Karigan Estates is a project of the Navajo Nation, a master planned, 113-acre site consisting of single-family homes, apartment complexes, townhomes, retail/commercial, and governmental offices. The Nation’s Division of Economic Development transferred 25 lots to Native Housing Partnership (NHP), the designated developer, when this phase began several years ago. NHP has provided marketing, design, construction management, homebuyer education, and counseling services to prospective buyers since that time. From 2010-2017, Community Housing Capital (CHC) provided NHP with $3 million of financing to help develop the Karigan Estates.
The hope for the Karigan Estates was to attract higher-income professionals to live full-time on tribal lands, including attorneys, employees at the Navajo Nation, university staff from Gallup, as well as local teachers and medical personnel who work in Window Rock, Arizona. Currently, there is an extreme shortage of housing that would appeal to this demographic, and the housing authority can only sell to low-income families due to funding restrictions. Native Housing Partnership (NHP) has made a concerted effort to target these buyers to diversify the homeownership profile on tribal lands and to meet a housing need currently not offered in the Nation. Before the Karigan Estates, there were few opportunities for members of the Navajo Nation to pursue homeownership without relocating. “Navajo are starting to come home now,” says Eric Schmieder, Vice President of the Board, NHP.
In addition to a high level of poverty and unemployment, the culture in the vast and far-flung Navajo Nation makes traditional real estate transactions time consuming and difficult. NHP provides innovative and flexible home ownership financing opportunities on or near the Navajo Nation. It empowers Navajo families with new knowledge, skills, and understanding, which will enable them to more easily complete real estate transactions.
Native Partnership for Housing (NHP) serves the housing and homeownership needs of Native and non-Native clients in the Four Corners region in both remote and urban areas. They provide financial education and counseling for home buyers, flexible and affordable mortgage lending products, and with its subsidiary Clear Water Construction Partners, they deliver quality design, build and remodel services.
NHP is a free-standing CDFI, the only one not dedicated to a specific tribe or tribal market. They are a charter member of NeighborWorks and a Certified HUD Approved Counseling Organization. The only Native non-profit to have all three credentials.
