CHURCH ROCK, N.M. (AP) – Louise Johnson, 76, made a plea for help in her cellphone voicemail message.
“My name is Louise Johnson. I live in the Superman Canyon (area). I need food and woods.”
Earlier this year, when the pandemic hit the Navajo Nation, she found herself unable to leave her home to go to town for groceries and other essentials for fear of being exposed to COVID-19.
Since she recorded the message in late March or April, her family and friends have been delivering goods to her home, a one-bedroom hogan without a bathroom or running water located in a rural area northwest of Church Rock known as Superman Canyon because that’s where scenes of the 1978 “Superman” movie were filmed.
“I heard it on the radio. They advised us to do that,” Johnson said about the idea of recording a request for help on her voicemail.
She has not deleted the message, despite her brother’s request, because the number of Navajo elders dying from COVID-19 continues to increase, and she feels she is still at risk and does not know when the crisis is going to end.
Johnson’s needs go beyond “food and woods.”
She takes sponge baths and uses an outhouse for her necessities. Her biggest challenge is water. Even though her hogan was built about 50 feet away from a waterline, she has not been able to connect the structure to the line because she lacks a bathroom, one of the requirements for the Indian Health Service to connect the home to plumbing.
According to Church Rock Chapter records, Johnson applied for financial assistance through the chapter to build a bathroom in 2018. All 110 Navajo chapters have an annual budget to assist the community with home repairs and bathroom additions.
Morgan said since Johnson’s plight was featured in the news earlier this year, the chapter passed an emergency resolution to immediately grant Johnson’s request and she was awarded about $3,000 to pay for lumber and other materials to build the bathroom addition. She also told the Gallup Independent that three volunteers, two of whom had construction experience, offered to assist in building the bathroom.
The project is still in the works. Johnson said she visited the chapter recently to find out what’s going on and was told not to worry, that “it’s being taken care of,” she said.
Morgan said she is working with the Navajo Engineering Construction Co. on getting Johnson’s bathroom and plumbing. She said Johnson is one of about 300 families in Church Rock in need of a bathroom.
“About 50 to 60% of our families need bathroom additions,” Morgan said. “The majority of the families need bathroom additions or new bathrooms because their systems are old and their septic tanks collapsed or their bathroom fixtures got depleted. Some of these homes or bathrooms were built back in the day, when bathroom construction was not efficient or they used to cut corners.”
The cost to build or replace a bathroom varies, but the chapter typically awards $3,000 per member in need of assistance for lumber and material. Money, however, is limited and awarded based on priority and need.
Rex Kontz, Navajo Tribal Utility Authority deputy manager, told the Independent in May that about 15,000 homes on the Navajo Nation lack running water for different reasons that include the lack of a bathroom or plumbing.
“After unofficial inquiry, I understand roughly 50% need plumbing,” he said. “But some also need an addition to create space for a bathroom or what is referred to as a bathroom addition. ... Some homes may have been pre-plumbed when built and some may be mobile homes that came with plumbing.”
Jenny Notah, a spokeswoman for the Navajo Area Indian Health Service, said the agency can provide bathroom plumbing for homes when it is constructing water and sewer facilities at those homes. But the burden lies on others.
“Bathroom additions must be built by either the homeowner, the chapter, the Navajo Nation or by others,” she said in an email to the Independent. “When IHS can fit bathroom plumbing, which usually includes a sink, a toilet, a shower-tub and a hot water heater, in a home without an addition, then we do. However, many older homes and hogans typically do not have room in the existing home for bathroom plumbing. When a bathroom addition is necessary, the IHS typically coordinates with the homeowner and chapter on the need for bathroom additions long before a water/sewer project begins in order to give the homeowners and chapters time to build the necessary bathroom additions.”
Notah couldn’t say how many homes are on a list of funded projects. Hundreds of others are in need of bathroom additions, she said.
The agency has worked with the Navajo Engineering and Construction Authority to install about 88 homes with plumbing, including toilets, and showers or tubs so far this year, Notah said.
