The Navajo Nation set up a $6 million trust fund in 1998 to provide housing for its veterans but many go without adequate housing.

The Navajo Department of Veterans Affairs doesn't know exactly how many homes it has built or provided because records are incomplete. No homes were built at all last year.

"These veterans, they deserve housing — decent and sanitary housing — for the services that they provided this country," Rick Abasta, a spokesperson for Navajo President Ben Shelly, told The Los Angeles Times.

Shelly signed a contract with Home Depot in February to change the situation. But the $1.9 million project will only finance 75 homes -- hundreds of veterans are on the waiting list.

About 9,000 veterans live on the reservation and more than half live in substandard housing, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs

Get the Story:
Navajo military veterans struggle with housing (The Los Angeles Times 3/9)
New housing for Navajo veterans move forward (The Farmington Daily Times 2/3)