After the state cracked down on Medicaid fraud and suspended unlicensed sober living homes, Navajo law enforcement teams made contact with several hundred Native Americans from various tribes who are living on the streets in the metro Phoenix area, according to Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch.
Branch said that more than 270 Native Americans, mostly Navajo, were contacted by teams that included Navajo police officers.
Navajo Law Enforcement’s Outreach to Homeless Native Americans
Branch stated that while some tribe members agreed to return home to their reservations, others accepted offers to remain in hotel rooms or other forms of temporary lodging for a few days before going into legal facilities.
The teams collaborated with neighborhood police departments and Community Bridges, Inc., a charity that helps addicts.
The Navajo tribe will continue to be represented in Phoenix through an operations center even though the Navajo law enforcement teams have temporarily returned to the reservation.
The Navajo Nation started Project Rainbow Bridge in reaction to Arizona’s declaration last month that it was cutting off Medicaid money to more than 100 illegal and fraudulent sober living houses, the majority of which were in metro Phoenix.
Several individuals who had sought professional assistance to overcome their addictions are now homeless as a result of the closing of the targeted homes.
A Facebook page and a TikTok account that is currently under creation are included in the Operation Rainbow Bridge toolkit.
The tribe is also encouraging its members to call the 211 hotline, which enables people who are impacted to locate a place to stay and access the assistance they require.
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Fake Sober Living Homes Exploit Native Americans in Medicaid Fraud Scandal
In some cases, according to Navajo Nation officials, those who ended up in the residences were picked up in unmarked cars and brought from distant areas of the large Navajo Nation, which encompasses parts of northern Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, to the Phoenix area.
Unknown parties paid to transport the people to their homes.
According to state officials, the homes billed for, but never provided, addiction and other mental health therapies under the American Indian Health Program, and the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, which manages the state’s Medicaid programs, had been paying out money for those services.
Arizona’s share of federal Medicaid funds totaling hundreds of millions of dollars was stolen by the bogus residences.
In the probe, which also involves the FBI and the United States, Arizona authorities have so far confiscated $75 million and handed down 45 indictments. Office of the Attorney General.
Hundreds of fictitious sober living facilities are allegedly running in the Phoenix area and other areas of the state, according to officials in Arizona.
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