ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a case study of the challenges to homeownership in the Navajo Nation and the ways in which the Navajo are responding to those challenges. Land in the MLL areas could be used as collateral for either commercial or housing development, but the Navajo Nation had the right of first refusal in the case of foreclosure. The 1990 census counted 56,188 housing units in the Navajo Nation, of which 19,339, or 34.4 percent, were vacant, leaving 36,849 occupied units. Navajo Nation President Kelsey A. Begaye, has similarly supported homeownership initiatives. The Navajo Nation, like most Indian reservations, lacks a housing market. There are other housing market components that are equally deficient on the Navajo Reservation, for example, challenges to housing production and housing services related to the buying and selling of real estate. Homeownership in the Navajo Nation is impeded by land, legal, infrastructure, financing, education, market, and many other challenges.
