A place called ‘home’: Diné homeowners facing foreclosure, dream fading

TSÉBIGHÁHOODZÁNÍ

Friends and family would go in and out of the house.

Whether it was for a celebration, family time, or a cookout in the backyard, these memories carry with them a sense of comfort and security, said Trina Hardy.

“You get a home, and you picture your kids growing (up) there,” she said in tears.

In a foreclosure sale, that dream could fade away in May, when they could lose their townhouse at Karigan Estates in St. Michaels, Arizona.

Their townhouse, a three-bedroom, two-bath home, is titled in her husband, Rudy Arviso’s name. Arviso’s currently in the foreclosure process, but he and his family have until the date of sale to make arrangements with the lender.

Hardy and Arviso were one of three families who moved into the terraced housings on Oct. 9, 2013. The couple at the time were new homeowners after Arviso did a three-year home-buying and mortgage process with the Navajo Partnership for Housing to strengthen his credit.

When they moved in, their daughter, Raelynn Arviso, 8, was only a week old.

Hardy said she and her family were happy when they moved in. Now, they are pulling together for the bitter experience of possibly moving out if they don’t pay the $10,000-plus owed.

Rudy Arviso said if he and his family get evicted, they would have nowhere to go. They have a home site in Navajo, New Mexico, but they don’t have a house on the plot.

“My wife and I work here (in the Window Rock area),” he explained. “We would have to figure something out. But we’re hoping we can save (the townhouse).

“I’m trying to work with the lender right now,” he said. “The lender wants some hardship documentation. I finally got all the paperwork done, and I’m going to submit them.”

Arviso said while he’s waiting for his and his wife’s ARPA Hardship Assistance checks – which could be enough to cover at least half of the amount owed – to show up in his mailbox, he might be able to avoid foreclosure with a couple of options in the meantime.

Avoiding foreclosure

Those options are mortgage loan modification and mortgage reinstatement.

A loan modification is an agreement between the borrower and the lender to adjust the loan terms. The goal of a modification is usually to lower the monthly payment.

Typically, a modification involves reducing the interest rate, adding any overdue amounts to the loan balance, and extending the length (term) of the loan, say from 30 to 40 years.

Reinstatement makes up all the missed payments, including principal and interest, plus fees and expenses. Because many lenders aren’t eager to push ahead with foreclosure, Arviso’s lender might work something out with him, and he might be able to reinstate up until the sale in May.

“So, I’ve been working with them (lender),” Arviso explained. “They can’t help me with funding or anything – from an outside source.”

There are several programs to assist homeowners at risk of foreclosure and otherwise struggling with their monthly mortgage payments. But those programs are designed for homeowners in large towns outside of the Navajo Nation, said Arviso.

“Everything I try to do, it just comes to a dead-end,” he said. “A lot of (programs) recommend HUD counseling, but that’s also for (homeowners in large towns).”

HUD, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, sponsors housing counseling agencies throughout the country to provide advice on buying a home, renting, defaults, foreclosures, and credit issues. However, there isn’t an agency in the Navajo Nation, and that makes things more difficult for him.

“But for now, I’d like to reinstate it,” Arviso said, “but the $10,000-plus is a lot. It’s going to go up. I don’t think we’re going to get the hardship checks until (later this month).

“My wife said, ‘This is our kids’ home. We have to try to save it. Where are we going to go?’ She’s really worried about it too,” he added. “They’re the ones who I really want to save the house for.”

Karigan townhouse

On Oct. 12, 2010, the Navajo Housing Authority broke ground on 23 new townhomes at Karigan Estates. The $5.4-million project, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, provides homes for low-income Diné families through the Navajo Partnership for Housing.

When the project was completed nearly three years later, families started moving into the townhomes constructed by Yazzie Greenberg Construction and designed by Woolsey Studios.

Arviso and Hardy’s family was one of the move-ins.

An extension of the Karigan Estates development, the townhouses were built on 2.14 acres of fee land on the estate. The townhouses range from $175,500 to $180,000.

Money has been a worry throughout the coronavirus pandemic between food and a $500 monthly mortgage payment. But food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, helps, said Hardy.

“When we found out we were about to lose the house, as a parent, you look at all the rooms,” Hardy said. “You look at the memories you shared with your children and how far it’s starting to fade away.”

The family’s eldest son, who’s 13, enjoys spending time in his room gaming, and Raelynn enjoys art and creating things in her room.

“Our little one (River Bear, 4), every time we go somewhere, it hits me in a different way because he says, ‘Mom, I just want to go home,’” Hardy said. “What do you do? What are you supposed to do when you’re about to lose your home?”

COVID impacts

While white-collar America primarily worked from the cocoons of their homes, Hardy had to leave for work every day.

She was the family’s primary breadwinner who went out and took risks during the first and second years of the pandemic, while Arviso took care of the kids or worked odd jobs.

Arviso said he recently found a full-time job.

“The pandemic’s been hard,” Hardy said. “You have anxiety, and it made me depressed – scared.

“In the facility I work at, we work mostly with COVID,” she said. “And my two younger children, (Raelynn and River), had COVID twice. We almost lost our daughter in August. That’s when we stopped paying for stuff. And we started spending more time with each other.”

Hardy said she contracted COVID in January, and she was hospitalized after she contracted it again at the end of February.

“We were trying to find help with the kids and everything,” Hardy explained. “It’s been hard.

“I started getting depressed, and I was scared. Everything I did, I was scared.

“I said to myself, ‘OK, I need to worry about COVID. I have the phone bill, light bill,’” she said. “I was trying to manage my money, but it was very difficult because the kids needed this and that.”

Hardy said when she got sick, she saw how her family couldn’t make ends meet without her income.

“I was the only one working, and I’d use up all my PTO (paid-time-off),” she explained. “Even paying for a babysitter was hard. I had my son, (River), going to daycare.

“Seeing the emotional toll between mother and child – it was hard for me,” she added. “I stretched every dollar I had and borrowed, borrowed money. It got a lot, it got too much.”

A home

“My daughter, (Raelynn), she grew up here,” Arviso said. “We have a son, (River), and he was born here. This is the only place he knows. They call this their home.”

Arviso said that before Raelynn and River were born, he and Hardy lived with his grandmother in Window Rock.

“I had a father who used to live with us (in the townhouse),” Hardy said. “He passed away four years ago. It seems like every memory I have of him is in this house.”

“This is the place the kids call home,” Arviso said. “Just being here – home.”

“Everything that I do in my life is for my children,” Hardy added.

The Arviso family, on March 1, set up a GoFundMe campaign (https://gofund.me/72f78658) for financial assistance. Their goal is to raise at least $5,000.

Editor’s note: Rudy Arviso is Navajo Times CEO Tom Arviso Jr.’s nephew, a relationship the reporter was unaware of until after this story was written.

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