Navajo Nation housing hearing stalls as DOJ bars testimony, records fight grows

Apache County and Navajo Nation residents still do not know who is responsible for the troubled housing contracts, whether federal relief money was spent as promised, or what will happen if key witnesses keep staying away. That uncertainty deepened in Window Rock on June 8, when the Navajo Nation Council Budget and Finance Committee opened an investigative hearing and found that no subpoenaed Executive Branch officials had testified.

The hearing was tied to Resolution BFJY-55-25 and focused on records connected to American Rescue Plan Act and Fiscal Recovery Funds used for housing contracts involving ZenniHome and IDS+A. Instead of building a full public record, the session quickly turned into a dispute over who could testify and who could not, after the Navajo Nation Department of Justice advised employees not to participate.

Acting Deputy Attorney General JoAnn B. Jayne told lawmakers the department had not waived attorney-client privilege and said the office issued its notice because it represents the Navajo Nation government. She also said the department did not know the full list of subpoenaed witnesses. For lawmakers, that left the central question unchanged: whether the Council can compel answers in a matter that has already raised alarms about federal housing funds, contractor oversight, and public accountability.

The dispute grew out of an investigation that began in July 2025, when the Council started examining whether $24 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds had been improperly awarded through the ZenniHome housing deal. The original plan called for 160 homes at $44 million, but on July 3, 2025, the work order was cut to 80 homes for $22 million. President Buu Nygren’s office later said the closure of ZenniHome’s LeChee factory affected more than 200 workers.

The numbers have only become more troubling. Later updates said the controller’s office reported $24 million had been drawn down to construct 80 homes, but only 18 homes were actually built through ZenniHome. In February 2026, Indigenous Design Studio + Architecture LLC sued over about $24 million connected to the project, and ZenniHome filed for bankruptcy one day before a scheduled hearing tied to a nearly $22 million housing dispute.

The project once had broader political backing. On March 7, 2024, Nygren and ZenniHome CEO Bob Worsley publicly announced a partnership at the LeChee factory, and Navajo Nation communications later framed it as a housing and economic development effort meant to support veterans and transitional housing. By June 8, that promise had hardened into a test of whether the Navajo Nation can trace how the money moved, force testimony when officials resist, and give the public a full accounting before the record closes around Window Rock.