Grand Canyon plan would upgrade housing for Havasupai

Flagstaff, Ariz. (Salt Lake Tribune) » A Grand Canyon housing area for members of an American Indian tribe displaced by the national park is in desperate need of repair.

The five 300-square-foot cabins at Supai Camp have no plumbing or insulation, the floors are cracked, windows are broken and the electric work dates to the 1930s when the cabins were built. The National Park Service considers them unsafe, unhealthy and substandard.

A Park Service proposal would use more than $1.5 million -- a mix of stimulus funding and money generated from entry fees -- to upgrade the cabins and build six new units at the canyon's South Rim for use by the Havasupai Tribe.

"They definitely need to be upgraded, to have more modern housing opportunities similar to what other park residents are able to live in," said Rachel Stanton, project planning leader at the Grand Canyon.

The public has until Aug. 24 to comment on the environmental assessment for the Supai Camp project that also has a no action alternative.

Original Article