The Coeur d'Alene Tribe has received a $2 million federal stimulus grant to build 10 homes at the site of the old tribal headquarters on the southwest outskirts of Plummer, Idaho.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the grant as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The planned homes are to be for low- to moderate-income families and are expected to be constructed next year, the tribe says.

"We wouldn't have been able to move forward on this project without President Obama's stimulus package," says Coeur d'Alene Tribe Chairman Chief Allan.

The Coeur d'Alene Tribal Housing Authority and the University of Idaho Bioregional Planning Program, which promotes sustainable community development, designed the project, to be called The Gathering Place, says Marc Stewart, the tribe's spokesman.

The first phase should be completed by the fall of 2010, and the tribe is seeking additional funding to build a second phase, which also would have 10 homes, Stewart says.

About 70 families are on the tribe's waiting list for affordable housing, he says.

The tribe received a $500,000 HUD grant in January to expand a sewer lagoon system that will serve the homes, and it's using a $1 million federal transportation grant to rebuild Agency Road, which connects to U.S. 95 and is the main access to several tribal buildings.

The tribe plans to demolish in mid-November several deteriorated houses where The Gathering Place will be located that were built in the 1920s and no longer are habitable, Stewart says.

HUD awarded 50 grants totaling $100 million to American Indian tribes across the country. The grants are intended to help tribes improve the quality of their housing stock, develop viable communities, promote energy efficiency, and create jobs, says HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.