By Elizabeth Amon, The Imprint, July 21, 2021
Several years ago, the Lummi Tribal Council told Diana Phair, the executive director of the tribe’s Housing Authority: “We have 200-some children in foster care. We need to bring our children home.”
What would it take, Phair next asked tribal members of the nation that sits on Washington’s Pacific coast near Canada, to keep their families healthy and whole, and far from the risk of being separated by child welfare authorities?
With their input, she and her colleagues devised Sche’lang’en Village, a novel housing arrangement for parents seeking to reunite with their children in foster care, homeless families, those overcoming addictions and women fleeing domestic violence. The sliding scale, low-cost, drug- and alcohol-free housing project, would be infused with social services, allow for indefinite stays and have a stated and intentional purpose: To preserve and protect Native American families by providing an opportunity for families to make transformational life changes.
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