Tribe to Toyei renters: Time's up

Navajo Nation officials said this week that families still living in asbestos-ridden housing at Toyei, Ariz., have to move out and they have to do it now.

But families at the site said Wednesday - the day after the final deadline for them to move - that they are still waiting to see what happens.

Some moved after the Division of Public Safety began sending out letters last fall telling residents that the aging houses pose an imminent health hazard because they contain asbestos, known to cause cancer and other illnesses.

But an estimated 150 to 200 people are stilling living in buildings on the compound, which includes the Navajo Law Enforcement Training Academy and Toyei Industries, a daycare facility for people with disabilities.

Public Safety Director Samson Cowboy said Tuesday that his office is not willing to grant any more time extensions, noting that efforts to close the housing began 15 years ago.

"We had a big push in 1995 and then again in 2000 to get people to move out," Cowboy said.

In both cases, families just refused to move, claiming they had no place to go and saying it was the tribe's responsibility to find them alternative housing.

At a June 24 meeting of the Toyei Tenants Association, residents said they were still feeling pressure to move out but the deadline seemed to be ambiguous. Some said they were told to be out by June 30 and others by July 17.

The reason for the difference seems to center around what kind of housing the family occupies.

Employees of Toyei Industries have been told by tribal officials including Pat Sandoval, chief of staff for President Joe Shirley Jr., that the deadline is June 30.

But some families who do not work for Toyei said they have received letters saying they are being evicted because of non-payment of their rent and have to be out by July 17.

Meanwhile, some tribal employees residing in the compound, who pay rent via a payroll deduction, said they did not receive any eviction notice.

Cowboy said police academy workers, with the possible exception of one cook, have moved out and his office is planning legal action to enforce the June 30 deadline.

Sandoval, meeting with tenants in February, urged everyone to move out as soon as possible because of the dangers of asbestos and lead paint in the buildings, some of which date back more than 50 years.

For many years, the buildings were part of a BIA school and were built before federal safety laws outlawed the use of lead paint and asbestos in housing.

The school closed and the BIA turned the buildings over to the tribe in the late 1970s. No one raised an issue about making sure the buildings were free of asbestos or lead-based paint.

Cancer threat

"I wouldn't want to live there," said Cowboy, citing the possible health effects - including cancer - that could be caused by exposure to asbestos or lead paint.

He added, however, that he could see why some families are reluctant to move.

"This may be the only home they ever lived in," he said, while others face the problem of finding a new home on a reservation where there has always been a chronic housing shortage.

But tenants aren't sure that tribal officials are telling them the truth. At the June 24 meeting, they said the tribe needs to show them proof that there is asbestos or lead paint in the buildings.

Emily Brown, a leader in the tenants' association, said she worked in the tenant management office 10 years ago and never once saw a letter go out warning tenants about hazardous materials in their homes.

She said an Albuquerque firm once studied the houses at Toyei and found only small traces of asbestos. The report said if the asbestos was left undisturbed it wouldn't be a problem, she recalled.

The danger of exposure comes, however, as the housing ages. Paint peels, tiles get wet and begin to disintegrate, and so on.

Jim Miller, an employee at Toyei Industries who lives on the grounds, said tribal officials have threatened to turn off the water to the homes as a way to force people out.

"There are about a half a dozen elders living here as well as a number of women and children," he said, adding that people are very frustrated about all of the rhetoric from tribal officials who say they want to help but only issue threats.

Sandoval disagrees, pointing out that during the past several months the tribe has brought the Navajo Housing Authority to the table and has been working with the Department of Land Management to shorten the process for obtaining a home-site lease for families that want to go that route.

Cowboy said the Toyei residents have been given warning after warning and have had time to find new homes. Many have just refused to do the paperwork necessary to apply for an NHA housing or anything else, he said.

Some tenants at the June 24 meeting asserted that it is the responsibility of Public Safety, which owns the site and collects the rent, to find them new homes.

Tribal officials maintain they can help, but ultimately the tenants are responsible for finding someplace else to live.

Miller said the tenants have been sending letters to Shirley's office in hopes of getting the deadline extended but so far they have received no response.

"The only person who has been helping us is Charles Long in the speaker's office," he said.

Long, an administrative staff assistant, said the speaker also sent a letter to Shirley on Tuesday asking for an extension so the legislative branch would have time to work with the families and find them new homes.

Long is also working with NHA officials who have agreed to do what they can to find homes for some of the displaced families. The problem is that while there are vacant NHA houses throughout the reservation, tenants want to stay in the Toyei area because that is where their jobs are located.

There is rental housing in Gallup and Holbrook, too, but that's 90 miles away, he said. Even Ganado, which also has a housing shortage, is 30 miles away.

Low Mountain proposal

One idea the legislative branch is working on is to move Toyei Industries to an area near NHA housing.

Toyei Industries was started more than 20 years ago to assist tribal members with mental disabilities who need help with day-to-day living.

Long said he remembers hearing stories of Navajo families building a shack next to their home and putting family members with mental problems there.

Toyei Industries, said Miller, provides these individuals with the training so they can live on their own or in group homes.

Research by Long revealed a number of NHA homes in the Low Mountain area that have sat vacant for three years. This could provide a solution except that they were built with federal money geared to help low-income families.

Many at Toyei earn middle-class salaries and are ineligible for programs aimed at low-income families.

But Long said he felt this could be worked out, pointing out that it didn't make sense for these homes to go unused when they could help solve the problem at Toyei and bring needed income to NHA.

Back in 2004, the tribal council appropriated $1.2 million to renovate the buildings at Toyei, Long said, but for some reason the money wasn't turned over to the program until 2006.

At that time, the decision was made that rehabilitation would cost too much and the money was spent to buy trailers instead.

Cowboy said the estimated cost to renovate the buildings is now $12 million, making it cheaper just to tear them down and construct new ones.

No matter what the tribe does, however, it won't help those who now face immediate eviction.

Miller said the tribe should have acted years ago, doing the needed renovation house by house to minimize the number of people dislocated.

If the tribe is so concerned about safety issues, the tenants said, probably the worst thing it could do is force the families to move before it decides what to do with the buildings, citing the problem with vandalism, arson and illegal activities around vacant structures on the reservation.

The houses that have already been vacated and boarded up have been broken into and stripped of cabinets, garage doors and other materials.

Backing down

Some families want to resist, saying the tribe, meeting opposition, always backs down.

But the tribe has taken steps not seen before in this case, such as closing the police academy and relocating police personnel.

And Sandoval, Cowboy and other tribal officials continue to point out that the families have repeatedly been given extra time, yet many have taken no steps to find new homes.

Cowboy is adamant that the delays are at an end. The tribe will seek court orders evicting the remaining tenants as soon as possible, he said.

In that case, the day may come when police officers who once lived at Toyei return to evict their neighbors.

But Miller said if this happens, it would be a "conflict of interest."

After all, he said, the police department is acting as the landlord.

"They are the ones who allowed these buildings to deteriorate in the first place," he said.

Brown expects that eventually the tenants will have to leave.

"Hopefully, we will be given a little more time to find new homes," she said, adding that some tenants are trying to work with NHA. Some have even looked at returning to the houses they lived in before moving to Toyei.

But for many families, Brown said, it's a financial issue since the tribe has been holding them "economically hostage" by charging very low rents at Toyei.

Now the families are looking at paying $300 to $400 a month in rent. That's still half or less what most renters off the reservation pay for a house, but it's many times more than residents were paying at Toyei.

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