The modular builder who pulled out of a multimillion-dollar housing project on the Navajo Nation amid scrutiny by tribal leaders blamed what he calls the tribe’s bureaucratic dysfunction for the project’s abandonment.
ZenniHome CEO Bob Worsley says the company was initially going to build 160 homes on the Navajo Nation when the order was suddenly halved to just 80.
"That was the thing that precipitated this crisis," he said.
The former state senator says ZenniHome received $22 million from the Navajo Nation as a deposit for the company to set up its factory near Page.
"And we just looked at the numbers and the money we had spent to date to get set up. To get plans approved. To get things engineered. To get a model home built and delivered to Window Rock, and to build the first units, and then to be told halfway through our relationship that we weren’t going to get the other half of the money," Worsley said.
The plant shuttered just last week and 210 people were laid off having built just 18 homes.
The plant opened with much celebration at the time. Navajo President Buu Nygren had vowed to build 1,000 new homes for the Nation where housing is in short supply. Worsley says the tribe declined his offer to let the Nation take over the factory.
The case has been at the epicenter of the latest battle between Nygren and the Navajo Legislature. Earlier this week, Nygren walked out of the State of the Navajo Nation address to the Legislature after delegates questioned the ZenniHome deal.
"We’ve become the rag doll being thrown around in our contract and our relationship because it’s perceived that President Nygren liked us and was working with us to expand our business there and the council was trying to fight him on everything he was doing," Worsley said.
Nygren himself has not responded to KJZZ’s repeated requests for an interview. In a statement, he said he will follow the law with respect to any investigation and that he walked out of the tribal address to avoid quote "political theater."
Meanwhile, legislators are still asking what happened with the funds.
"What I do want to know is how do you spend $24 million on 18 homes?" asked Eugenia Charles-Newton who serves on the Nation’s council. She says ZenniHome fell far short of delivering on its promises.
"And in this case we have not heard anything from Buu. He has not shared any information with us. He's been sending his staff while he goes on travel. I have no idea at this point how to fix this aside from, we need him to start cooperating," she said.
Chief among the council’s investigations is to determine if $24 million in COVID-19 relief funds were improperly spent on the project.
KJZZ asked Worsley if the funds were going to be returned to the Navajo Nation or if they had all been spent.
"That’ll come to light soon and we’ll have that discussion in court," he said.
Worsley says he spent $50 million of his own money and investor funds to open the modular home factory on the Nation.
