James Jensen:             Welcome to everyone. I am James Jensen, a contractor supporting Western Area Power Administration in the Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs tribal webinar series. I'm filling in for Randy Manion as today's webinar chair. Today's webinar, titled Energy Opportunities in Tribal Housing, is the third webinar in the 2018 DOE Tribal Energy webinar series. Let's go over some event details.

                                    Today's webinar is being recorded and will be made available on DOE's Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs website, along with copies of today's Power Point presentations. These presentations will be available in about one week. Everyone will receive a post-webinar e-mail with the link to the page where the slides and recording will be located. Because we are recording this webinar, all phones have been muted for this purpose. We will answer your written questions at the end of all the presentations.

                                    However, you can submit a question at any time by clicking on the "Question" button located in the control box on your screen and type in your question. We will try to keep this webinar to no longer than two hours. Let's get started with opening remarks from Tweedie Doe. Tweedie is a project officer in the Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs duty station in Golden, Colorado. Tweedie is responsible for overseeing financial systems awards.

                                    She has worked in the energy field for nearly 12 years and has been with the Department of Energy for the past 8 and a half years. She holds a Bachelor of Arts here in political science from the University of Washington, and a master's in international relations from the University of Denver. Tweedie, the virtual floor is now yours.

Tweedie Doe:              Thank you, James and hello everyone. I join James in welcoming you to the third webinar of the 2018 series. This webinar series is sponsored by two US Department of Energy organizations – the Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs and the Western Area Power Administration. The Office of Indian Energy Direct fosters coordination, implements energy planning, education, management, and programs, that assist tribes with energy development, capacity building, energy infrastructure, energy costs, and electrification of Indian lands and homes. To provide this assistance, our deployment program works within the Department of Energy across government agencies, and with Indian tribes and organizations to help Indian tribes and Alaska native villages overcome the barriers to energy development.

                                    Our deployment program is composed of a three-pronged approach consisting of financial assistance, technical assistance and education, and capacity building. This tribal energy webinar series is just one example of our education and capacity building efforts. This webinar series' part of the Office of Indian Energy's effort to support fiscally responsible energy business and economic development decision making and information sharing among tribes. It's intended to provided attendees with information on tools and resources to development and implement tribal energy plans, programs, and projects, highlight tribal energy case studies, and identify business strategies tribes can use to expand their energy options and develop sustainable local economies. Today's webinar will focus on energy opportunities in tribal housing.

                                    Attendees will learn about programs and resources that can assist tribes that are interested in improving the energy efficiency and sustainability of tribal housing. In addition to presentations from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Bonneville Power Administration and National Renewable Energy Laboratory, we will have two tribal case studies that share examples of successful efforts to integrate energy improvements into new tribal housing. These case studies will hopefully provide inspiration and insight to others in Indian country who are considering similar projects. We hope this webinar series is useful and we welcome your feedback. Please, let us know if there are ways we can make this series better for you.

                                    With that, I will now turn the virtual floor back over to James.

James Jensen:             Thank you, Tweedie. Today, we have five speakers. I will introduce them all now. Our first speaker is Sarah Olson. Ms. Olson is a grants management specialist for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Southwest Office of Native American Programs.

                                    Sarah is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Duluth. She has a master's degree in business administration. She has worked on various projects related to renewable energy and the energy efficiency in Indian country including sustainable construction in Indian country, the president's action plan for climate change in Indian country, radon indoor air quality, and Brownfield, as well as other environmental review related topics, webinars, regional and national trainings. Following Sarah, we will hear from Carrie Nelson. Ms. Nelson is the program manager for the low-income energy efficiency grant program at the Bonneville Power Administration.

                                    She began her career at BPA 10 years ago as the residential planner for energy efficiency, and then, after a few years, transitioned over to become the program manager for the Low-Income Energy Efficiency and Tribal Grant Program. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Oregon, and a Master of Science degree from the New School University in New York. Following Carrie, we will have a presentation from Alexandra Terry. Ms. Terry has worked for tribes for more than two decades, mainly in Southern Arizona, in many capacities. Alexandra came to Tohono O'odham Ki:Ki Housing Association in September of 2011, where her main focus is leveraging of resources for the tribal housing entity. For seven years, Ms. Terry has been part of the leadership team transforming the organization including downsizing internal employees and increasing efficiency to contracting projects, thus creating hundreds of local jobs, developing infrastructure, and fulfilling the mission to create affordable housing.

                                    Leveraging resources and moving away from cash and carry operation has procured more than three times the annual operating capital for projects and fully re-branded the local housing authority, which is on target to spend $19 million in projects for 2018, representing a four-fold increase in funding. Ms. Terry graduated in 2002 with a BA in political economy and development from Brown University and an MBA in 2008 from the University of Arizona. Following Alexandra, we will hear from Retha Leno. Ms. Leno is an enrolled member of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, has served as the executive director for the Akwesasne Housing Authority – also short for AHA – for the past 14 years, having successfully filled low to high profile positions within the AHA since 1994. Over the course of her 24-year Indian housing career, Mrs. Leno began her tenure as director, with a shift from the standard construction method development to a progressive consciousness in renewable energy opportunities and sustainability in construction practices within all of the AHA's projects.

                                    Currently, Mrs. Leno is responsible for management of 200 mutual help housing units and 21 low-rent housing units for the elderly, along with the administration of several social and energy efficiency programs and services within the housing association. This spring, the AHA will construct its first permanent support of housing projects with the addition of 18 units of affordable housing for homeless Native American veterans, and its population's frail, elderly, and/or disabled tribal members. The AHA is also building the tribe its first community scaled photovoltaic generation plant that will enable the AHA's Sunrise Acres' facility and the Akwesasne Boy's and Girl's Club to move towards becoming the territory's first net zero facility and will offer solar incentives to its low to moderate income families. Our final speaker today is Mister Sean Esterly.

                                    Mister Esterly is a project manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. Sean assists with the coordination of the Office of Indian Energy's technical assistance program where he utilizes the resources and tools available through NREL and other partners to respond to energy questions and challenges confronting tribes. Sean's other work areas have focused on a variety of topics, including implementing energy solutions for rural area, clean energy policy and regulation, lower emission development strategies, micro and mini grid policies and regulations, and international clean energy policy analysis. Sean has worked with Native American tribes as well as local state and national governments to develop clean energy policies and programs and to support energy markets. He has worked extensively in Alaska, Africa, and small islands of _____ nations allowing him the opportunity to experience a multitude of different energy contexts.

                                    Sean holds a master's degree in environmental management and policy from the University of Denver, and a bachelor's degree in environmental studies and political science from Eckerd College. So, with that, I've introduced all five of our speakers for today, and I will pull up Ms. Olson's presentation and we'll get started with that. Ms. Olson, the presentation should be ready at your convenience.

Sarah Olson:              Oh, thank you. It looks perfect. Thank you, James. Thank you everyone or attending today. Again, my name is Sarah Olson.

                                    I'm with the Office of Native American Programs – the Southwest Office. Next slide. My presentation today is just gonna give an overview of Indian Housing Block Grant and Indian Community Development Block Grant – a couple of our more major programs, and then, give some high-level discussion regarding some case studies through HUD Sustainable Construction in Indian Country initiative. And also, just a reminder that it's HUD policy that we strongly encourage energy efficiency in funded projects, and I think that's just a great win for everyone. The next slide talks more specifically about Indian Housing Block Grant, or IHBG as you might hear it.

                                    It's a formula-based grant. Most federally recognized tribes receive it. It comes from the Native American Housing And Self-Determination Act, and you can find the regulations for Indian Housing Block Grant under 24 CFR 1000. We have a Program Guidance 2010 03 that kind of overviews what, for the most part, are eligible activities and administrative expenses under the program. It's mostly used to modernize and operate 1937 Act Housing.

                                    It's also used for development, acquisition, rehab, and energy efficiency improvements and construction. Next slide. And it can also be used for hiring grant writers for affordable housing applications and other activity we call a "Model Activity". These are things that might not be housing specifically, but are necessary and supportive of affordable housing in Indian Country, such as making sure we have adequate housing warehouses and also saves for supplies and staff, construction of college housing, so people have affordable housing for college in Denver, which, many times, is lacking in Indian Country. Construction and rehab of community centers that aren't dedicated to a certain housing development – so, these are ones that are more of a community-wide focus of beneficiaries, and therefore, the cost would be prorated by HGB covering some portion of the proration and other funds for the rest.

                                    And the next slide talks about program income, and basically, there's a variation or exemption from the 2CF 200 requirements for program income. And this makes it so tribes don't have to spend that funding first. They can use it for housing related activities that help with any infrastructure, business, or program activity community and economic development that's determined by the tribe in the Indian area that meets one of the following conditions – under number two – would either help the tribe or its tribally designated housing entity; reduce cost of construction in Indian Country for Indian housing; or, would make housing more affordable, energy efficient or accessible or otherwise practicable, and would otherwise advantage the purposes of the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act.

                                    And on the next slide, please, I would also further the discussion of what program income can be used for under this exemption from 2CF 200.307, which are the overarching administrative requirements for federal grants. And this talks also about housing related community development and how that can be accomplished through a program income drive from Indian Housing Block Grant. And this also talks about community facilities, business, or activities and infrastructure that are older, owned by the tribe or the housing entity, and is necessary for the provision of housing in Indian area and would otherwise help the tribe or its TDHE – Tribally Designated Housing Energy – reduce the cost of construction in the area. Again, would otherwise make housing more affordable, energy efficient, accessible, or practicable, and advances the purposes of NAHASDA. And it doesn't include any activities conducted by the tribe under Indian Gaming. The next slide, please.

                                    Under 1000.122, NAHASDA grants can be used as non-federal matched or any other federal or state program that you're pursuing. That's important to know that there's no prohibition under NAHASDA that you'd – or in the Indian Housing Block Grant regulations – that would change the federal status when you're using these funds as leverage or match, rather, to other affordable housing activities. I thought that was important to note. And the next slide, please. This next slide talks about Indian Community Development Block Grant, or ICDBG, and that comes from the Housing and Community Development Act statute, and you'll find those regulations under 24CFR 1003.

                                    And 1003.200 to 209 talk about some of the eligible types of projects that you might pursue with Indian Community Development Block Grant, and that could be acquisition of real property for a public purpose – like, a community center or a health clinic; public facilities, improvements, or rehabilitation to make those facilities that are already in place more functional; and construction equipment for solid waste facilities or fire suppression systems. Also, housing rehabilitation, which can include energy efficiency and also water efficiency improvement to conserve an excess of energy and water efficiency. It's very important. The next slide – you can use Indian Community Development Block Grant to construct new housing if you have a bona fide community development organization on record with HUD. And so, if you don't know if you already have one, you might consider calling our office – the grants management – and seeing if we have one our record, and if not, working with our office to see how you can get such an entity in place and on record with HUD.

                                    You could use the funds for _____ housing construction. Also, Indian Community Development Block Grant has the same regulatory ability that IHBG does with regard to payment of non-federal shared. So, basically, it's helping you to use these funds, even though they're federal, to be used as a non-federal match. So, that's an important thing to remember about this grant that I don't think many federal grants have. And also, this Indian Community Development Block Grant can be used for public service activities and that can include energy conservation measures, and even training to persons also doing energy efficiency testing, regardless of if there's an in-housing rehab activity that goes on after that.

                                    So, this is basically something that could be opened up as a public program to do that kind of testing in homes in the area. On the next slide, please – also, again, with ICDBG, you can use a current grant that you have – or a portion of it – to prepare documents for submission to receive funds under the Indian Community Development Block Grant. And you can also use a portion of it to prepare applications for other federal programs that the tribe would determine is necessary and appropriate to achieve community development objectives of the tribe. And the next slide, please. One of the initiatives that HUD had and still has information available on the HUD.gov website is with regard to sustainable construction in Indian Country.

                                    There's several cases across the nation and Saint Regis Mohawk will speak later today. I know they were one of the case studies. And it also has a final report about just the lessons learned and still barriers yet that there might be. There's a final report that someone can read through to see how beneficial – what kind of solutions, what kind of problems came about as a result of this initiative. And they also listed the home page that you can click on and go in to see both the final initiative, and you can also see the various case studies and other related information.

                                    And the next slide, please – on this slide, I wanted to – this slide and a few after it, are just sort of some overarching comments, I guess, regarding some case studies that have been going on in Indian Country. And this one was just the Mississippi Band of Choctaw restructured insulated panels and geothermals – heating/cooling – also having their SIP plan structured – insulated panel plant there locally. They helped achieve energy efficiency in their housing. And next slide, please. And on the next slide, this is the Muskogee Creek – another structure of insulated panel.

                                    You can see, with the insulated roof and other features of the housing, making it sustainable for that area, given the climate and sustainability needs in that area. The next slide – just comments about this one. This is an 8-plex for the Cocopah Indian Housing Tribe through their tribally designated entity – their Cocopah Indian Housing and Development Organization. And they took an existing 8-plex and were able to put energy efficiency improvements in there to make the post-occupancy much more affordable and much more comfortable for the occupants.

                                    And then, the next slide, I have – we don't have a finish product of this particular slide, of this particular project, but it was a 25-unit subdivision that was created or re-created to make it more energy efficient, including all underground utilities, permeable pavement, and solar street lighting. I just wanted to highlight that very briefly. And, on the next slide, I just wanted to talk again about how HUD strongly encourages energy and water efficiency in its funded projects. We've been involved at the HUD _____ level with other partners like EPA and Department of Energy for several years, having summit and greener tribal homes workshops throughout the nation. We've been a partner with the EPA for national workgroup for culturally relevant building codes and toolkit development.

                                    Also, looking at post-occupancy utility cost and occupant health with the EPA and other partners, making sure that even as we make homes more energy efficient, that we're looking at what's going on in the building as it operates, 'cause sometimes, as you tighten the building envelope, another issue with like mold production, air, and asthmatic triggers and such can develop. Or, even if you do have your radon controlled, you might need to have active ones. Also, considering more – also, to tell you more about work that's been done with sustainable construction in Indian Country, including an annual event with university partners, and also, that HUD has a process for technical assistance requests, and if you need technical assistance  specific to your tribe, you can submit a request for that, and we'll help to get that in process. And right now, we've had some requests for greener tribal construction, and also, working with climate change and coastal issues. And so, we've been working on planning with one of our partners in _____ office and the Seattle one so that we can, hopefully this summer, have a couple of those tribal construction workshops that are meaningful, given climate extremes of both regions.

                                    And it's been given a particular interest that might be from one region versus another. So, we're accommodating all of that interest, including looking at Brownfield as another potential resource in Indian Country. And then, on the next slide, just wanted to think, as I part with my part of the discussion, making sure that we think about ways to plan for energy efficiency, extreme weather climate. We have some tribes that have hurricane grade roofing and housing standards because of straight line winds and microbursts that are 130 miles an hour. Also, making sure we include culturally relevant housing design to help with the sustainability of the community, and again, continue with the capacity building and technical assistance requests, and that long-term federal tribe relationship, making sure that's as efficient as possible, and making sure you reach out to your ONAP Grant Management Specialist for continued discussion.

                                    And the next slide is just a "Thank you." That's all I have for today.

James Jensen:             Well, thank you, Sarah. That was excellent. Our next speaker will be Carrie Nelson. Carrie, stand by while I get up your presentation.

Carrie Nelson:            Okay. Thank you for inviting me to speak on this webinar, and thank you, everyone on the phone, for your interest in this topic. Again, my name is Carrie Nelson. I am with the Bonneville Power Administration. I work in our energy efficiency department.

                                    Next slide. So, I'm gonna briefly go over a couple of slides just to give you an idea of our organization, since it's a little bit unique. We are a non-profit federal marketing administration. We are in the Pacific Northwest. This is a picture of our headquarters in Portland, Oregon.

                                    We are a part of the US Department of Energy, but one difference is that we are non-appropriated. We are funded through the wholesale of electric power. Next slide. We provide about one-third of the electric power in the Northwest, and we have around 142 utility customers, and I will show you a map of our region and a few slides to give you an idea of what sort of territory that covers. We operate three-quarters of the high-voltage transmission system, and, in slide five – the next slide – this will give you an idea of our territory.

                                    The bold outline is basically where our public utility territory covers. That is not a solid cover, so, that's relevant with our tribal program because I can only do our grant program in our public utility territory, and so, not all the tribes in this region qualify for our program. But, as you see, this shows where most of our power come from, which is our hydro dam, and the Columbia River goes right through the center of our territory, which also provides most of our power. Next slide. So, I always show a picture of the Columbia River when I present on this topic, because it is such an important part to our region.

                                    This is the picture taken – for those of you that aren't in our area – it's about an hour outside of Portland. It is very beautiful. Many of our hydro dams are on this river, but it's also very relevant to this discussion, because so many tribes – this holds a lot of value to many of our tribes in our region, both historically, and today. Next slide. I want to talk a little bit just about our legislative history, because this sort of provides a backbone for my program, which is Public Purpose Grant Program.

                                    In 1980, the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act was put into place, and that encourages the BPA – strongly encourages the BPA – to do conservation and renewables to make sure we serve our residential and our small farm customers, and to protect fish and wildlife. And through this act and the plans that came out of this act, it also held BPA accountable to make sure that we adequately serve all of our customers. And that is what inspired us to start our low-income grant program to ensure equity when we are providing energy efficiency services. Next slide, please. In 1999, we received feedback from the public, a concern that we were not including the tribes in an equitable way, and so, we pulled part of the funding for this grant program aside to distribute directly to tribes – and I will go into that a little bit more specifically in a few slides when I talk about the overall grant program.

                                    Next slide, please. And this is just to give you an idea of the tribes in our area. So, this is our Washington tribe. This is where most of our tribes are in our region. Next slide is Idaho, and then, the next slide is Oregon, and the final slide is Montana. Our territory only goes to the west part of Montana, so Blackfeet and Flathead are within the BPA territory.

                                    Next slide, please. Now, I'll get into what we're here to talk about. So, we have a low-income energy efficiency grant program. It started out as $5 million; it slowly increased slightly every year. And out of this low-income grant program is where we pulled out the Tribal Set Aside grant program.

                                    Originally, this grant program was only for weatherization, but we have expanded it to be more of an energy efficiency grant program, and it covers appliances and HVAC systems and lighting, as well – and I will go more into that. Most of this funding is distributed to the state agencies, and the state agencies distribute that to the county agencies or the community action agencies who historically have always managed the Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program, and that served low-income households and weatherizes their homes. And I'll go into a little bit more detail about that. I know that some people are probably very familiar with that and some people aren't. But, essentially, our grants follow the Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program to the T, and that was just to simplify things so that if people wanted to implement our program, they already knew the rules and regulations that was established by the Department of Energy.

                                    And with that $4.5 million funding that goes to the state, 3 percent of that is also required to go to our tribal members, and that is separate from the Tribal Set Aside Program that I'll talk about today. Next slide, please. So, the benefits of this Tribal Set Aside Program is – the most important thing, I think, is that it's a government to government partnership. The funding doesn't have to be funneled through the state agencies; it goes directly to the tribe. And that allows for the tribe to sort of design their own program.

                                    Our grants have a lot of flexibility, and they can cater it to the needs of their members, and also, the capacity of their organization and how much staffing they have available to allocate to this program. We have also found that tribal members are much more likely to accept a program that's being offered to the tribe that the tribe has already vetted when they are encouraged to apply for this program. So, that's another way this has been able to streamline these services. And then, another component to our program is it offers a certain percentage to be spent on training. Again, originally this program was for weatherization and sort of the backbone of this program was weatherization, and the Department of Energy has training centers across the nation that are very good for training staff to weatherize homes.

                                    We pay for that funding or other funding such as HVAC – which is heating and ventilation – for tribal members who are doing this program if they want to do all of that work in house and have some of their staff members gain those skills. Next slide, please. And this is where I mentioned earlier. Our program – the grant language in our program essentially says that we follow the Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program. We do allow a little bit of flexibility on top of their program, but, if you don't want to utilize that flexibility and you just want to know that you're following the Department of Energy's program, it's just an optional part.

                                    But, we do allow higher flexibilities for health and safety. It was mentioned, actually, in the previous presentation as well. We are well aware – and so is the DOE – about the ventilation complications that come along with tightening up a home. And we run into mold and mildew and asthma problems a lot with our program, and so, we offer a slightly higher percentage of dollars to be spent on that, as well as related repairs to the house that would help protect the integrity of weatherize measures – a weatherization measure being, for example, attic insulation. It gets wet because of the part of the roof that's leaking, then that would compromise that.

                                    So, we can cover those sort of expenses. And then, we also have always had a part for education kits for the homeowner – either a box of a light bulb or a thermometer – things that they can put in the house so they can be more aware of their energy consumption. And lately, that has, I've noticed been expanded also to Healthy Homes and some of the ways that you can keep the indoor environment of your house heathier. Some of our tribes have taken that funding to use towards that as well. And since that is related to tighten of the house, that's an eligible expense on our grants as well.

                                    Also, different from the Department of Energy's weatherization program, we don't have a requirement for how old the dwelling is, and they can come back as many times as necessary to that building. There's not a time lapse requirement. And we also don't have a cap on the amount of funding that's allowed to be spent on each individual home. We leave that up to the tribe to decide how they want to distribute the funding. Sometimes, with their own priority list, they might want to spend a lot of funding on an elder person's home that has no other options, where other tribes might choose to just do a little bit of work on everybody's home. We leave that up to the tribe.

                                    Next slide, please. So, one thing that has been really nice about this program is the level that you can participate in as a tribe. First, let me back up and say that we do outreach to all the tribes that are eligible for our program – the BPA territory – and we do that – we start out with e-mail and a letter. And then, we follow-up with phone calls, and then usually, at that point, we have a handful of tribes that have reached out to us that are interested, and then we decide to meet in person, because it's just so much more effective to meet in person. The program's really complicated, but there's so many routes that you can uptake our program, that it's good to kind of sit down and brainstorm with the tribe before they fill out the application to see what exactly they should aim for, especially in their first year of participating in our program.

                                    We have some tribes that have participated every year, and other tribes that are new every year. So, the size of our grants per tribe range from 2,000 to 100,000, and again, that depends on what they choose to apply for and how they choose to participate. We have, in the past, done just individual training grants. We don't do those as much anymore, but we still do, at times, where tribes are interested in getting their members certified to be weatherization crew members. And there are lots of different levels of certification through the Department of Energy's program, and we have a training center – we have a couple of training centers in the Northwest.

                                    I work frequently with the Washington Bellingham Center, because we have so many tribes up there. And you can get certified for different aspects of the weatherization audits and inspections and work that's done in the home, and so, some tribes have grown their crew with just BPA grants to do that training. And what I really like about that as well is that when you're a certified weatherization auditor, whether you're working for the tribe or not, you have that skill forever, and you have to maintain your certification. But, getting that foundation is a very employable skill these days. So, that's what I like about that part of our program.

                                    We also have, at times, just bought equipment for tribes. The Yakama Nation is a good example of this. We first started out just buying them their blower door equipment, which is the weatherization testing equipment, and other equipment related to weatherization. They have their own crew, but it's a lot of money to get all of the equipment to do all the houses that you have to do and have it on site and find a place to store it and all of that. So, we've helped them slowly gain that, which has allowed them to have their full – all their weatherization in house. _____ helped out with that.

                                    And then, some tribes take all of this. They do the training, they do the equipment, and they manage their weatherization programs in house with their entire crew. So, we cover the cost of their weatherization equipment, each individual house, the labor to the staff members while they're doing the weatherization, the hourly labor costs, the transportation costs – which can be high when you're traveling into rural areas. And then, on top of that, when we expanded beyond weatherization, we expanded to energy efficiency technologies. We have measured that can occur outside this weatherization audit.

                                    So, for those of you not familiar with weatherization – especially through the DOE program – it is an audit inspection, and it's a whole test of that specific house to see what that house qualifies for for cost effective weatherization measures. And so, we do follow that with our grants, but outside of that, we allow some – what we call "Standalone measures" that, through our own technical forum, we've determined to be cost effective in our region as standalone measures. And those are ductless heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, LED lighting, and appliances. And so, for those, you can put that into a house without doing a full weatherization audit or an energy audit of the house, and that has allowed for many tribes to try out our program and to jump start our program with just that. Specifically lighting and appliances – they can receive a grant and they can put in a bulk order into an appliance store, and usually, they will deliver it and pull out the previous appliance and take it out.

                                    And so, the tribe has been able to participate in our program, get an idea of what it's like, learn how to qualify their homes for the low-income aspect of it, and it gives them a taste – it's a great thing for the tribal members, but it's not a full-blown weatherization program yet. Sort of allows them to dip their toes in the water. Next slide, please. And then, I sort of touched onto this in these other slides, but there's different ways, specifically with the weatherization, that a tribe can participate in our program. And, like I said, some tribes do it all in house.

                                    They do the outreach. They do the low-income qualifications. They do the actual work, and the whole grant is managed in house. And those are larger grants, and it's usually with tribes that have participated in our program more than once. The tribe can also collaborate with our State Community Action Agencies.

                                    Now, those are the agencies that I talked about earlier that receive funding from the state for the DOE Weatherization Assistance Program, so they already know how to do the program. They already have their certified staff or the contractors that they work with. So, the tribe still receives the grant directly, but they hire their Community Action Agency as sort of sub-contractor to do the work. But they can still do the outreach and the qualifications and all of that and the marketing for the program.

                                    And then, the next level to that or sort of similar is the tribes can work with other tribes for the weatherization – specifically the auditing – since that is a training that is hard to maintain, and it takes some effort. Not all of our tribes can do the certified auditor, but some of our tribes that have one – their auditor will travel over to another tribe and do the energy audit, the weatherization audit for that tribe, and the inspections, but the tribe still lets their crew do the work. But again, it'll be inspected to make sure it's up to the standards that we need. Next slide, please. Finally, the other thing our program offers besides paying for trainings that the tribe requests, we host two trainings a year.

                                    One of the trainings is designed for the program managers and one is designed for the technical crews that are in the house doing the weatherization training. This is a picture at the Building Performance Center up in Bellingham. This is the tribes that we had on contract at the time – so, it's tribes that have a current grant with BPA. These were the program managers. And we come and we meet for two days.

                                    It allows me to hear how the program's going. I receive feedback about the program. We go through the training center, which has a lot of simulation houses. So, you can go in. They get to see the work that's done in these houses, which I think is really important for the program managers, 'cause you kind of get into the technical weeds real fast, even if you're just managing the program from the desk.

                                    You need to know about the stuff and the work that's being done on the tribal houses, and also, that helps that the community members understand what's gonna happen to their house when these crews come in and do this work. 'Cause a lot of times, you can't tell until you see your utility bill that anything's been done. So, the other thing I like about these workshops is that usually, I walk away and I make a small improvement to our program. I receive feedback about what it's like to qualify low-income households for tribes and differences that I should be aware of. I also often hear about other funding sources that possibly could be leveraged with ours, but there's a few little kinks in it that make it a barrier.

                                    And then, I'm also able to tell tribes about things that I've learned about in the field where they might be able to apply for other grants to patch up holes that my program doesn't cover. Next slide, please. And then, the other workshop we do is the technical workshop for the folks that are in the field/in the houses doing the work. This is a picture at Yakama. Yakama has hosted the last few years since they do have a full certified crew.

                                    The man in the front is a certified trainer for the Department of Energy Weatherization Office at the Building Performance Center. So, he comes out. He does an in-class training for a few hours, but then, we go out to a home that's already been qualified by Yakama for the BPA program, and Yakama weatherizes the home with their crew, but they mentor these guys that are kind of just up and coming crews for the tribes that are participating in our program. And usually, the installers' the ones that do the kind of construction work for the weatherization in there for their tribe. And so, we work at a house for three days and then, at the end of it, these guys have received amazing education, and Yakama has a house done, so they don't lose time on that front.

                                    And the next page is also just the picture of the whole crew that showed up for that training on slide 20. That's, again, at Yakama. It was like 150 degrees that day. It wasn't that hot, but it was a hot day. And then, the final – second to final slide – this is a picture of a couple of our tribal members that went through the whole entire certification and got their auditor certification for weatherizing homes, which again, I consider a pretty good employable skill these days, since it's such a popular – energy efficiency has grown to be so popular.

                                    Next slide, please. And this is a picture of a man from the Quileute Housing Authority who did a lighting program with our utility. He was a participant in the grant program, and the grant program paid for part of it, but we also connected him with the local BPA utility who was also doing a lighting program. So, he was able to leverage some more funding to do some more work. Okay.

                                    Last slide. This I just sort of a summary of what I think works well. Again, I think visiting with the tribes in person has really helped, because tribes have so many offerings and funding sources and grant programs out there, and so, it's good to just kind of sit down and talk in person and see if this is a right fit. And it kind of designed the program for it to sit right with the tribe. I think directly funding a tribe is very important.

                                    I think aligning our grants with DOE has been great, because DOE has such a great program, a well-established program that does good work, and I feel good about sending certified staff into homes of low-income houses specifically, knowing that they're not going to screw up the home. I think that helping tribes connect with each other and to learn about each other's programs and how they're able to make our funding work has been very helpful and also to connect in with a Community Action Agency if they need help with the weatherization aspect of it. The workshops have been great. Our next workshop we're even expanding a little bit more, because I just – I realize that there's so many other energy programs going on out there, that we had a discussion with our tribal members, and for our next workshop, we're bringing in folks from non-profits and other federal funding agencies and renewable agencies since I don't cover that, and we're all gonna present to the tribes. And half of it will be us presenting about our program options and then the other half will be the tribes giving us feedback on how we can make our programs more implementable from a leveraging standpoint, and just from a program implementation standpoint.

                                    So, that's coming up next month, and I'm excited to try that out. We haven't done that yet. And then, lastly, we've just kept our reporting very simple. The tribes keep great paperwork in house that [Inaudible] – what they actually report _____ to me, is very simple, and I think that helps with just keeping the program simple overall. And that is all I have.

James Jensen:             Well, thank you, Carrie, and what a wonderful program you have. And I appreciate you making the time to present it today. Alexandra, you are up next. Let me bring up your slides. All right, Alex.

                                    You're ready. I think you might be muted. Alex, are you there?

Alexandra Terry:        Oh, gosh. I'm sorry. I was on mute. I was talking. Yes.

                                    [Laughter]

James Jensen:             All right. We hear you now. Thank you.

Alexandra Terry:        Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Alexandra, and I'm the former assistant executive director for Tohono O'odham Ki:Ki Housing Association. I currently am a consultant now for a chunk of that, as well as a couple of other entities through Desert Diamond Development, and I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you today. Slide.

                                    Healthy financial budgeting – and especially saving energy – often begins with saving resources and funding. Sometimes, it's difficult for tribes to see the price tags – what it costs – to implement some of these energy saving developments, but if the investments are made up front, it's easy to save the funding over time. If you could push down all of – I'm sorry. My slide is all – yes. The little interactive.

                                    So, a well-rounded portfolio [Break in audio] loans, grants, investments, stocks and real estate – it's not necessarily top heavy in one area. It's well diversified. Matching resources in kind, such as land value to staff time, can also save in up-front cost to where you don't necessarily have to put a lot of money up front. Also, you can save money though phasing projects or building out a plan for knowing what you need now. Sometimes, it's best if you put in all the infrastructure or site plan up front.

                                    So, it's good to know how much you can afford and how much you know that needs to be budgeted right away for the phase that you're in. In a bear market, when resources become limited, we often look to partnerships to share the expenses for projects. And who can also benefit from our projects is many other agencies that we partner with such as Indian Health Service, EPA, and we're starting to work with USDA, also. There's a lot of different incentives and sometimes subsidies involved. So, it's good to know.

                                    And especially other partners – federal partners – they have a lot of leave. So, it's good to check into your network. Grant partnerships such as universities or agencies, staffing in kind, can also be big contributors to matching. Did you push all of the – I think there was one more thing on there. We can go to – there we go.

                                    The drawbacks or strings attached conforming to the needs of our partners sometimes. It's not always ideal to partner, but it's good to look into. You don't want to over conform to certain deals that may not be advantageous for you or your tribe. And often, of course, these leveraging opportunities comes with a lot of strings attached, but as long as you can meet those needs for everybody, it becomes a win/win. Slide.

                                    So, I'll start with a case study of our organization, the Tohono O'odham Ki:Ki Housing Association. We're located in Southern Arizona, but we do encompass three counties. We are the second largest land-based tribe in the state of Connecticut, including 11 districts. We're operating now more than 160 rental and I think we're up to almost 500 home ownership units coming online before the end of this year. Our annual IHGB allocation is about $4.5 million, but our annual project and construction operating budget, just since 2012 – it's become $19 million.

                                    Animation. So, how did we do that – going from an annual IHGB allocation to doing projects that are nearly $20 million annually? If you could push all the animations, that would be great, please. In 2012, TOKA had a number of stagnant projects on the books. They were very concerned, because these projects – it was very top heavy as far as the ultimate, overall cost of these projects.

                                    Impending federal legislation threatened to reduce IHGB allocations for several tribes that had large surpluses. So, since 2011, we worked very hard to complete these projects. I think, in the past, our predecessors had not completed these projects because, quite frankly, they didn't have the resources and the dollars to do so. So, the tasks became overwhelming, and then they piled up. If you've got 10 or 11 large projects on the book with price tags well over $5 million to $10 million each one and you only have a certain budget, the task obviously becomes daunting.

                                    So, how do we go about looking at those projects and maybe scaling them down? We don't want to cut off the number of homes that we serve, but we still want to save energy and resources, and we ultimately have to save dollars. So, how do we do that? Further, we were challenged by the remoteness and vastness of our desert land-based reservation which is about – it's almost 2.8 million acres. It's the second largest land base. Slide.

                                    The immediate focus became having best utilized our dollars to touch as many projects and households as possible in the most effective and efficient manner. So, that became, for us, really an energy saving endeavor. So, some of our challenges that we had were home sites, familial land sites, land designation, and district authority, appraisal disparity. I don't know if anybody else has had these issues, especially in Indian Country, when they come up and they don't necessarily have ownership of the land, because the tribe owns the land. It's hard to qualify for these loans that are required through the HUD 184 or other entities that require the loans.

                                    We worked hard with USDA and also with the EPA to help us kind of overcome these challenges to getting federal guaranteed loans. And we also have a very large stock of traditional homes versus our modern home values. So, how do we go in and update these homes that are traditional, and they may not have running water, they may not have electricity in some cases? How do we go in and help these homes to become more energy efficient or to weatherize these homes, essentially? So, there were a lot of challenges. Slide.

                                    Infrastructure was a huge challenge, of course. Slide. So, TOKA's energy – sorry. TOKA's energy saving and development approach considerations – of course, the infrastructure and how much things cost; opportunities to partner for cost sharing and the impact of resources such as if we had $1 million, we can essentially get 14 new construction homes for families, because we know we have a partial 20 percent subsidy from this partnering agency; also, innovation considerations – solar and other energy efficiencies; senior friendly accommodations; metal framing and studs to reduce termites. Often times, you really have to look at these considerations and say, "Yes, solar and other energy efficiencies do cost more. Metal framing – of course, it costs almost $10,000.00 more per unit, but ultimately, over time, we will save those dollars."  Slide.

                                    So, here is an example of our new solar streetlights in South Komelic, Baboquivari district. We estimate that we will begin to see this project pay off in about five years. For the investment that we initially put down to purchase these solar streetlights – besides the arguments, of course, that they're environmentally friendly, that they help to add to the overall enhancement for what we were going to save for future generations – especially when you're looking at the bottom line and the bottom dollar – what we put into this project, we hope to get it back – so, it'd start getting those resources back within the next five years. Slide. All animations, please.

                                    So, a well-balanced portfolio – it becomes with well-leveraging. Over-extended portfolios – you're looking at probably – if you're at more than 55 percent loan, you should probably be looking to put into other investments to diversify. I think in 2011, TOKA was very [Break in audio] cash and carry. We had resources in the bank, but we really had no loans. We have no partnerships in place, and we were getting no grants.

                                    But, on the flip side of that, we really weren't getting projects done, and we had a very dissatisfied constituency. Slide. So, then and now. This is for last year's. We were at almost $18 million, but we have about 5 to 6 sources now that we are very mixed with our funding.

                                    We've got tax credit projects. We've got competitive HUD grants. We have some smaller foundation _____ grants as well as state grants, and probably, one of our smallest portions now is our IHGB. So, we really are becoming more self-sustaining. We are getting more homeowners into our homes.

                                    We had probably over 300 to 500 people on our waiting list, and then, people just simply gave up waiting for homes. So, now, I think our portfolio is far more leveraged and funded. We're able to do more projects. Of course, there are a lot of strings attached – especially if you're working with a _____ project within the state. Besides that it's extremely competitive, there's a lot of compliance and monitoring that goes into that.

                                    And that doesn't always work well, especially within a traditional tribal community. But, we kind of look at the flip side. We've got to take what we can get. So, we work hard to be in compliance and make sure that our obligations are taken care of. Slide.

                                    So, the drastic changes within six years. Non-competitive operating budget. The only revenues that we were getting was the $4.4 million from the IHGB from HUD. So, less than three percent of funds were received through payments from tenants. A non-competitive operating budget, but when we partnered – when we looked at grants and other sources for funding, when we'd phase projects, we pretty much increased our budgeting and resources almost four-fold.

                                    And especially when we're working with our partners, it's very – you can go to the next slide. That's fine. It's very important to show results, especially to our funding agencies. We're always talking to Sarah and HUD about our success stories. We really want to talk about, specifically, the jobs we created, especially with this new administration – how many houses we built, how much infrastructure has been developed.

                                    So, even though we are housing, we like to work with all of our partners. We're working with the energy company. How much have we added to the footprint of our infrastructure and our homes developed and our energy consumption now, because we are creating more housing? How well have we financed or leveraged ourselves? All of these things and keeping records of that – it helps us for future projects. Slide.

                                    So, TOKA's results. These are just hard numbers. We've substantially reconstructed or built new construction – more than 100 homes for that level. We've built several hundred rehabilitations, developed community centers, complexes, hundreds of temporary and permanent jobs, and yeah, we've done this in the matter of probably about six or seven years. It took time to start to roll that wheel, but once we did, we've become very competitive.

                                    So, we're very proud of those accomplishments. Slide. Here's a picture of some of our new solar water heated tanks in San Xavier, Chukut Kuk & Guachi Housing Projects. So, the last, I would say, six of our new projects have these solar water heated tanks. It's an energy saving cost mostly for the homeowner.

                                    It's a higher up-front cost for the association, but we did find some subsidies for these. We're looking to do more solar related projects. Slide. So, here's some pictures everybody likes to see of some of our new projects and move-ins. This is after years of hard work, and these are the families that really benefit, and this is what makes our job so fun.

                                    I like to say that our move-ins are the best days at TOKA. The slide on the left is a new air condition unit. That's one of the things that we started doing with projects when we came in. Previously, there were no air conditioning units within our housing division, so, we installed air conditioning units. We regularly give classes to home buyers on how to change filters, how to make sure their energy bills stay low and cooling stays low, because previously, in our projects, they had only had swamp coolers.

                                    And anybody in the Arizona desert knows – especially during monsoon season – those things don't work very well. And especially, there were a lot of health disparities with that. We also partner with Indian Health Service for mold and spore reduction and the EPA as well for that. Slide. So, this is a symbol of our nation – Tohono O'odham Nation, the Man in the Maze.

                                    We believe it's the path in life we choose that will ultimately define our character. So, thank you so much.

James Jensen:             Thank you, Alex. I appreciate your presentation and I'm sorry I didn't turn off those animations. That made it a little cumbersome, but I'll remember that next time. Anyways, next, we've got Retha. Let me pull up your slides.

                                    Just a second. All right, Retha. You should be all set.

Retha Leno:                Okay. Hi, everyone. Thank you, James. I do appreciate and thank the DOE for allowing me to be part of this presentation today. I really appreciate it and I'm happy to be here.

                                    My presentation is going to be – basically, I'm going to try to show our path from where we were and where we are today, thanks to all the partnerships that we've been involved in in the last couple of years. And a disclaimer – I'm presenting not as an expert in these disciplines, but really, a practitioner learning along the way. And if other tribes or communities can benefit from our experiences, well, that's a good thing for me. Next slide, please. So, I'll just start out by telling you a little bit of where I'm from.

                                    I'm from the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, otherwise known as Akwesasne. We span an international border of Canada and the United States, and there's about 13,000 Mohawks living throughout the territory, both on the Northern Canadian and Southern portion of the reservation. And we're part of the Iroquois Confederacy, which includes Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora. So, that leads to a lot of little challenges that maybe many tribes don't have. And the fact that we're on the upper most portion of the Saint Lawrence River gives us some – throws us into some challenges climate-wise. Next slide, please.

                                    I'll just comment briefly that our mission as the TDHE for the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe is to develop comprehensive housing programs that will address these areas within our Indian Area. And we seek to generate and promote community strength and prosperity through safe housing, supportive ventures, economic development, and program efficiency. And we believe that our mission directly relates to the new energy programs and capital projects we've recently planned out. And, what I'm learning – now, we had a little bit of an issue adopting these within our staffing, so we've moved away from the ordinary and gone into green development. So, now that we've been working on these projects for some time, we're finding that we're really saturating our project planning with the ideals of going green.

                                    And it's a given, so my staff knows that if we do anything, it's going to benefit – hopefully benefit the environment. Next slide, please. And so, then, we've adopted the emerging philosophy, which led to the AHA moving away from the standard construction practices. And since 2004, I've been the director, and we've – it really took that long to move, basically, a runaway freight train. Why do we have to things? Why do we have to do new things?

                                    Well, we've been able to – I've been able to convince everyone in the tribe in all our community that we'll always consider responsible construction. We'll always add energy efficiency in our new and renovation projects. We'll always have that urgency for more cultural and environmental awareness and on the long-term effects on the earth. And we'll always access renewables if and when we can, and we'll create common sense energy programs for our community and focus on finding the resources to support the families that we serve. And the biggest part of what we're doing energy wise is education – and I'll comment about that a little bit later and some of our programs.

                                    So, these really are new policy standards for the Akwesasne Housing Authority. Next slide. And, of course, these policies necessitated the increased focus on funding green projects that benefits our target population because issues affecting low to moderate income families are obvious. We've got high energy costs. We've got high fuel costs included in that, with a high unemployment rate.

                                    Our unemployment rate here in the reserve is around 15 percent, and in the surrounding areas, it's more like, 6 percent. So, there's a great disparity, and individuals trying to support their families have these challenges moving forward. So, the LMI – low to moderate income families really struggle to make ends meet under these circumstances and have for quite a while. So, we really want to ease their burden and increase, basically, their disposable income for the family by instituting a lot of these principles and standards now. Next slide, please.

                                    So, I guess to maybe feature where we area, I guess, I'd like to feature things that we've done in the past. We've accomplished and manage over 400 low-income housing units – mutual help model. About half of those or more have been conveyed so far, so we have a remaining stock of under 200 mutual help units. We do have Sunrise Acres, which consists of 41 low-income elderly rental units. We've provided funding construction for several community facilities in the community and we continue to be involved in that.

                                    And we assisted in the tribes' water enhancement project. We helped build a water line in the community to improve living conditions for everyone. We sponsor and created the Akwesasne Boy's and Girl's Club, renovated an old warehouse, and we continue to support them in assistance to over 300 member kids and their families. Now, one thing to note here is that we've used all standard building practices for these projects. So, we do have the construction experience, but when the RF funds came along – and many housing authorities would remember – we were able to assess from our funding 2009 and '10 to complete – well, we had already started planning out Sunrise Acres Two, and that's where we kind of turned the tables and included our first attempt at going green by using green methods, green materials, renewable energy, including ground source heat pumps for geothermals and solar practices.

                                    Next slide. So, I'll just show you a couple of pictures of the Sunrise Acres facility. Now, this is an example of one unit with four – it's a quad, so, there's four units in there. We've built five of those, including the training center, where we have rent-able office space. So, basically, it supports its own expenses.

                                    We have an outdoor pavilion for the elderly families to have summer picnics and stuff like that. A lot of them go out there and do karaoke and they have a little band going. So, it's really an enjoyable space for seniors and their families to come visit. Next slide, please. And some of the energy efficiency measures that we institute is listed here.

                                    I won't go through all of them, but just make mention that these technologies were really the first time that we adopted and used them, and it was a great learning curve in doing these things. But there were some fun things that we found out, too, such as the sun tunnel lighting we put in the bathrooms, and we would get calls from the seniors and say, "I can't shut the lights off in my bathroom." Well, the thing is, they didn't even need to turn the light on, and they could actually live there knowing they don't have to flick on a light. So, they really enjoy these units, and so, with this success – next slide, please – the next slide is really just a site – a picture of the site. The original Sunrise Acres complex is located on the right-hand side, and that consists of 21 units and the administration building and a warehouse for field operations, and the Sunrise Acres Phase 2 is on the left, and it shows the little pavilion at the bottom and the training center.

                                    Next slide, please. The next slide just kind of shows the solar panels that flank the Western part of one of the buildings, and then, let's see – next slide, please – that shows the rooftop domestic hot water heater you use on the top of the rooftops. So, next slide. So, we realized after the first year of operations that, hey, we can do this. And there's success here, and there's ways for us to complete these types of measures that, yeah, they were very hard for us to adopt internally and to get everybody on the same page, but after a year of operations, our bills were cut in half.

                                    We didn't have the fuel truck deliver fuel every month. It resulted in some beautiful, spacious, walkable, livable areas for our seniors, and a lot of them come out on their porches and they visit, and they really have a great life. So, we learned that energy efficiency with energy conservation measures really does save money, and so, we wanted to just keep going. So, how do we keep going? Next slide.

                                    So, we realized that we really needed help. So, the realization that we needed help, our first look was to the Department of Energy and learned that they had an Office of Indian Energy, and they were instrumental in helping us come up with a plan of action. And through their support and through the support of our tribal leadership, we were able to apply and be awarded technical assistance from the Department of Energy Office of Indian Energy. And they brought along individuals/experts through Sandia National Labs, National Renewable Energy Lab, and in those efforts, we established the Tribal Energy Code that would set the standard for our projects in the future. So, the Housing Authority really spearheaded these efforts and we've reached out to the tribal leadership and those programs to be able to try to set the standards for everyone.

                                    So, what we're doing really is helping others, showing an example of what we can accomplish, and they can, too. So, the technical assistance – we realized that I don't have the expertise, but there are experts out there. So, that was where the technical assistance from the experts in the field came from. Sandia was awesome. National Labs – NREL – was awesome, but we also needed something more.

                                    We needed to hire knowledgeable consultants with the expertise in dealing with every changing regulations. The funding sources are always changing and that sort of thing. So, we knew that we needed to get help from experts in the field to not only plan this out, but where are we gonna get the money and how to raise funds. So, we partnered with an excellent source – the firm of Godfrey and Kahn out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I'm not plugging them, but they have an honorable mention here, because they were really able to help us obtain over $3 million and counting worth of sources through other – through the DOE, we received a couple of grants through those guys, and we're working on projects now.

                                    So, we actually went through ICGB and we were able to get awarded a $600,000.00 grant. And our score was 100 of 100, so I was pretty proud of that. Next slide, please. So, part of what we went to is part of the Department of Energy's Technical Assistance. We did this in 2015. We came together as a – we invited the tribal organizations – tribal agencies, our leadership, and involved stakeholders in our meetings, and we were able to come up with these principles that our vision really was to do responsible construction that met our community's needs. And we have to have that accountability for traditionally held principles that conserve energy and consideration of our economic and other families – really nuts and bolts of how do people pay their bills. And so, we really had to not just have this thought and idea, but to really say, realistically, what we wanted to do. And we want to provide healthy, affordable energy efficiency to the communities in more than one or two ways.

                                    And eventually, we want to have energy independence and be able to share this knowledge and maybe spearhead efforts with our northern – the Northern portion of Akwesasne in Canada. So, someday, we want to have an international effort to push our energy goals. Next slide, please. And so, from that point forward, we formulated a lot of our housing goals with this sustainability in mind, and this really pushed us and led us to thinking outside the box. And five of the projects I'm going to just highlight here.

                                    And we are rebuilding our community's first solar farm, which is the AHA Go Solar! Initiative. We're having, hopefully gonna create three new net zero buildings through our Net Zero Initiative. We're expanding our Sunrise Acres into a third phase, and the first time, developing a programs and jumping into permanent supportive housing for Native American veterans/homeless, and permanent supportive housing for the frail elderly and disabled. And we're also in the midst of completing our High Energy Efficiency Initiative. And all these projects have elements of conservation, renewables and such.

                                    Next slide, please, and I'll talk a little bit more about those coming up. But, we really had to – we had no choice. With our dwindling federal money, our block grant is paring down because of conveying our – some of our housing were lacking some of the resources. So, we've got to look outside our federal resources. So, we were able to tap into some state energy programs through NYSERDA.

                                    We were able to get some capital funds and try to access some energy incentive towards our projects. HUD's Indian Community Development Block Grant Program – we were awarded 2 awards of $600,000.00 each for the programs I just mentioned. And, for the first time, we were able to access home funds out of the state of New York. We were able to be awarded $2.2 million towards the Sunrise Acres expansion, and also, $800,000.00 through New York's temporary – they call it OTDA – Homeless Housing Assistance Corporation. And first tribe to access these programs, including our newest award, was through the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York for $540,000.00 for a project.

                                    Next slide, please. So, we've been busy the last couple of years trying to make those partnerships and we've realized we cannot do this alone. So, I'll go – I'll just kind of explain quickly what we're doing with the Go Solar! Initiative, which is a community-scaled solar. In New York State, you're able to do net metering. So, we are building our – we're hoping to cut ground in the next couple of months, and we're gonna install a 1.165-kilowatt service so that we can supplement the housing related buildings on the reservation.

                                    And the electrical power from the solar facilities will be utilized under National Grid's net metering programs to offset the AHA's buildings and some tribal member residences. And my biggest thing here is we're not just gonna give away the power. What we're gonna do is educate people, and the big part of this project is to complete educational programming and have special agreements in place that will champion energy, will champion energy conservation for the families, and in return, the families will receive energy credit to help pay their electric bill. We're hoping to offset those costs for the families by 20 to 30 percent, at first. So, we are starting small. Next slide, please.

                                    So, we're not sure how we're gonna complete those programs specifically, but we're working on the plan now. But, there will be ground mounted installation off site, and the tribe was able to ask the tribe to set aside at least 25 acres of tribal territory for just solar development. For those solar, we'll be utilizing 8 to 10 acres for the project, and the remaining acreage will be for future tribal solar, because we know people are gonna want to – they're gonna want to buy into this. It saves money. Why wouldn't they?

                                    And so, a couple of challenges – we've located this on currently reclaimed Indian lands from a former municipality who leased Indian lands for 100 years and we've been trying to get it back. And it's currently obtained back from the tribe, in a land into trust with the DIA. Some of the challenges are that the tax investors that we're dealing with just need a comfort level to keep going with the process, and we're working through this process now. This is why it's very important for us to hire the consultants with the expertise and make sure that you keep the tribe informed and have their tribal legal involved so that everybody's on the same page going forward. Really, my staff, myself – we could never do this alone without this expertise.

                                    Next slide, please. I'm just showing the solar farm site – the 8 to 10 acres that we're gonna be using up. So, there's a big part of – it's a 660-acre parcel that the tribe is getting back on the tribal land, so this is just a small portion of that, just to give you an idea. Next slide. So, under this, tribal members – this is really an exciting deal for our tribal members.

                                    So, they can participate in the tribe's DG program – a distributed generation program. I'm still getting familiar with the lingo and stuff like that, so, it's all new to me, myself, as well. So, we are – we had to be located behind a non-residential host utility meter, which is the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino, which is located just north of the site, but it's showed in the last slide. And it will result in generating value stack credits for electricity production in excess of the host's usage. And we'll be able to allocate the credit to the project's members pursuant to applicable utility tariff.

                                    So, all these things are starting to come together in what they call a PPA – or a Power Purchase Agreement – and we're working on all that legal stuff at this point in time. Okay. So, that's Go Solar! You can advance to the next slide, please. Our Net Zero Initiative – which I mentioned earlier – is tied directly into the solar farms, and we're going to be able to – with our supportive housing units which aren't constructed yet, but we're hoping to break ground by mid-May.

                                    So, we're going to work for these two supportive housing units to work towards Net Zero, and also, we chose the Boy's and Girl's Club facility to try to get them involved in all these energy efficient _____. We produced a project that could conceivably have the Boy's and Girl's Club save on their utility. Next slide, please. And I'm just showing the building – the Boy's and Girl's Club, and they can conceivably save $28,000.00, at least, on an annual basis of their utility. So, that's an exciting goal for us.

                                    Next slide, please. And, like I mentioned before, we hope to have the ground breaking mid-May for the Sunrise Acres complex phase three, which is supportive housing for homeless/veterans, and seniors and there will be six units for the homeless/veterans, 12 for the frail, elderly, and disabled, and we will be completing this project furthering our energy goals. We'll be utilizing electric heat pumps, so, again, no fossil fuels will be delivered. We will reduce carbon emission and the facility will be the tribe's first net zero facility. Comfortable area for seniors.

                                    We'll be offering walking paths, gathering spaces for their families, community garden type things. And the seniors now enjoy this, but there's seniors who need extra help, and we'll have support services in place with the utilization of MOUs with tribal and regional service providers. So, I'll just mention – the supportive housing piece is something we're also new to, because supportive housing – well, I guess, we used to do supportive housing, but we just didn't have a name for it. Now, what we get to do is put a name to it, put agreements in place, and make sure all the bases are covered. Next slide, please.

                                    And I'll just show you a couple of schematics on our 12-unit supportive housing, and we're really excited about this, because it's groundbreaking to us. I mean, to us, this is one of our best projects to date. And we're putting into practice all those new standards of construction. Next slide, please. The next one is just a picture of the six-unit homeless veteran supportive housing.

                                    We've heard, for years, that the veterans are not supported, and we've heard a lot of individuals are homeless, but there's no place, really, for them to go. So, we formulated this plan based on the needs of the community. Next slide, please. And I'll just show you the site plan – overall site plan, and the veteran's building will be at the north side of the site – the little orange rectangle at the top, and then, the L-shaped structure on the bottom is the seniors' complex. And these were very – just putting this piece together – the financing piece together and making sure we had the green and sustainable practices in it – yes, it does cost money, but it'll be well worth it in the end.

                                    And these are funded – we got the home funds and the New York State Home and Housing funds and we're utilizing the AHA Block Grant Program and NYSERDA funds and the Federal Home Loan Bank on this project. And that's our – that's what's gonna keep us busy this year. Next slide, please. Now, the next project – the High Energy Efficiency Project is a – it was really a combination – talk about leveraged funds – a combination of federal and state resources, including HUD's ICDBG program. We wrote a grant and received $600,000.00 from ICDBG, and then we utilized our in-housing block grant for some of the leveraged funds.

                                    And we're able to access NYSERDA's EmPower Program for the very low income and NYSERDA's Home Performance Program for low to moderate income families. Next slide, please. And what we did was we took a sampling of our older projects and said, "Okay. We really need to increase the energy efficiency. We need to improve them, and we want to know how to do it."

                                    So, what we did was we accessed – part of what NYSERDA was able to give us was – everyone in the state of New York were accessing these funds, but no one on the reservation, 'cause nobody really knew about it. So, this kind of opened up a great big learning curve for us and the tribe and from local contractors, and we really helped to raise the awareness of this program not just to our participants, but other people – other tribal members who could benefit from the program. It's really meant close coordination with those local contractors that had to be NYSERDA certified, and that was a critical part of the project. So, we're assisting, hopefully, up to 100 LMI families and we're three-quarters of the way through. We should be done by June.

                                    And it included upgrades to older homes such as, say, roof system. One needs a roof and NYSERDA comes in there and does some work. We don't want to compromise that work, so if it's bad enough, we'll try to leverage other funds and try to get that person a new roof. And that will lead to, obviously, lower utility costs and better energy efficiency in the home. And part of the person – the participant in this program – in the heat program – will be that they'll educate their families, they'll be part of the energy program and training modules that we're putting together, and basically helping each other meet those energy goals.

                                    And that was my last slide in the programming. So, the next slide is just a picture that reminds us that we are doing all of this not for – not so we keep our jobs or not so that we're gonna make ourselves look good, but we really are doing this for our generations – our young ones and older and our future generations. There was a study done in our community some years ago in 2009 and they did a study with the kids, with our youth, and they all pointed to these principles. And so, a lot of what we've done is because of that foresight and because that's what they want. So, that's really why we're doing what we're doing, and I thank you for the opportunity to talk to you today.

James Jensen:             Thank you, Retha. That was excellent. You guys really got a lot going on there. That must keep you very busy. Thanks for spending the time with us today to share.

Retha Leno:                We're very busy.

James Jensen:             Next, we're gonna hear from Sean. So, Sean, just one moment. I'll pull up your slides. All right. You should be all set.

Sean Esterly:              Great. Thank you, James, and thanks to all the other speakers. It's been great learning about some of the activities and some of the ones – updates on some of the ones I was already aware of. I'll keep this pretty quick so that we have time for questions and answers, but I wanted to provide some overviews and links to additional information that you can go out and find. So, James, next slide.

                                    So, this first one is just some renewable energy web resources that are out there. Obviously, there's more than this, but these are ones that we tend to use here at the National Renewable Energy Lab, and ones that we recommend to others. So, I won't go through each of these. I will remind all the attendees that we'll be sending out a link to where these slides will be posted, so you will have access to all of these links following the webinar, but just some highlights here. That first one – the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency – you can type in your zip code out there; it will show you all of both the state and federal incentives that are available to you.

                                    So, that's great. Whenever I do any work on my own home, for example, I'll always go out and look for any utility incentives or other incentives that I might be able to take advantage of when doing that. The second one there – PVWatts – great for doing some quick calculations to project possible costs and energy production of solar. Really user friendly. Don't need to be an expert to go out there and use that and figure it out.

                                    Some others on there – we have GIS Tools and Data further down. Those are gonna be resource assessment maps, so really great for seeing what technologies might be available in your area. And then, the last one on this bulleted list is the solar RFP template – so, Request For Proposal template. This is for grid connected PV systems, but they're really great plug and play templates, so you can use this to get your RFP started should you be pursuing any solar PV projects. And so, next slide.

James Jensen:             Sorry, Sean. I clicked the wrong link there. Let me bring your slides back up.

Sean Esterly:              And so, the next slide is for the FEMP training that's out there. This is free and available to everyone and just a list, obviously, of the topics. Obviously, there's a lot of topics covered. There are actually more than what I've listed here as well, so if you are staring a project, want to learn more about something, definitely recommend going out and checking some of these topic trainings out before doing so, or to get up to speed on some technologies that maybe are just of interest to you. So, next slide.

                                    And then, I wanted to capture some residential energy efficiency resources that are online. I have these split up into general efficiency. There's some guides on Energy Star heating and cooling, some guides for lighting. You can look at different LED options and the Energy Start Choose-a-Light guide – really helpful. And LEDs can be a little bit confusing as far as they have the different color options and things like that.

                                    So, that provides some information there. Appliances and equipment – really Energy Star appliances have come down so much in cost that it – when buying new appliances, it only makes sense to really buy Energy Star. The pay back periods on those are so short, that economically, it makes the most sense. And so, that gives you some overviews on that information. And then, Building Envelope, which is basically insulation and how well buildings capture and maintain heating and cooling. And then, next slide.

                                    And then, some information on both air source and ground source heat pumps. So, if you're looking to do any new construction or retrofit any existing buildings or HVAC, these are some links you could check out for information on that. And so that – I'll wrap up there. Again, these slides will be available after the webinar. Definitely check them out and feel free to shoot me an e-mail if you have any questions.

James Jensen:             Thanks, Sean. What a great list of resources there. And, as you mentioned, all those links will be available when we post the slides online. So, next, we're gonna go to our question and answer period of the webinar. So, as a reminder, you can submit written questions by clicking on the "Question" button on your control panel and type in your questions there, and I will ask them to the list of panelists.

                                    So, let me go to my questions here and see what we have. Hold on a moment. All right. So, here's a HUD question, probably. It says, "Are there any grants available at HUD in regards to funding a housing project on Navajo reservation? We have a TDHD for the tribe, however, our program is not low-income and is not open to the public." Sarah, do you have any thoughts on that?

Sarah Olson:              Yes. Excuse me. I have a bit of an allergy cough, so I'm _____. I guess it would be best to talk with the Navajo Housing Authority, 'cause they're recognized truly designated housing entity. And also, to talk with our Albuquerque staff – they would be most knowledgeable for Navajo nation and housing opportunities as well as energy efficiency opportunities with the Navajo nation.

                                    To my knowledge, the programs that they do have are for low-income people. I'm not aware of any that are only for over income, but I guess it'd be good to help with some more follow-up with that question. If the person wants to, they can e-mail me, and then I'll try to get them in contact with the right stakeholders.

James Jensen:             Great. Thanks, Sarah. I'll pass down your e-mail address to them – to the questioner.

Sarah Olson:              Perfect. Thank you.

James Jensen:             Sure. Another question. This one's for Carrie. It says, "Is this grant available to non-public or low-income housing?"

Carrie Nelson:            Hi, there. No. Our program, unfortunately, is only available to BPA public utility territory. And it is a low-income program. I did talk a lot about the Department of Energy's Weatherization Program, and I know that is the national level program that's usually funded through the states and community access agencies, but mine, specifically, is not.

James Jensen:             Okay. Great. Another question here. It says, "In New York State, the state has incentive programs for creating community shared solar farms with up to five megawatts in size. Is DOE funding available as matching shares so private sector developer can finance and develop such projects at tribes located in New York?" So, I'm not sure who specifically that would be a question for, but does anybody have any thoughts on that?

Retha Leno:                This is Retha, and I'm gonna say, "Yes." We received grants through the Department of Energy and we shared those grants with some New York State NYSERDA. What's going to be big in our Go Solar! project is that there are incentive programs through NYSERDA and National Grid that are gonna help us complete our projects. So, there are resources, yes, in New York State for those kind of projects.

James Jensen:             Great. Thank you. And to the questioner, I'll send you a link of also an e-mail address for an individual at DOE who may be able to help you answer the DOE side of funding. All right. A follow-on question here.

                                    "Sustainable green waste management, when combined with low-cost on site solar power and storm water management can create jobs. What grants are available to fund such projects on the tribal land? Food waste combined with yard waste can be combusted to make fertilizers, and greenhouses grown food – could use solar power from the roof and recycled storm water to operate locally grown food for area communities. Can such projects be funded in New York State?" So, I guess that's another question that you might have some insight on, Retha.

Retha Leno:                Those are kinds of projects we're actually interested in developing in the future, but we haven't gone that far as to get the information. So, I wouldn't know, but I would know who to ask, so that person might want to contact me. I would be more than willing to help point them in the right direction.

James Jensen:             Okay. Thanks, Retha. I appreciate that. One last Retha-specific question. "Sunrise Acres is expected to use electric heat pumps instead of fossil fuels, but where is that electricity being generated? Is the plan to power those with energy generated from the solar farm under this proposal?"

Retha Leno:                Yes. We actually are going to be still – we're gonna still be plugged in National Grid's service, and so, we're hoping to be able to generate power through our solar farm to cover all of our electrical usage, but we still have to have an agreement with National Grid. And if we don't generate enough electrical power, then we're going to be probably still paying National Grid. But the goal is to go net zero, so yeah.

James Jensen:             Great. Thank you." Is there any program that will provide micro combined heat and power design in engineering assistance?" I'm not sure – that might be a question for HUD as well as BPA, whether either of your programs can fund combined heat and power on a small scale.

Sarah Olson:              This is Sarah. I guess in my presentation for HUD, I didn't really talk about economic development as a possible opportunity under the Indian Community Development Block Grant, but it's possible something like that could be an eligible activity under that, but also under those public facilities when we talk about water and wastewater treatment plants. And this kind of production plant might not really be any different. It's still a public facility. It's there generating power predominantly for low-income people – for all people, but probably predominantly for low-income people.

                                    So, I think there might be a way to design a project that would fit under either a public facilities or an economic development opportunity. I just would encourage whoever has the question to talk with their local HUD office about that opportunity. I think that would be a good starting point. And, if they're not sure who that is, they can contact me, and I'll be also happy to refer them on to the correct people.

James Jensen:             Thanks, Sarah. I appreciate that.

Sarah Olson:              You're welcome.

James Jensen:             Another question here for Retha. "We weren't sure if ICDBG was going to put out for solicitation this year – 2018. Do you happen to know any information on that?"

Retha Leno:                I believe that there was an RFP in 2017 and I believe ICDBG was funded in 2018, so, yes, I believe that program's gonna be available in the next year.

James Jensen:             I guess that's a question for Sarah. Yeah. Okay.

Sarah Olson:              Well, yes. And Retha's exactly correct. There is a budget for ICDBG this year along with IHBG and then hopefully, soon we'll know how all those final allocations work out for each tribe, and then hopefully, one day, we'll know when the funding notice is available for ICDBG, but we at least tell people that even if the notice isn't out yet, it's not too early to plan and to use last year's funding notice as a public guide for preparing your applications and such.

James Jensen:             Great. Yeah. Thank you. "Are there other loan resources for solar development from treasury direct in relation to the Indian Finance Act of 1974?" I guess I'm not familiar with that personally, but does anybody have an idea of what they're referring to?

                                    Hearing none, I will forward this onto our DOE representative and see if they can get you an answer. But, for now, we'll move on. "Is there BPA funding for South Dakota tribes?"

Carrie Nelson:            No, unfortunately, the Bonneville Power Administration is just for the Northwest of – mainly those four states – Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon.

James;                         Understood. Thanks, Carrie. "In most remote Alaskan communities, propane costs exceed $10.00 per gallon, but state _____ cost is less than $2.00 per gallon. Is there any program that would help reduce transportation costs on propane?"

Sarah                           I'm not aware of any. This is Sarah from HUD. I don't know if it's something that the GSA could help with, 'cause sometimes, they had opportunities for transportation, and I don't know if it's in that area, but that might be a resource to look into. The local GSA representative might be able to help that. I believe there's somebody right in Anchorage.

James Jensen:             Great. Thanks, Carrie.

Sean Esterly:              Yeah. I'm not aware of – this is Sean – I'm not aware of any programs transportation costs were – all fuels in Alaska is definitely an issue. You could try checking out that database of state incentives, see if there something available, but that would be my only suggestion. I've never heard of anything.

James Jensen:             Thanks, Sean. Yeah. And this is James. I used to work in Alaska at the state energy office and I also am not aware of anything. So, you know, outside of state power costs, _____ subsidies, but not really into _____ fuel.

                                    Next question – "Does NREL or Sandia charge a fee to come out and look for site evaluation regarding solar projects?"

Sean Esterly:              If the tribe applies for the DOE's technical assistance program and is approved, then the tribe – that service can be provided free of charge to the tribe. So, you just have to go out to their site, follow the instructions onto technical assistance form, and then, if that is approved, then that service can be offered free of charge.

James Jensen:             Great. Thanks, Sean. Last question here. "Is there a database that goes over the energy buyback program in every state?" That may be a question for you, Sean.

Sean Esterly:              Yeah. I think they're talking about net metering. If that's the case, then that's – the very first link on the slide that I had does cover the net metering policies for every single state. So, the link I'm talking about is the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency. And, if you go out there and either type in your state or your zip code, it will tell you what policies are available there.

James Jensen:             Great. Thank you, Sean. That's all the questions. Good questions, everyone. So, we have this time, so let's see what we got here for our final bit of webinar.

                                    So, thanks to all our speakers for their informative presentations. We've already answered your questions. Sorry. I got my script mixed up a little bit here. Having answered your questions, we need to end the webinar at this time. Please, give us feedback on the presentations today.

                                    We are very interested in your suggestions on how to strengthen the value of this training. Here's a list of our remaining webinars for the 2018 series. The next webinar is Best Practices in Tribal Energy Business Model and that is on the last Wednesday of April at the same time – April 25th. Thank you again for your interest. Have a good day.

                                    And those that asked questions where we said we will give you the context of some more panelists, we will do that shortly after today's call. Thank you for everyone's participation.

Sarah Olson:              Thank you.

Carrie Nelson:            Thank you.

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