In 1999, Ron and Karen Maldonado were the first. "We were the first mortgage for what was then Navajo Partnership for Housing," Ron Maldonado explains. The couple had moved from Tucson, Arizona, where they lived and worked, to Karen's homesite on the Navajo reservation where she grew up.
When they first moved back, they bought a used, three-bedroom mobile home. Ron Maldonado, who identifies as Hispanic, not Navajo, worked as an archeologist. Karen Maldonado worked as a middle school secretary. "We started looking for someone – a contractor – to build a house for us," Ron Maldonado says. "They'd say, 'Oh, we can build it, no problem.' Then we'd tell them where we lived."
When they answered, "the Navajo reservation," the "yes" became a "no." Then, in the late 1990s, Ron Maldonado began taking homeownership classes through Navajo Partnership for Housing, now Native Partnership for Housing. The nonprofit understood banks, mortgages, and homesite leases, the written documents that show approval from the Navajo Nation and Bureau of Indian Affairs to lease tribal land for residential purposes.
NPH is also a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). The nonprofit handled the Maldonados' mortgage, Fannie Mae handled the guarantee, and the couple got a construction loan for the home they still occupy in Fort Defiance, Arizona. It is where they'll stay, in the home that will pass down from Karen Maldonado to their daughters, who are Navajo.
"One day [Ron] said to me, 'Well, honey, we're going home,'" recalls Karen Maldonado. "Now we're planted here for good."
"This is where we want to be," agrees Ron Maldonado. "We're surrounded by family. I have a beautiful yard with juniper trees. Where else would I want to go?"
Finding a home like the Maldonados' can be a struggle for Navajo families. While tribal entities manage housing for low-income families, homes for middle-income residents are hard to find and hard to build. Financing such homes is another barrier. That's where NPH has built its niche.
"Generation after generation have spent dollars not on housing, but on other things," says Ron Maldonado, who now serves on the board of directors for NPH. Wear-and-tear on vehicles is high in the desert, and tax refunds often go to car dealerships in border towns. "We want to get the word out that you can be a homeowner; you can mortgage trust land in Indian country," Maldonado says, adding that it doesn't have to be one of the HUD loans set aside for Native Americans. "We have a conventional mortgage."
NPH also helps families with homebuyer education – both those who take classes locally and Native Americans who may take classes from farther away. As a CDFI, they help with low-interest loans that can be used for credit repair, home repair and small businesses. "We're building houses for Navajo families who want to live out here, on traditional land."
There are obstacles. Building in remote areas is complicated by the cost of shipping materials and construction crews. It's complicated by a lack of electrical and water hookups. (The Maldonados were lucky that Karen Maldonado's mother already had electricity and water.)
"Without NPH, I wouldn't be sitting in my garage talking to you now," says Ron Maldonado, for whom housing has become a passion. "NPH has made a dramatic difference on Navajo land. We have a long way to go, but we're getting there. We truly are."
Several years ago, NeighborWorks America made a commitment to explore partnerships and achieve more of an impact in Native communities. Over the past year, NeighborWorks has added two new Native affiliates in Oweesta Corporation and Lakota Funds. Native Partnership for Housing has been a NeighborWorks network organization since May of 1999.
Coming up: When it became hard to find contractors who met their standards, Native Partnership for Housing started a construction company with Native workers with the goal of building middle-income housing and providing middle-income jobs.
