Rada Martin always wanted high ceilings. Her partner, Richard Leben, longed for a chef’s kitchen like those at all the restaurants he had worked at.
The couple began moving closer to building their dream home after moving in 2009 to the Saint Regis Mohawk Reservation, otherwise known as Akwesasne, where Ms. Martin was born and raised.
Mr. Lebehn, originally from Pohnpei, an island in Micronesia, got a job as a chef at the local casino. Mrs. Martin got a job in a doctor’s office. They had moved from Myrtle Beach, SC, where they met at a dance at the House of Blues in 2001. Mrs. Martin wanted a village to help grow their family.
They first rented apartments on the reservation, but those rooms were uncomfortably cramped as their four children grew up. “Once you get to that age you need your own space, considering two of the kids were 6ft tall,” said Mrs Martin, 45.
Feeling an urgency to move on to something bigger, Ms. Martin and Mr. Leben began thinking about finally becoming homeowners.
They weighed the avenues available to the indigenous peoples.
Most reservations in the United States are on land held in federal trust, but some, such as that of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, are on fee-limited land, which is not subject to county and state taxes. Some buyers of homes on federal trust and restricted-fee land can’t apply for conventional mortgages for reasons such as lenders can’t foreclose on those homes without help from Congress, a tribal attorney said.
Restrictions contribute to a home ownership gap. White households were 36 percent they are more likely to own their homes than Native Americans in New York in 2021, and 19 percent more likely nationally, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
To make homeownership possible for tribal members, the federal government offers a few options.
In 1992, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development created a Native American loan program known as Section 184. These mortgages are insured by the federal government, allowing lenders to foreclose if necessary. However, HUD allows about 200 lenders to offer these loans. According to a recent study by the Akwesasne Housing Authority, only one of those 200 lenders, 1st Tribal Lending in South Dakota, operates in New York.
It’s difficult for an out-of-state lender to get licensed in New York, said Juel Burnette, branch manager at 1st Tribal Lending in Sioux Falls, S.D. In his experience, his company has received more pushback from New York than any other. . of the other states where 1st Tribal Lending is licensed to operate. The licensing department, he said, was slow.
If tribal members can get a loan, they wait up to a year for insurance from the only title company operating in the state, said Mr. Burnette, who is registered with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in Mission, SD.
It often takes more than three years to complete the process of buying a home on a reservation in New York, said Iakowi:he’ne’ Oakes of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an association of Native tribes, including the Mohawk, and Executive Director of the North American Native Center of New York.
With reservations across the country plagued by land shortages, becoming a homeowner on a reservation depends on the availability of property, said Ms. Oakes, who lives with the Saint Regis Mohawk tribe. “Most non-homeowners on our reservation have little to no opportunity to continue the process unless they have land and absolutely no one is selling,” he said.
Fortunately, Ms. Martin said, her family still had the 20 acres of land they acquired through a treaty with the federal government.
The three-bedroom house she grew up in was torn down in 2022 because it had fallen into disrepair, but her aunt offered her a three-acre plot, for $1,000 an acre, in a neighboring field her great-grandparents had turned into fields.
The Akwesasne Housing Authority guided Ms. Martin and Mr. Lebehn to a single-family Section 502 home loan from the United States Department of Agriculture to build a home on their three acres. Commonly known as “USDA loans,” these offer low interest rates and zero down payments to low-income households in rural areas. While open to all who qualify, USDA participates in outreach programs to develop its work in tribal communities. In 2023, 17 USDA loans were borrowed by homebuyers with reservations nationwide, up from six in 2019, according to a department spokeswoman.
The couple first applied in the spring of 2020. It was the beginning of the pandemic, when workers were quarantined and offices were closed. They had to start over their papers three times before they passed, Ms Martin said.
They also sought out a manufactured home builder, which was no easy feat with supply chain shortages and shutdowns. “We searched high and low to find a reasonable price during the high prices of Covid inflation,” Ms Martin said.
They looked at dozens of options from various home agents within a three-hour radius before finding the perfect fit: a four-bedroom, three-bathroom with high ceilings to accommodate their sons’ height and a chef’s kitchen for Mr. Lebehn.
As they waited and waited for their loan, the unspeakable happened. One afternoon in late July 2022, Mr. Lebehn returned home early from the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino. He had recently moved from his chef role to a maintenance job so he could work daytime hours and spend more time with his family. Feeling sick he lay down for a nap. He died in his sleep. The cause was a heart attack. He was 47.
“We buried him in the family cemetery that was in the backyard of the future residence,” Ms. Martin said on a recent afternoon.
Ms Martin, reeling from his unexpected death, feared their dream home would never happen, especially as their loan application was now based on a single income. But the couple’s loan officer, Mary Keenan, at the Akwesasne Housing Authority heard of Mr Lebehn’s death and re-applied on Mrs Martin’s behalf.
Ms. Keenan is not authorized to speak to the media, but the housing authority’s interim executive director, Kayla Herne, said the loan officer often shows a high level of dedication to the homebuyers she works with. “If he hears something like this is going on, he’ll start a loan again,” Ms Hearne said. “Mary does it out of the goodness of her heart.”
In November 2022, Ms. Martin secured a $198,000 mortgage. Shortly thereafter, the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe Home Improvement Department awarded her a $10,000 grant to pay for the establishment of the home.
“I had already shed so many tears that I didn’t think I had any more, but I did,” she recalls. “I was so happy to know that our dreams were still coming true.”
It took another six months of digging and construction before Mrs. Martin and her four children could move into their new digs in June 2023. There’s room for everyone to have a room.
That summer, USDA representatives planted a tree in their front yard in memory of Mr. Lebehn, and Ms. Martin plans to build an outdoor grilling station to further honor his memory.
Logan Lebehn, 20, said the new home inspired him to rally his siblings, Brody Lebehn, 18, Liana Lebehn, 13, and Lolani Lebehn, 11, to process their father’s death and help their mother. “We really needed to get into that house so we could have that family dynamic where we all work together,” she said. “We noticed that we need to be here more for each other.”
One day earlier this year, Ms. Martin and her children shared stories about the new house and Mr. Lebehn as they sat in the living room. A 24-by-30-inch photo of Mr. Lebehn sits in a frame on a table.
The kitchen has white cabinets and a large island. “We are still unpacking. I heard it takes years to really unpack,” Ms Martin said. “I’m so grateful to be here every day.”