The Navajo Nation council has called for an investigation into American Rescue Plan Act funds issued to a Mesa-based microhome builder that was supposed to construct homes on the Navajo Nation. Last week, the company closed its plant near Page and laid off some 200 employees.
ZenniHome arrived on the Navajo Nation two years ago. President Buu Nygren welcomed the company, which purported to build culturally relevant homes for Navajo. In 2024, Nygren said: “I expect this to create the highest producing housing factory in the world. It will enable ZenniHome to begin to manufacture more than 25 homes a day once the factory expansion is completed by the end of 2025.”
Here is ZenniHome CEO and former Arizona state Sen. Bob Worsley in a video to investors last year:
"I didn’t realize it but Navajos are very very modest. They don’t want floor to ceiling windows. They want smaller windows. Some of them don’t want to have washing machines, dishwashers. They have a great sense of satisfaction serving and cleaning dishes manually. So we’re trying to become sensitive to colors, textures, and what the Navajo people want," he said.
Nygren announced that ZenniHome would use its 75-year lease for the old Navajo Generating Station near Page to build a second home building factory and work with a Navajo architect to produce these homes. The company received $74 million in grants, including $24 million in ARPA funds and $50 million from community housing.
Now ZenniHome has closed the factory and laid off 210 workers, according to a notice it filed with Arizona. Nygren said the company’s projected 160 homes to be built on the Nation was reduced to 80. "As a lifelong construction worker and home builder, I know what it means to take pride in your craft — to show up before sunrise, to weld steel, pour concrete, measure twice, and build something that will last generations," he wrote on social media.
"That’s why the closure of ZenniHome’s factory in LeChee hits especially hard. Over 200 skilled Navajo workers — my fellow builders — have been laid off. They lost more than jobs. They lost stability, a steady paycheck, and the pride that comes from building homes for our people, right here on Navajo land," Nygren said.
CEO Worsley told the Navajo Times political interference and contractual breaches led to the decision to close the factory.
Navajo Council Delegate Eugenia Charles-Newton questioned the president’s administration during a legislative hearing Monday.
"Have you met with those 200 Navajo people personally? Have you apologized for what has become of the ZenniHomes contract?" she asked.
Nygren’s chief of staff Kris Beecher responded to her.
"I take issue with the inferences that you’re making. What I want to do is just state is that I don’t think we should try to sully the council floor with derogatory comments like this," he said.
Nygren and Worsley have not responded to KJZZ's request for an interview. Nygren wrote on social media that ZenniHome’s closure means lost jobs and stability for Navajo workers.
The legislative council has asked for a special prosecutor and investigative hearings into the ARPA funds.
