Hmong organization in La Crosse receives national honor for assisting families own, maintain homes

Washington, D.C., has recognized the work of a local group that helps Hmong families in the region.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) honored the Cia Siab, Inc., primarily for work in providing good housing for underserved communities around La Crosse.

Mara Keyes, the city’s community development manager, said the award highlights the hard work done by Cia Siab.

“While the city was honored to be recognized, it is really our service providers who are the ones doing the work,” Keyes said, adding that “advocating through our rehab program, and making sure that people are able to meet with contractors that speak Hmong, those are really essential ways, and we know that retaining and maintaining housing stock is essential to our housing plan in the city.”

The HUD award calls attention to the use of Community Development block grants.

Sam Xiong is a representative of Cia Siab, which got its start in 2016. He he accepted the HUD awards during a ceremony led by La Crosse Mayor Mitch Reynolds at City Hall.

“We actually didn’t know about this recognition,” Xiong admitted, “but we’ve always been doing this work.”

“Even without this recognition, we would still do it,” he added.

City leaders say a specific program for the Hmong population in La Crosse helps to make services such as bilingual home repair assistance possible.

This story was corrected to show that Cia Siab, Inc., got started in 2016.