Native American Poverty

The majority of Native communities today struggle with systemic problems related to lack of access to healthy food. One-in-four Native Americans experience food insecurity due to scarce access to food and employment, compared to just one-in-eight in the general American population. Grocery stores are few and far between, leaving tribes to largely depend on outside sources for food. Additionally, poverty rates are so high that few families can afford healthy food options and therefore turn to low price, low nutrition alternatives. This results in many health issues, including diabetes, heart disease, obesity and related conditions.

Typically, reservations are geographically isolated — located miles away from major metropolitan areas — with limited access to resources and capital. Since there are very few employment opportunities on tribal lands (mostly tribal and federal government jobs), heads of household are forced to leave the reservation to seek work. In the poorest Native counties, only about one out of three men have full-time, year-round employment.

For those who do have jobs, earnings can be well below poverty wages — the average household income for working Native Americans is $35,000, compared to $50,000 of the general population. As a result, many households depend on federal funding to make ends meet — welfare, disability, social security and additional government services.

Tribal economies require affordable housing and infrastructure. However, First People face some of the worst substandard and overcrowded housing conditions in the United States. Forty percent of housing on reservations is considered substandard compared to only 6% throughout the rest of the country. Thirty percent of native housing is overcrowded. Less than 50% of native homes are connected to a public sewer system and of those, 16% lack indoor plumbing. Additionally, 23% of Native households pay 30% or more of their household income to housing alone.

At the core of this housing issue, the current reservation real estate market barely exists. Centuries of treaties and federal policies established reservations as lands held in trust for Native people by the federal government. Until the 1990s, mortgages weren’t effective on reservations. Many still can’t get a mortgage due to bad credit or lack of funds for a down payment. In that regard, the housing market is similar to the food or employment markets — it barely exists.