Navajo families to receive FEMA trailers

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The Intergovernmental Relations Committee approved an agreement Monday between the Arizona Department of Housing and the Navajo Nation which provides funding to transport 12 modular homes from an unspecified Federal Emergency Management Agency location to the reservation.

Navajo Nation Council Delegate Elmer Begay, sponsor of the legislation, said the intergovernmental agreement had been under review by the Navajo Department of Justice and took awhile to get approved. It now can go to President Joe Shirley Jr. for his signature.

Begay’s agent for the proposal, Laverne Benally, program manager for the Housing Improvement Program, said the Nation originally had requested 100 trailers from FEMA but was allocated only 12. Four will go to families in the New Mexico portion of the reservation and eight to families in Arizona.

“These are brand new mobile homes. Some of them are three bedroom,” she said. “These are going to families that have burn-outs. Under the agreement with the housing department, they have to have infrastructure so they can be hooked up right away.”

The 16-by-80 and 14-by-60 modulars come furnished with everything from microwave ovens to bedroom and dinette sets, Benally said. The Nation is eligible to receive $33,000 from Arizona Department of Housing to be used toward transportation costs.

Representatives from the Navajo Nation Office of Environmental Health and Indian Health Service traveled to inspect the trailers for formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen. They also were rechecked by FEMA. Test results showed the formaldehyde levels were safe, Benally said.

Attention to the formaldehyde issue significantly increased after Hurricane Katrina when FEMA-issued trailers provided as housing for dislocated families in New Orleans allegedly caused illness in many people from formaldehyde emissions in pressed-wood used in their construction.

In 2007, U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing to investigate reports of elevated levels of formaldehyde in FEMA-purchased trailers. Ninety-four percent were found to have indoor levels in excess of the standard considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“While I understand the concept of this discussion, it may be something that we need to look at legally,” said Delegate Ervin Keeswood.

“My understanding was these homes were purchased for disasters back East. I don’t know if they were transported from back East or if that’s where we’re transporting from now, but a lot of people rejected these homes because of the conditions they were in.

“I’d hate to be a party to put something on Navajo that was rejected elsewhere, with the thought of the possibility of some of our own citizens suing the Nation after a certain period of time,” he said.

Benally said the Department of Justice is working on an addendum to the agreement to ensure that families are informed and that the Navajo Nation and the Arizona Department of Housing are held harmless.

“These are regular homes. These have all been retested, about three times,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of mobile homes out here and they all contain a certain amount of formaldehyde. The majority of our homes on the reservation are mobile homes.”

IGR approved the resolution 8-0.