Hundreds of tribal members, mostly Navajo, living on Phoenix streets amid fake sober home crackdown

By ANITA SNOW
Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch says Navajo law enforcement teams that fanned out over metro Phoenix in recent weeks made contact with several hundred Native Americans from various tribes living on the streets amid a state crackdown on Medicaid fraud that recruited them to unlicensed sober living homes. Branch says Monday the teams have made contact with more than 270 Native Americans, the majority of them Navajo. Many tribal members accepted offers of temporary housing before moving to legitimate facilities, while others agreed to return to their reservations. State officials believe the homes defrauded Arizona out of hundreds of millions of its federal Medicaid dollars.