U.S. Airforce Academy, SWIF team up to help Diné families

Justin O'Hara and Ethan Palmer move a new screen door into place to check the size before installing it Monday along Dakota Lane in Iyanbito. The boys are part of a group of volunteers from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs who have come to New Mexico and volunteered to help with projects during their spring break. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

By Natasha Kaye Johnson
Diné Bureau

CHURCH ROCK — Monday, the U.S. Air Force Academy and the Southwest Indian Foundation presented a Navajo family with a new home. It was one of two homes that U.S. Air Force Academy cadets build each year as part of a project called Operation Good Neighbor.

The program started in 1998 when the U.S. Air Force Academy came to the Southwest Indian Foundation with an idea. At the time, cadets were building homes as part of course curriculum and were taking them apart after they were completed. Instead of taking apart the homes, the Academy proposed to SWIF that the two entities join forces to have the home given to a family in need, and that's what they did.

Since then, the Air Force Academy has been building the homes which are based on a traditional Navajo hogan and measure 24 feet by 28 feet, every year. The Academy covers the costs of materials, which averages about $65,000 a year.

"It's quite a task, but pays big dividends for sure," said Lieutenant Colonel Steve Kuennen of the U.S. Air Force Academy, who came down for the home dedication. Kuennen believes that while families in need are benefiting from the homes, cadets who build the home feel that they're also benefiting as well.

Kuennen, who is part of the Department of Civil Engineering at the Academy, has helped head the five-week summer program and three weeks of civil engineering practices where cadets design and build the homes. Cadets can take the program as an academic course, where they have "hands on" engineering at the Academy's Field Engineering and Readiness Laboratory.

Career foundations
Along with being a technical engineering and construction laboratory, the program provides leadership opportunities for cadets majoring in civil and environmental engineering. As part of the program, cadets from the U.S. Air Force Academy School work side by side with enlisted military, and together they learn trades, such as plumbing, electrical wiring, and framing.

"It's one of the few times they get to work with an enlisted person they will be leading," said Kuennen. Kuennen said that these skills are something they would also put to use if they were to be deported to Afghanistan or Iraq. The program also helps to improve leadership skills among senior cadets, which Kuennen said is another indirect benefit.

Jukari Davis was one of the U.S. Air Force Academy cadets who attended the home dedication, and helped with the building of the home in the summer of 2005. Davis, who is Navajo and from Shiprock, said he was intrigued by the program and was able to learn aspects that involved his engineering major. "We decided on a traditional hogan because that was the traditional housing for the Navajo people," said Teri Silversmith, Housing Services Coordinator for Southwest Indian Foundation.

Mobile homesThe homes are built in Colorado Springs, where the Air Force Academy is located, and are then transported to the home site of the families who will move into them. In 2000, the SWIF decided to start a similar project separate from Operation Good Neighbor. The program they implemented is called Operation Footprint, which organizes the building of 20 homes each year for Navajo families by military reserves.

"We got reserves from all over," said Silversmith.

Currently, the program has Air Force Reserves, but will be getting new reserves from a different military branch coming in during the end of the summer. SWIF has partnerships with Veterans Administration, the Airforce Academy, Navajo Housing Authority, and the U.S. Air Force Reserves and Marine Reserves. The funds for Operation Footprint come from the Navajo Housing Authority.

"We're going to have the United States Marines Corp come in August," said Joe Esparza, Project Office Director for Southwest Indian Foundation. He said that starting in June, SWIF wants to build 25 houses per year. By 2009, the program wants to be building 35 houses per year. Esparza said that the increase of homes built will ultimately depend on funding and manpower.

The homes are built in a warehouse behind Best Western Inn on the west end of Gallup. The homes built under this project have a more westernized design, since they provide more space than a traditional hogan design. The homes were all two bedroom, but recently the program began making three bedroom homes for larger families. Unlike low-income project housing, the homes are placed on the home site lease of the families and are scattered throughout the Navajo reservation.

"Eligibility is based on the poorest of the poor," said Esparza. Esparza said many of the homes built for families are for those on Temporary Assistance for Need Families or social security. Esparza said there are about 80-85 families currently on a waiting list, but that a majority of them will be accommodated in three years.

Selection process
Silversmith said that local chapter houses nominate families for the program, and Silversmith interviews the families and reviews criteria that would make the families eligible. Families must also have a home-site lease, an archeological clearance, and must be within 60 miles of Gallup. After reviewing the applicants, Silversmith and Esparza make a final decision as to who gets a home. The local chapter houses also help to cover costs for the home. Silversmith said that the chapters usually cover the costs for transportation of the home from Colorado, if the home is part of Operation Good Neighbor.

"We try to look for a chapter house (that) has the money," said Silversmith. The chapters use housing discretionary funds, which are dispersed to them from the Navajo Nation.

"It gets harder every year, because you try to find a chapter house (that) can help," said Silversmith.

Silversmith said $5,000 was about the minimum that chapters paid for transportation of the home, but with the increase in gas prices, the cost has increased and SWIF has had to split transportation costs with some chapter houses that can't cover the entire amount.

Regardless of cost increases due to the economy, the program plans on continuing. So far, the program has built 110 homes total since 1998.

"It's a great program, and we're going to continue building homes for the Navajo people," said Silversmith.