Native Americans are working more closely with the city of Sacramento these days to protect remains or artifacts discovered at downtown construction sites. The Shingle Springs Band of Miwoks is expected to be on hand to monitor digging or other soil disturbance and to collaborate with archaeologists if bones, ashes, grave goods or other cultural artifacts are found at the future Powerhouse Science Center site, under an agreement approved last week by the Sacramento City Council. At least one representative of the band was also observing at a vacant lot at Seventh and H streets last week when archaeologists did site testing prior to construction there. Mercy Housing and the Sacramento Hou

Everyone wants "affordable" housing. But few people know what that is. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has defined affordable housing as no more than 30 percent of a household's income. That means you shouldn't be paying more than 30 percent of your income for housing — whether mortgage payments or rent — plus utilities each month. "People think affordable housing means just one thing. But it doesn't," said Sandra Hamameh, program director for the Sacramento Housing Alliance. "It means being able to afford a place to live, at whatever stage you're in in your life." Levels of affordability are also based on an area's median incomes. The median incomes for Sacramento

A proposal is in the works to create one of the largest permanent supportive housing projects in the city. The $41 million building at Seventh and H streets also is poised to become the city's newest single-resident occupancy, or SRO, structure. The infill project would feature sustainable design and materials, so the developers and architects will ask the U.S. Green Building Council to certify it as a sustainable building. But perhaps most unique about the public-private project being developed by Mercy Housing and the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency is that it would offer support services to formerly homeless people in innovative and mixed-population permanent housing. Its