Audio Clip Navajo Veteran Housing Insufficient

Many of the 10,000 veterans who live on the Navajo Nation must put up with substandard housing.

In September the Navajo Council approved a bill that funnels a small portion of its $86 million veterans' trust fund into veteran homes and home repairs. The funds allow 75 new homes to be built in the next four years.

But veterans' advocate Etta Arviso said it’s not enough. She said many veterans, including Navajo Code Talkers, still need basic housing services and repairs.

“The winter time is the hardest when some of our veterans are still using wood burning stoves and they still have no heating system in their home,” Arviso said.

One local veterans' advocacy group in the small town of Chinle has a waiting list of 145 veterans requesting housing.