Home woes bring buyers together

By Darrel Beehner
Staff Writer

CROWNPOINT — When 10 families from several chapters began meeting nearly six years ago, about the only things they had in common were they were Navajo and they were prospective homebuyers.

Now, the bond between members of the Sunrise Residents Organization is more solid than the foundations of the houses they purchased.

Consisting of traditional families, elderly couples, single mothers and Iraq War vets from Dalton Pass, Thoreau, Pinedale, Blue Water and Crownpoint, Sunrise members began meeting as a requirement of Navajo Housing Authority before they could buy the homes.

Although the homebuyers upheld their end of the deal by filling out the necessary applications, going through a screening process, securing a homesite lease, taking classes in money management and putting money down on the houses, they feel NHA has let them down by constructing shoddy homes that in many cases are still not inhabitable.

Following a recent hearing in Crownpoint that came after Sunrise members filed suit against NHA, members of the organization aired their grievances about NHA while expressing their appreciation for the group.

Complaints ranged from poor electical wiring and faulty foundations to leakage of toxic carbon monoxide gas and homes built too close to arroyos.

Some six years after construction began, only three of the 10 families have been able to move into the houses. Some members said they are living in trailers and still spending money on homes they haven't been able to spend a night in.

Because of the multitute of problems associated with the homes, and the stress it causes owners, the members have continued to meet as a sort of support group.

Sunrise chair Edmond Yazzie said during the meeting there are often tears shed by frustrated homebuyers. The group has gone so far as to bring in Navajo comedians James and Ernie to lighten their spirits.

"It's been terrible," said a Bluewater resident who asked that her name not be used because of connections she has to NHA. The woman said her three-bedroom house has "cracks all over." She also said the phone company couldn't find the phone jacks because they were buried in concrete and that when she turns her living room light switch on, the bedroom light comes on.

Yazzie said he hopes the pain Sunrise members have gone through will lessen the problems of future homebuyers.

"We're setting the stones for future homebuyers so they won't have to go through what we have been through," he said.

For its part, NHA leaders have admitted the homes were poorly constructed and have said they are committed to fixing the mistakes.

But getting NHA to own up to its mistakes took some doing, Yazzie said.

"Sunrise had to take a beating and below-the-belt hits."