Echo Cliffs breaks ground on $87 million staff housing to support new clinic
Navajo Times | Krista Allen
A boom lift hovers over modular units as construction advances at the Echo Cliffs Health Center near Coppermine Road, March 20, 2025.
TSINAABĄĄS HABITIIN, Ariz.
Construction is underway on staff housing for the Echo Cliffs Health Center, with a groundbreaking on Aug. 27 along Coppermine Road just south of the clinic site.
The $87 million project, funded by the Indian Health Service, will deliver 92 units for medical workers: 60 apartments and 32 single-family homes with covered parking, driveways and fenced yards. Modular construction began in June, and crews plan phased openings through December 2026.
Hospital leaders say the housing is key to opening the larger health facility on time. The Echo Cliffs Health Center, a $170 million, 123,000-square-foot outpatient complex slated for fall 2026, will offer primary care, dental, eye care, pharmacy, EMS and other services for Navajo, Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute families.
“Today, the building of the health care facility that is so close to home is being realized,” said Joette Walters, the CEO of Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation. “As we prepare for the health care center’s opening, housing for the staff is a critical step.”
The project’s modular approach is designed to speed delivery while the clinic rises nearby. Site work will continue in stages so units can come online as they are finished, giving the health system a way to recruit and retain clinicians ahead of the 2026 launch.
For longtime residents, the construction marks a shift in daily life along Coppermine Road. Leila McCabe, a TCRHCC board member who has lived in the area her entire life, said the community’s needs have evolved with time. She began her career in education and still works closely with schools, recalling days spent herding sheep as a child and the changes that followed when families needed new paths to stability.
She pointed to the opening of Tsinaabąąs Habitiin Elementary School in 2004 as a turning point and sees the hospital and housing as the next step, linking health care and education with local jobs and safer communities.
“We want to develop our economy,” McCabe said. “From this area down to Page, we encourage people to start their business because we have all this land that hasn’t been used.”
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