Dozens of Shiprock homes crumbling

Posted at: 08/18/2009 7:38 AM
By: The Associated Press

SHIPROCK, N.M. (AP) - Dozens of new homes are crumbling in Shiprock as the Navajo Nation continues its probe into a $9 million construction project gone awry.

Shiprock officials and representatives of the Navajo Housing Authority met this week to discuss an abandoned 91-home construction project that began nearly three years ago.

About 50 homes were built. They stand empty, vandalized and deteriorating near the existing Navajo Housing Authority community.

Shiprock's delegate to the Navajo Tribal Council, Leonard Anthony, calls it "a scam."

The latest accusations of financial mismanagement come on the heels of two additional failed business endeavors on the Navajo Nation.

BCDS Manufacturing and Dine Poultry Products both went under last year, costing the Navajo Nation a combined $3.5 million when two banks called the Navajo-backed loans.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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