WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren is 300 homes closer to his goal of building 1,000 houses for Navajo families.
On Friday, the President signed contracts for seven home building companies that starts the spending of $128 million in APRA funds toward new housing.
To celebrate the contracts, the President invited staff members from the departments and divisions that helped usher them through the cumbersome tribal authorization maze known as the “164 process.”
The President credited the staff for making the seemingly impossible possible. They represented the Division of Community Development, Regional Business Development Office, Office of the Controller, Navajo-Hopi Land Commission, Fiscal Recovery Fund Office, the Division of Children and Family Services, Department of Justice and the Department of Personnel Management.
“Today is monumental,” President Nygren said. “We’ve got $128 million, for sure. So that means that we’ve got to continue to lobby the Navajo Nation Council and ask for additional money for construction.”
The value is in Navajos receiving homes they’ve waited years for and the expected ripple effect of jobs and career development that will result from building and manufacturing hundreds of new homes.
“I can’t imagine the level of excitement and joy hundreds of families will feel,” the President said. “I’m excited about how many jobs we’re going to create all across Navajo. There are going to be a lot of young, seasoned people that are going to learn how to build for the first time.”
Some many never have had a construction job, he said.
“Others may have been in construction for a long time and now they have an opportunity to come home and work on the Navajo Nation,” he said.
Mike Halona, executive director of the Division of Natural Resources, said the process to obtain a homesite lease process to build or place a home is becoming faster and easier.
“It’s giving the individuals hope to walk away with that lease saying, ‘Now I want to go build myself a home. I’m going to get a home.’ We’re going meet a lot of needs.”
Patrick Delgai, manager of the Community Housing & Infrastructure Dept., or CHID, said 957 applicants have been assessed and close to 60% already have home site leases.
He said homes will be built in each of the Navajo Nation Council delegates’ regions. The homes will be manufactured, modular or stick built.
“Each one of these contracts will have a contract number assigned and, once they’re signed, that gives us space that leads to the green light to go ahead and proceed with our work orders,” he said.
He said the work orders should be issued the first part of September.
President Nygren said a lot of Navajo families have placed their hopes and dreams in the Nation to make homes available to them.
“I think today is going to really reinvigorate, and then some, hope that our government is thinking about them,” he said. “Our government is going to be there for them. Our government’s going to fight for them.”
“The Navajo Nation is focused on the future and to provide the basic needs for our grandmas, grandpas and families, he said. “The construction of new homes is the first step to self-sufficiency and we are behind it.”
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