Despite billions in relief, thousands on Navajo still wait for safe homes
Special to the Times | Donovan Quintero
Janice Billiman, 69, stands outside her home in Oak Springs, Ariz., where a new metal roof was recently installed by a private crew. For years, Billiman and her husband hauled water and battled leaks and mold inside the one-room house as they waited for promised chapter and housing assistance that never arrived.
WINDOW ROCK
The morning light crept across the edge of a metal rooftop that now glimmers above a weather-worn home tucked into the red-earth hills of Oak Springs. Inside, 69-year-old Janice Billiman moved slowly through her living space, stepping around boxes, blankets and personal belongings that filled nearly every corner of the one-room house.
She bent to pull a crumpled photograph from the top of a dresser crowded with folded clothes and plastic containers.
“My kids used to run around here,” she said softly. “We’ve lived here almost 50 years.”
For decades, Billiman said the roof leaked each winter, describing how melted snow would drip through cracks in the ceiling, soaking bedding and warping the floor. When storms were forecast, she moved belongings away from the walls and placed buckets beneath holes. Mold crept across drywall, then across the wooden beams holding the roof up.
To read the full article, please see the Nov. 6, 2025, edition of the Navajo Times.
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Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow