DILKON, Ariz.—LAM Corporation, based in Gallup, N.M. is building scattered site housing for NHA Project No. AZ12-405 and Project No. NM15-405.
The Navajo-owned company is currently building nine homes across the Navajo Nation in the communities of Aneth, Baca-Prewitt, Chinle, Dilkon, Jeddito, Mexican Water, Newcomb, and White Cone.
The homes are a mix of two, three, and four-bedroom floor plans
Lennis Jim, superintendent for LAM Corporation, said the sites average a distance of at least 75 miles apart.
“We are going as far east as Prewitt, as far west as Jeddito, as far north as Aneth, and as far south as Dilkon,” he said, standing inside the Claw family’s three-bedroom home located in the Dilkon that was awaiting painting and finishing.
Jim oversees a crew of 11 guys that cover the nine scattered sites.
LAM Corporation received the construction notice to proceed for the design-build project on May 13, 2024, and construction efforts began in earnest with excavation, building concrete slabs, framing, and decking.
Drywall and texturing for four of the homes are complete and they now await painting. However, one home located in Baca-Prewitt for the Baker family was still awaiting delivery of building materials to begin framing.
Fellow superintendent Art Boyd Woody Sr. said he has been overseeing his three-man crew for the Thomas and Richards family homes in White Cone and Jeddito, respectively. They were setting up doors and completing the baseboards throughout the unit.
The week prior, they were at the two Utah locations and the Two Grey Hills projects to put up drywall and prepare for texture before the units for painting.
Edison Johnson, project manager for NHA, commended the work of LAM Corporation and said he has been involved with the scattered sites from the start, conducting preliminary assessments, pre-interviews with clients, and seeing the project through until keys are provided to homeowners.
Johnson said the period for a scattered site housing unit is about five years from the day NHA meets with clients for consultation to the end of construction.
“We do the utility design, hire architecture and engineering firms to design the homes, and then we bid it out for contractors,” he said. “Sometimes, the timeframe could be less, perhaps three or four years for design-build projects.”
Johnson said the scattered site housing units are more expensive because of the remote areas that require contractors to deliver needed supplies, especially concrete.
“For instance, we had concrete delivered from Flagstaff to the Bennett Freeze projects in Coppermine,” he said.
The current slate of nine scattered site housing will reach completion in August and Johnson said the goal is always to move the families into homes as soon as possible.
Seeing the projects through to completion gives Johnson immense gratification because he meets with family on bare homesite areas and collaborates with them throughout the process until the day they get to move-in.
Turning over keys to families in the Former Bennett Freeze Area in 2024 was particularly moving, he said, especially since the families spent half their life in substandard living conditions because of the restrictions.
“The Bennett Freeze housing construction was one of the greatest moments of my life, to provide six families with homes that we built,” he said. “They were in their 40s when they applied for homes, and they had homes built for them in their 80s.
NHA still has two construction phases left for the Bennett Freeze, with phase two set to bring in seven more homes.
“For the Bennett Freeze we scaled down on the designs of homes because of the family incomes. We made simple, sustainable designs: gable roofs that were weatherize,” Johnson said. “NHA is especially important; we build homes so families can enjoy the Navajo dream of homeownership.
“We do whatever we can to help these families,” he added.
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