUS OF CURRENT PROJECTS AND DEVELOP NEXT STEPS:

Evaluate the current status of housing projects and identify action items to move project forward.

DEVELOP PARTNERSHIPS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:

Develop new partnerships and funding opportunities to increase housing units on UMUT reservation.

CREATE REALISTIC ACTION PLAN:

Outline an action plan with goals and objectives that can be accomplished within 3, 6, and 12 months with roles, responsibilities and timelines. Plan for weekly follow up to assure timelines are achieved.

ACTIVITIES AND SESSIONS

DAY 1

JULY 21, 2025

OPENING CEREMONY: The retreat began with a traditional opening ceremony, including a blessing by Councilman Darwin Whiteman, and welcome address by Chairman Manuel Heart.

PURPOSE, ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES, AGENDA: Vice Chairman Alston Turtle and Councilman Conrad Jacket explained purpose of the retreat, expectations, and allowed time for introductions of all participants.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Chris Lopez (CHFA) and Helen Katich (Gates Family Foundation) presented the importance of teamwork, collaboration and partnerships to secure more funding for housing.

SPONSORSHIP RECOGNITION: Bev Santicola introduced Khanh Nguyen of Colorado Health Foundation and informed group that CHF graciously funded the housing retreat with funding in a capacity building grant.

PRESENTATIONS: The following program leaders and community partners provided educational and informational presentations:

X Kellie Willis – Taw Kann Supportive Housing/Pinion Project

X B. Cuthair, M. Sturdevant, J. Lopez, N. Azulai – New Housing

Z Naomi Azulai – Indian Health Service Funding

X Patrick Littlebear, Archie House, Jr. – HUD Grant Requirements

X Travois and Native American Bank – Low Income Housing Tax Credits

X Juanita Plentyholes, Miles Sturdevant – Housing Rehabilitation

X Beth Cascaddan – Housing Manufacturing Feasibility Study

X Nate Peterson – Vederra Modular Housing Manufacturing

X Elaine Demas – Rural Homes, Down Payment Assistance –Telluride Foundation

ACTIVITIES AND SESSIONS

DAY 2 JULY 22, 2025

BLESSING AND BREAKFAST: The day began with a blessing by Councilman Malcolm Lehi.

REVIEW OF DAY 1: Participants identified most promising opportunities that were presented in the previous day.

PRESENTATIONS: The following program leaders and community partners provided educational and informational presentations:

X Beaux Simone – Supportive Housing on UMUT Reservation

X Chris Stebner, NeoFiber – Drone Surveys on Reservation

X Patrick Littlebear, Archie House, Jr. – HUD Grant Requirements

X Swarvoski Little, 1st Southwest Bank – Entrepreneurship

X DeAnne House – Aftercare Facility; $2MM HUD funding through CDS

X Elizabeth Salkind, Kelsey Schumacher – Supportive Housing Costs

X Bev Santicola – Funding Secured, Pending and Needed

SWOT ANALYSIS: Shak Powers led the group activity to determine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

CLOSING REMARKS: The day ended with closing remarks from Councilwoman Tawnie Knight.

DAY 3 JULY 23, 2025

IDENTIFICATION OF PRIMARY, SUPPORT, AND INFLUENCE PARTNERS:

A group activity took place where project teams identified project partners and messaging to each partner group.

S.M.A.R.T. OBJECTIVES/ACTION PLANNING: Participants collaborated to develop a comprehensive action plan for addressing the identified housing needs using SMART objectives –Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time phased.

CLOSING CEREMONY: The retreat concluded with a closing ceremony, where key takeaways and commitments were shared by Tribal Council.

IMMEDIATE ACTION ITEMS

1 Schedule site visit at Vederra Modular within next month.

2 Apply for LIHTC with Travois and Native American Bank by Dec. 2025.

3 Assure Travois contract is signed by Aug. 15, 2025 using CHF funding.

4 Charge CHFA $300,000 Tiwahe grant in 2025 for Janet Ketchum’s house.

5 Compete questionnaire for $2.25MM FHLB of DesMoines for White Mesa.

ACTION PLAN

INFRASTRUCTURE

Complete pre-construction for new housing development, tribal facilities, and new aftercare facility

Select Location

Secure Funding

Feasibility, Clearances, and Geotechnical

30% Design

Shovel Ready

LOW INCOME HOUSING TAX CREDITS

Apply for LIHTC through Travois and Native American Bank for $15MM new housing project using $4MM in HUD funding as match

SUPPORTIVE HOUSING

Construct supportive housing facility on

UMUT reservation

AFTERCARE HOUSING

Construct aftercare housing (transitional housing) facility on UMUT reservation with 10 units at location of north gravel pit

Travois Contract Signed with CHF Funding

Council Support

Pre-Construction Planning

Application

January 31, 2026

October 31, 2025 USDA IHS CHF Tribe Gates Family HUD Neo Connect Travois Native American Bank

July 31, 2026

December 31, 2026

December 31, 2027

October 31, 2025

August 31, 2025 Travois Santicola & Co N.A. Bank CHFA HUD

January 31, 2026

Funding Secured July 31, 2026

Site Plans

Feasibility Study

Location Identified

Funding Secured

Partnerships for Operations

Council Approval

Secure access to $2MM from HUD in awarded CDS request

Secure $2.5MM from SUIT for funding that was to be used for treatment center

Pre-construction

Construction

MODULAR HOUSING FACTORY

Construct modular housing factory on UMUT reservation to create jobs, generate revenue, and address housing shortage

Studies

Council Approval

Funding Secured

Facility Design Partner Agreements

Build Facility

Purchase Equipment

Written Plans

Southern Ute Housing Committee

October 31, 2025 Pinion Project Beaux Simone CHFA

October 31, 2025

July 31, 2026

October 31, 2026

Tribal Council Tribal Departments Tribal Members

October 31, 2025

August 31, 2025 CHF State of Colorado Foundation HUD SUIT IT Moguan Service Providers Tiwahe

October 31, 2025

December 31, 2025

July 31, 2026

December 31, 2025

October 31, 2025 Vederra Navajo SUIT Apache Tribal Council Tribal Members San Juan College Canadian tribes Workforce

July 31, 2026

October 31, 2026

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS

INFRASTRUCTURE

X Land

X Housing Master Plan

X WCA

X Grants

X Partners

X Aging Infrastructure

X Members Not Aware

X Inadequate Funding

LOW INCOME HOUSING TAX CREDITS

X $11MM Available

X $4.5MM Match

X Inclusion

X Ownership

X Reimbursement

X Travois

X Co. Budget Increase

X Development Fees

SUPPORTIVE HOUSING

X Land

X Pinion Experience

X Community Needs

X LIHTC Funding

AFTERCARE HOUSING

X Ute People

X Cultural Knowledge

X Spiritual Members

X Closer to Home

X Client Testimonials

X Day Labor Program

X Family

X Tribal Programs

X Counseling

X Reunification

X Tariffs

X Married to Investors

X Inadequate Funds

X Infrastructure Needs

X Planning Needs

X Staffing

X Some Infrastructure

X LIHTC

X Tariff Free Supplies

X BIA NEPA Clearance

X Update Plan

X Site Shortage

X Loss of Contractors

X Loss of Suppliers

X Funding Shortage

X Tariffs

X Increase Financials

X Funder Partnerships

X Other LIHTC Project

X New for Tribe

X Financial Literacy

X Allocation of Funds

X Annual Budgeting

X Unknown

X Compliance

X Staffing

X Lack of Capacity

X Public Transportation

X Lack of Facilities

X Staffing Shortages

X Lack of Credentials

X 3rd Party Billing

X Assisted Living Future

X Funding Sources

X Partnerships

X Uncertain Location

X Transit

X Distance for Utah

X Children Impact

X Family Impact

X Workforce Training

MODULAR HOUSING FACTORY

X Land

X Infrastructure Close

X Market for Homes

X Consultant Funding

X Workforce

X Contract Backlog

X 1-2 Yr. Operations

X 5 yrs. w/o Overhead

X $2MM Grant HUD

X $2.5MM Settlement

X Legislation

X Employment

X 3rd Party Billing

X Staff

X Workforce Training

X Joint Ventures

X Vederra

X Community Needs

X Financial Guidance

X Fabrication Training

X Truss Manufacturing

X Federal Cuts

X Opposition

X Loss of Funding

X Lack of Funding

X Operational Costs

X Council Changes

X Medicare Losses

X Medicaid Losses

X Workforce Shortage

X Capital Outlay

X Ownership?

X Changing Market

X Workforce Reliable

X Turnover

X Long Term Clients

PARTICIPANTS

Alyson Anderson Native American Bank aanderson@nabna.com

Naomi Azulai Indian Health Services naomi.azulai@ihs.gov

Payton Batliner Native American Bank pbatliner@nabna.com

Karina Branson ConverSketch karina@conversketch.com

Gwen Cantsee White Mesa gcantsee@utemountain.org

Beth Cascaddan Economic Development bcascaddan@utemountain.org

Bernadette Cuthair Planning bcuthair@utemountain.org

Elaine Demas Telluride Foundation Elaine@telluridefoundation.org

Evelyn Flamm Southwest Housing Solutions eflamm@swhousingsolutions.com

Manuel Heart Council manuel.heart@utemountain.org

DeAnne House Moguan deannehouse@utemountain.org

Archie House, Jr. Housing ahousejr@utemountain.org

Conrad Jacket Council conrad.jacket@utemountain.org

Helen Katich Gates Family Foundation hkatich@gatesfamilyfoundation.org

Carrie Kellerby KLJ Engineering carrie.kellerby@kljeng.com

Tawnie Knight Council tawnie.knight@utemountain.org

Camila Lara Colorado Health Foundation clara@coloradohealth.org

Zoe LeBeau Beauxsimone Consulting zoe@beauxsimone.com

Malcolm Lehi Council malcolm.lehi@utemountain.org

Swarvoski Little 1st Southwest Bank swarvoski.little@fswb.com

Patrick Littlebear Grants and Contracts plittlebear@utemountain.org

Joe Lopez WCA jlopez@wcaconstruction.com

Chris Lopez CHFA cslopez@chfainfo.com

James Melvin WCA jmelvin@wcaconstruction.com

Khanh Nguyen Colorado Health Foundation knguyen@coloradohealth.org

Nate Peterson Vederra Modular npeterson@vederra.com

Juanita Plentyholes Tiwahe jplentyholes@utemountain.org

Shalako Powers Region 9 EDD shak@region9edd.org

Adam Rose Travois arose@travois.com

Elizabeth Salkind Southwest Housing Solutions esalkind@swhousingsolutions.com

Marc Santicola CROPS mhsanticola@outlook.com

Ron Scott Finance rscott@utemountain.org

Kelsey Shumacher Southwest Housing Solutions kschumacher@swhousingsolutions.com>

Chris Stebner Neo Fiber chris@neoconnect.us

Miles Sturdevant WCA msturdevant@wcaconstruction.com

Contessa Tillahash White Mesa ctillahash@utemountain.org

John Trocheck Administration jtrocheck@utemountain.org

Alston Turtle Council alston.turtle@utemountain.org

Darwin Whiteman Council darwin.whiteman.jr@utemountain.org

Kelly Willis Pinion Project KWillis@pinonproject.org

PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATION

INFRASTRUCTURE/FACILITIES

USDA HUD

IHS UMUT

CHF BOR

CHFA LIHTC/Travois

Gates

SUPPORTIVE HOUSING

Tribal Council Pinion Project

Beaux Simone Tribal Departments

Enterprises Tribal Members State of Colorado

AFTERCARE

Tribal HHS

Federal Grants

Tiwahe WCA

NEW CONSTRUCTION

Travois NA Bank

Santicola & Co. 1st SW Bank

CHFA Southern Ute

HUD Housing Committee

MODULAR HOUSING

FACTORY

Vederra Tribal Council

Navajo Tribal Members

Southern Ute San Juan College

Apache Canadian Tribes

Semi-trucks

Planning Grant Writer BIA Environmental

Engineering THPO WCA

Housing

Grants & Contracts Drone Surveyors

Tribal Council IHS

Moguan CDOT Axis BIA

CHFA Engineers CCIA WDC

Travois/LIHTC NAIHC Banks

Tribal Council AAIHB/ABQ

Tribal Members Pinion Project

Tribal Directors Axis/SUIT IHS CCIA

Housing Planning Finance WCA

Grants & Contracts THPO Members Section 8 Subsidies

Allow projects to succeed, infrastructure necessary to build

Town Meetings Potlucks

Public Notices Public Events Kick-off Events

Improve living conditions for tribal members. Funding dollars make a difference. Healing a community with challenges.

Public education about disparities Tribal department collaboration

Deadlines with courts, testing

Newsletters Websites

We need your expertise

(POSSIBLE PARTNERSHIP WITH VEDERRA)

Tribal Council San Juan College

Tribal Members Canadian Tribes

Opportunity for expanding Vederra’ s market, capabilities, sales volume. Access to tariff free lumber.

GRANT SUMMARY

COLORADO HOUSE AND FINANCE INVESTMENTS

UTE MOUNTAIN UTE TRIBE

RETREAT FACILITATORS

CHRIS LOPEZ

Chris L opez is the Community Relationship Manager — Southwest Region at Colorado Housing and Finance Authority. CHFA strengthens Colorado by investing in affordable housing and community development. They offer financial resources to strengthen homeownership, affordable rental housing, and businesses. CHFA’s participating lenders and community partners help deploy financial resources statewide. Together with their partners, CHFA has invested more than $37.4 billion in Colorado’s economy. Chris has a diverse professional background that includes affordable housing, economic development and natural resources management. He is passionate about assisting rural communities and connecting them with Federal and State resources to address challenges they face related to housing, community development, extractive industries and public lands. Chris holds a Master’s degree in Natural Resources under the Community/Regional Planning Program from the University of New Mexico, and a BA in History from Lewis and Clark College. Chris has volunteered on a number of Boards and Organizations over the years and currently serves on the Energy Outreach Colorado Board of Directors.

HELEN KATICH

Helen Katich’s professional career has focused on public service and community development. She has over a decade of experience in nonprofit leadership, government service, stakeholder engagement, and federal and local government grantmaking. Before joining the Gates Family Foundation, Helen served as the Director of Federal Grants and Investment for United States Senator John Hickenlooper (CO). There, she developed a new legislative portfolio focused on driving public funding toward critical infrastructure, affordable housing, and economic development initiatives. Prior to her work for the Senator in Washington D.C., she served as his Western Colorado Regional Director, where she led and facilitated policy conversations and coalition-building across the state’s diverse rural communities. Before serving in government, Helen was the Managing Director of the Food Systems Respond & Rebuild Fund where she helped to secure and deploy rapid-response funding for Colorado’s farmers and ranchers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior, she served as the CEO of Fresh Food Connect and as a Programs Manager at Metro Caring. Born and raised in Colorado, Helen is a product of Denver Public Schools. She holds a degree in Geography from the University of ColoradoBoulder with a focus on community studies from the school’s INVST Community Leadership Program.

KARINA BRANSON

Karina is a visual partner supporting creative, collaborative processes to solve complex challenges, and share your stories to inspire action. As a graphic facilitator with a background in science communication, Karina weaves the threads between deep scientific understanding and art. Karina will use hand-drawn images and words to help the Advisory Board visualize new futures, see systems and patterns and synthesize information to better collaborate and find solutions. Karina works locally and internationally with higher education, government, non-profit and corporate groups.

SHALAKO POWERS

Shalako “Shak” Powers joined Region 9 after 15 years with Montezuma County, 3.5 years as County Administrator and 11.5 years in solid waste. His formal education is in heating, ventilation and air conditioning. He is the project manager responsible for housing, broadband and transit. Region 9 Economic Development District serves the counties of Archuleta, Dolores, La Plata, Montezuma and San Juan, and the cities and towns within those regions, as well as the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe. Our mission is to be a regional leader, working cooperatively with the private and public sectors to enhance the economic conditions in the area and improve the region’s economic prosperity. Among our many services, Region 9 EDD offers a revolving loan program for “gap” financing to assist small business retention, expansion and job creation. We also offer a microenterprise loan program for loans up to $100,000 for qualifying small businesses with five or fewer employees. In addition to our loan programs, Region 9 EDD administers the Colorado Enterprise Zone Tax Credit program, publishes the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) to assist local communities with regional economic development strategic planning and technical assistance and helps to administer different State and Federal programs.

BEVERLY SANTICOLA

Beverly Santicola is an award-winning film producer, social entrepreneur, idea generator, problem solver, program developer, project facilitator, public speaker, and grant writing consultant. Over the past ten years Santicola has focused her expertise and energy in the arenas of community development and collaborative partnership building for Native American Tribes. Working with a team of professional grant writers that have generated more than ONE BILLION in grant funding for clients and more than $150 million for the UMUT, she has been nationally recognized for social innovation and leadership excellence by the US Department of Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, as well as Encore.org as a 2010 and 2014 Purpose Prize Fellow sponsored by the Atlantic Philanthropies and John Templeton Foundation.

MARC SANTICOLA

Marc H. Santicola is a retired financial/accounting executive with over 40 years of experience in manufacturing and the energy industry. He held various Controllership and Director of Finance positions with Fortune 500 companies (Schlumberger, Cameron International, Cooper Industries, Smith International) at the corporate, divisional and plant levels working in executive leadership, project management, financial planning, systems implementation, organizational restructuring and divestiture. Marc holds a MBA degree from the University of Pittsburgh and is now working as a consultant with NeoFiber on the Tribe’s $40 million Broadband Initiative.