Top 10 Stories of 2021 | No. 10: Diné veteran still homeless

GAD ŁEEYÁNÍ, Ariz.

More than 10 months later, Harry Joe Ashley is about to get a home in 2022.

The old Marine Corps veteran, who served twice for his country and was honorably discharged twice for serving from 1974-1977 and 1980-1983, has had to go back to sleeping with layers of blankets and clothing to stay warm.

He’s also had to go back to waking up at odd hours of the night to build a fire for warmth.

Since February, the Marine’s situation slightly improved. He got his home-site lease, which is needed for any Navajo wanting to get electricity and running water to their home.

Ashley, who is Honágháahnii born for Tábąąhá, whose maternal grandfathers are Tódích’íi’nii’, and whose paternal grandfathers are Áshįįhí, also has a fifth-wheel travel trailer to sleep in.

He no longer sleeps in the tiny one-room travel trailer given to him by a family for which he sheared sheep.

Even with the slight progress in his housing situation, Ashley is considered a homeless veteran, said James Zwierlin, executive director for the Navajo Nation Veterans Administration.

Ashley, along with the 1,400 other veterans like him, has a home application – some since the 1980s.

A prototype was built at the NNVA office complex in Tse Bonito, New Mexico, to show what a qualifying Navajo veteran’s home will look once it is constructed.

Zwierlin, who took the job in November 2019, said he’s been encountering and uncovering problem after problem related to housing. One example was a lack of tracking of funding, which led to purchase orders from Home Depot being misused.

In August, the president’s office signed into law the changes needed to streamline how the Veterans Trust Fund could be used to build new homes after Council passed a bill modifying a 2018 bill that gave NNVA the OK to build 15 homes in each agency.

Zwierlin said not a single veteran home has been built in the last four years. However, that is about to change.

A house like the prototype is nearly complete for a Navajo veteran in Western Navajo, said Hubert Smith, deputy director of VA.

NNVA is not accepting new applications for homes until the 1,400 or so veterans who have had applications since the 1980s get their homes first.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, more than 12,400 Navajo veterans have been impacted and struggle to keep food on the table for their families. Ashley is no exception. He hopes to get a new hogan completed for him as soon as possible.

A small group of volunteers has helped him get a home-site lease, as well as raising money for a home. The volunteers have begun working on his hogan and hope to complete it by February.

Ironically, Ashley said tribal officials dropped off supplies four years ago at his residence, where he wants a new house.

“They just hauled it here, and so I just had to hurry and make my shade house without thoroughly planning to make my home,” Ashley said. “They said to me, ‘He’s lying, (and) he probably just wants us to build a house for him.’

“I’m a veteran,” he said. “I hold two honorable discharges. I got out and then re-enlisted. I got another honorable discharge.”

---