Continued from Pablo family receives housing grant in Oct. 9 Lake County Leader Issue

“I was part of this (Recovery Village) from day one,” Steven Morigeau said.  “I pushed really hard for this place to be here.” 

When he got out of rehab, he was full of ideas; he said he talked to Jody Cahoon-Perez, head of Salish Kootenai Housing Authority, about a drop-in center for kids “because when you're using you don’t pay attention to your kids.” He wanted a place kids could get fed, do their homework, play games, get on the computer but not have anyone questioning them about what their parents were doing. 

“This was sort of like the safe, next-door neighbor,” he said. 

Then there were the low-rent apartments in Pablo that were called the “Dirty Thirties,” according to Cahoon-Perez. 

No one wanted to live in the apartments in the middle of Pablo because there were drugs, fights, the police were always there, and apartments and vehicles were robbed. So SKHA decided to do something with the area. 

Don Roberts, Dana Comes at Night, Steven Morigeau and Shay Ashley worked with Jody Cahoon-Perez began in 2023 to work on the Recovery Village program 

“We got together and hammered it out,” Morigeau said. 

On the SKHA website, this is what readers see — The Salish & Kootenai Housing Authority (SKHA), the Never Alone Recovery Support Services (NARSS), and the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) Healing Court are collaborating on the development of a Recovery Village. NARSS and the Healing Court will provide long-term recovery support services to individuals struggling with addiction and homelessness. SKHA will designate 28 low rent units for this new pilot program. 

A short paragraph that doesn’t begin to explain all the work that went into the project.  

Also, a big piece of Morigeau’s home ownership grant is the ‘Itqa’wxam Nkuwils Solidarity Program. Launched in October of 2024, the group invites residents of the traditional homelands of the Salish, and Kootenai people to…come together in a good way, toward repair of harms from the past several centuries. 

Members of the Solidarity Program are asked to commit to learning about Selis, Qlispe, and Ksanka history culture, to talk with other people about that history and the program ,and to contribute at least $1 per month toward home ownership for Tribal members on the Flathead Reservation, according to the press release from Steven’s Stories event on Oct. 4. 

Nearly 100 Solidarity members contributed to the group’s fall 2024 launch and raised $25,000 by Dec 31, 2024. According to the press release, the group also received a $25,000 gift in May and continued pledges by members, gave the SKHA funds to award four $15,000 grants in June, of which Morigeau’s was the first. Morigeau is waiting for the final signature from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

Another grantee was able to purchase and move into a home on fee land this summer. Two other grant awards fell through, and SKHA is accepting applications for these homeowners grants. Eligibility information and application forms are available at www.skha.org/forms-policies. 

“This program brings people together to meet two different needs. Some Tribal members need housing, and some non-Natives need a way to engage with the people who have stewarded this land since time immemorial,” explained Cahoon-Perez.