Housing

Office Hours: Monday – Friday 8:30-4:30 p.m.
483 Great Neck Road~ Mashpee
Phone: 508-477-0208
Fax: 508-477-1218


Director: Michelle Fernandes, Interim
Email: mfernandes@mwtribe.com
Housing Assistant: Michelle Tobey
Email: mtobey@mwtribe.com
Housing Rehab Specialist: Valerie Molokwu
Email: vmolokwu@mwtribe.com

The mission of the Mashpee Wampanoag Housing Department is to provide safe affordable housing to eligible tribal members, and other Native Americans who reside in the Tribes service area. It is the Housing Departments mission to provide housing assistance and opportunities specific to the needs of the Native Americans living with the Wampanoag Community by offering eligible members the choice to remain in existing housing, or return to quality housing provided on ancestral lands, a place appointed to us by our creator, and to encourage self determination and economic independence for all Native Americans.

Alice Lopez opened the doors of the Wampanoag Housing Program in January 2003. This had been the first time the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe offered tribal members assistance with their housing needs. The decision to offer a program to tribal members had come after Alice had worked for Community Action Committee of Cape Cod & Islands for ten years as a Housing Advocate, Case Manager, Case Facilitator, and then finally as a Director of a Scattered Site Shelter Program. Through her work with CACCI, she realized the huge need for housing services for Tribal members.

In September 2007 we were funded with our first Indian Housing Block Grant. The Housing Program then became the Housing Department. Today the Wampanoag Housing Department is assisting tribal members with a large variety of housing needs. The Housing Department is overseen by a 7 person member of Board of Housing Commissioners, and they are moving forward with long term goals to develop affordable housing and programs to tribal members.

Current projects and services include:

1. Eviction Prevention
2. Foreclosure Prevention
3. First, Last, Security Deposit
4. Landlord Negotiations
5. Down Payment Assistance
6. Home Rehab and Weatherization
7. Housing Search
8. Scattered Site, Sanitation Facilities Construction
9. Budgeting/Financial Literacy