NHA hosts regional housing summit for Ft. Defiance Agency

<i>Courtesy photo</i><br>
Aneva J. Yazzie CEO of NHA welcomes participants to the NHA’s Regional Housing Summit held at the Fort Defiance Chapter House on Dec 15-16.

<i>Courtesy photo</i><br> Aneva J. Yazzie CEO of NHA welcomes participants to the NHA’s Regional Housing Summit held at the Fort Defiance Chapter House on Dec 15-16.

FORT DEFIANCE, Ariz. - Following the Navajo Housing Authority's (NHA) 1st Annual Housing Summit this past summer and numerous inquiries from the public, NHA hosted its first Regional Housing Summit on Dec. 15-16 for the Fort Defiance Agency community members and stakeholders at the Fort Defiance Chapter House.

CEO Aneva J. Yazzie stated, "The regional housing summit is an effort to have a direct conversation with the regional communities, funding resources and services that connect tribal departments, divisions, entities, and regional community members together so that we can improve housing opportunities for Navajo families and better plan community housing needs within the Navajo Nation."

"NHA wanted to bring the outcome from panel discussions held at the Annual Housing Summit to the regional communities starting with the Fort Defiance Agency," she added. "This is the first of five regional housing summits NHA will be hosting across the Navajo Nation."

Day One of the summit attracted more than 100 registered participants comprised of community members and tribal officials. Yazzie opened the summit with a welcome address, after which she presented outcomes from the Annual Housing Summit and provided an overview of the first-ever NHA housing needs assessments survey statistics.

Based on the survey results, Yazzie reported a need for housing for primarily very low income families in various areas of special needs categories, including veterans, elderly, overcrowded homes, substandard homes, and working families. The report also concluded that 45 percent of individuals surveyed were below poverty level. Most individuals surveyed were elders over the age of 62 as head of households in overcrowded homes.

The survey also indicated a majority of at least 50 percent of those surveyed lived in houses which were considered majorly dilapidated with structural deficiencies and overcrowding issues. "Right off the top, that tells us the homes we construct has to be affordable and that most likely it is not affordable for most families currently," Yazzie said.

The housing needs assessment survey sparked several questions from summit participates. Some of those questions and concerns were regarding the following: elderly housing, the use of alternative building materials, homeownership, desire for apartments, Veterans housing and remodeling needs. Chapter officials and other area leaders requested NHA to make information from survey available to the chapters for planning purposes. The Navajo nationwide survey will be compiled in a comprehensive report to be completed by March 2011 which will then be made available to Navajo Nation officials and the general public, Yazzie stated.

"For the first time I am hearing from the funding entities to address real solutions and not just rhetoric," Yazzie added. "We can do this but it has to start at the grass roots level working with the respective Chapters and community members, that is the only way we are going to be able to properly address the various housing needs in a meaningful and responsive manner."

Day One continued with a presentation by Mike Paisono, Senior Land Surveyor with NHA's Land Department on NHA's land information system. "The system gives us the ability to utilize and better manage the land data that we have," Paisano said. "With this technology we can become more efficient in providing information to NHA and the communities to enable master planned communities."

Other presenters included Jimmy Francis, Community Development Block Grant; Carol Nelson, United States Department of Agriculture; Rose Marquez, Enterprise Community Partner Foundation; Thomasita Shorty, NHA Environmental Program; Caroline Tom, Navajo Tribal Utilities Authority; and Raymond Joe, Navajo Land Department.

Day Two of the regional housing summit featured more presentations from Yvonne Kee-Billison, Navajo Boys and Girls Club; and Alvernon Tsosie, Navajo Department Public Safety.

Through feedback from the summit participants, concerns expressed needs for a Veterans housing program, home grant program, elderly housing program, special needs assistance program, assisted living, transitional housing, youth centers to deter our youth from drugs, violence and crime, nursing care homes, supportive housing for homeless families, self-help home repair program, emergency housing and housing for working families to be near their place of employment.

Regional housing summits will be scheduled at other Navajo Nation Agencies throughout the remainder of 2011 to gather input and feedback on addressing housing needs so that NHA can create short and long term plans in efforts of delivering needed housing in a more streamlined and collaborative effort with agency, state and federal partners and optimize all sources of funding streams for communities, Yazzie concluded.

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