Sheila Harris, director of the Arizona Department of Housing, was interviewed Sept. 12 by Arizona Capitol Times about two of the major issues facing her agency — providing shelter and housing for evacuees of Hurricane Katrina and the continuing need for affordable housing. Immediately after the interview, she dashed off to Veterans Memorial Coliseum for another firsthand assessment of the temporary shelter being provided there for hundreds of displaced Gulf Coast residents.

What is the status of finding housing for Katrina evacuees≠

We have seen over 200 households, some are individuals, some are families that have come to the department requesting housing assistance. Most of the people have come from New Orleans.

Are they all being put up in the Coliseum≠

No. Some are called self-evacuees who have gotten to Phoenix on their own. Beginning today our department along with several other state agencies have opened up another office at the Salvation Army at 27th Street and Washington, because the Coliseum is going to be winding down their operation. There will be a facility at the Salvation Army for an indeterminate period of time to aid additional evacuees.

How quickly are you winding down at the Coliseum≠

Shelter is not a permanent solution, and we’d like to process everybody and be out of the Coliseum by the end of the month. Actually, we’d like to be done before that. The latest numbers, as of noon today [Sept. 12] we had 207 people there, and 109 are actively out there looking for housing, 68 have been referred for housing and we’re waiting for them to pick up their referrals, and 30 folks have actually been placed in housing. What has happened is they come to us and we’ve done an initial intake. If they are eligible for other types of housing, such as if they had been living in public housing, or they had a type of rental subsidy that is available through HUD [Housing and Urban Development], we’ve verified that. Some of our partners, such as Maricopa County Public Housing, the city of Phoenix Housing Authority, and I think we’ve been in contact with Chandler and Mesa and Tempe — they’re helping us in placing people in housing that they have available. When there is a presidential declared emergency, people who are covered under that order go to the top of any priority list.

What does it mean that people are out there looking for housing≠

What that means is we’ve done an intake with them and determined where they may perhaps be getting a job or where the kids may be going to school. We don’t want to make a housing placement in Peoria if they’re getting a job in Mesa.

Is there some sort of subsidy for all of them≠

FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] is going to provide some sort subsidy, but we don’t have the particular details on that. We are, under the direction of our governor, offering the first month’s rent to get people into housing.

Where does that money come from≠

The state housing trust fund. [Approved by the Legislature in 1988, the Housing Trust Fund receives revenue from unclaimed property, which comes from lending institutions, insurance companies and commercial retail operations. The money is from inactive bank accounts, deposits, lay away fees and unclaimed refunds that are turned over to the state, which tries to find the owner. The fund receives 55 percent of all unclaimed property, which amounts to about $20 million annually. Unclaimed property does not include buildings and land.]

Is there a ballpark figure on that amount≠

I don’t have a figure right now, but it’s relatively small. There are just those 30 families so far.

You said you are getting out of the Coliseum before the end of the month. Was the Arizona State Fair [scheduled for Oct. 14-Nov. 6] a factor≠

That’s part of the reason we need to be out of there by the end of the month. We’ve stayed in continuous contact with the operators of the state fair and they’ve said if were are out of there by the end of the month they could still have the state fair without any problems.

Has the number of evacuees peaked at 207, or were there more≠

There were 540 people initially who came to the Coliseum that were evacuated, flown here. Some of those people, that initial group, only about a third of them said they wanted to stay here and they wanted housing. Some of them were still trying to put their family units back together. Relatives were everywhere. Some decided that they really missed the South, and though they couldn’t go back to New Orleans they had a cousin in Tennessee or someplace. The first few days there was a lot of fluidity. People were trying to get reconnected with family members across the country. A lot of the people we’re seeing now are people who have gotten here on their own.

Are you expecting more≠

That’s really difficult to say. We’re going to be prepared if there are additional evacuees. At one point they were looking to spread out the evacuees. Houston has something like 250,000 evacuees, Arkansas has 75,000. At one point they were looking to move them to other states. I think they probably witnessed the same thing we did. Once people got there, a lot of them are self sufficient, and they went out and made their own arrangements, so it didn’t make any sense to keep moving people across the country from shelter to shelter.

Are private citizens opening their homes≠

Yes. We’ve had about 80 to 100 inquiries from private citizens and the faith-based community that have offered their assistance. We are calling them back, finding out more of what they have to offer, and quite frankly we won’t be able to use all of the assistance that’s being offered. Which is nice.

Other than the Coliseum, is there any other shelter where people are being set up≠

Tucson, at the convention center. They were told they could have as many at 800. A little over 80 evacuees showed up at Tucson last week. They actually closed it yesterday [Sept. 11]. They had a much smaller number of individuals to work with and a very large showing of support from the people. I think there were over 600 volunteers for 89 people there.

What’s the biggest challenge in dealing with evacuees≠

The biggest challenges are those with special needs as well as trying to match housing with income, with jobs, with schools.

What do you mean by special needs≠

Sometimes people have physical disabilities. We have some elderly that are in frail health. We’ve had a great outpouring of support. The Foundation for Senior Living has provided adult foster care homes for those individuals. One of those special needs would be the guy who shows up with a ferret, a snake and assorted reptiles.

Are you kidding≠

He’s not really a special need, but has some special conditions — a ferret, a snake and reptiles that he would not leave. They were part of his family. A family of 18, a family of eight. One challenge has been was a single mom who has six children, four of whom were with her in Arizona, but two had become separated and were in Texas. The Red Cross wouldn’t send her other kids until she had someplace to live, so she became a priority. We had to find a place to live for mom with six kids. That was a little challenging. We found her a couple of places, she’s picked one and she’s going to move in.

Generally how are things going now with the evacuees≠

Things are pretty much under control. We’d really like to thank the community for their outpouring of support. And we thank our other state agencies that have come together to help the evacuees of Hurricane Katrina.

Lets talk a little
about affordable housing. What advice do you give to anyone who is interested in providing affordable housing≠

First of all you have to make sure what you are doing truly addresses a need, and from that the money will flow, the enthusiasm will come, support from the community will be there. Be sure that what you’re trying to do is really needed. One of the things we do here is we support, we don’t go and tell Tucson, for example, you need to build X number of affordable housing units. Instead, Tucson comes to us and says we’d really like to work on providing some additional housing for women who are victims of domestic violence, and so they would come and work with us. We have a technical assistance team here to try and help people. Because all of these government programs are convoluted, and they have special requirements, it’s hard to make those different funding sources work together. So we’re here to help people, to partner with them.

Are there myths about affordable housing≠

They do not lower property values. There is a misconception that affordable housing means housing that is cheaply built and that will be a detriment to the community. In actuality, with affordable housing, people pay property taxes, whether it’s the property owner or if it’s a multifamily home, so it does add to the community. There’s a myth that affordable housing attracts crime to a neighborhood. That is simply not the case. We’ve had a development where they’ve had staff awake 24-7 watching their particular development, and they report all sorts of crime that’s going on in the neighborhood. Cars being broken into. So they become sort of the watchdog of the neighborhood. Affordable housing doesn’t mean poor quality construction. Many of the programs that we administer have long-term obligations to maintain the housing as affordable, some up to 50 years. So you have to build a quality product if it’s going to last 50 years. Affordable housing does not lead to traffic congestion. In fact, a lot of times if you can have housing that is affordable near workplaces, that reduces the long commutes that a lot of people have. What’s happening here is that you’ll have a central core where the jobs are but the housing that is affordable is a long distance away. Affordable housing does not hurt neighborhood schools. In fact, we have found that people who are in communities where there is a school in the neighborhood, they become much more involved in their kids’ schooling. Studies have shown that young women whose parents own their home are less likely to get pregnant. Juveniles are less likely to get into unsavory after-school activities if they have something else to do. That can also help keep teachers close to those neighborhoods.

With the soaring price of housing in today’s market, what is that doing to the availability of affordable housing≠

We have done a study that shows whether you can afford to buy a home in a certain community based on your income. For example, if you’re in Lake Havasu City you’re going to have a hard time finding a place that’s affordable. This study is showing that some of our rural areas have some of the highest priced housing because there’s been a lot of investment activity there. People haven’t invested as much in the stock market. They have invested in real estate. And this is one of the outcomes of that investment strategy.

Housing prices are up at least 25 percent this year. Is that resulting in fewer affordable housing units being available≠

Yes it is. There are fewer numbers. In the urban market we can see there is still affordable housing for rent. When you are in the workforce, there are still units that are available. What has always been a challenge and what will continue to be a challenge since HUD no longer does their traditional housing developments that were unfortunately labeled as projects, is finding housing for very low income people that are earning 30-to-40 percent of the median income. There is no program out there now to develop housing for people in that income group. And that’s a lot of the people we’re seeing as evacuees from the hurricane, people on fixed income, seniors living alone and their incomes are around $400 a month. It’s very difficult to get by when you only have $400 a month in income.

So the rentals are probably still there, but what about homes for sale≠

Homeownership is going to be a challenge, and that’s why you’re starting to see the new trend of conversion of apartments into condominiums. That’s one way to get into an ownership product and still make it somewhat affordable. When we talk about affordable housing we mean paying no more than 30 percent of your month’s income for rent. That’s the standard. I wish there was a better way to say it, because people think affordable housing is somehow not a good thing. Maybe we should call it housing that’s affordable.

Are there any other key issues≠

We’re working on a plan to end homelessness. We’re working with DES [Department of Economic Security] and probably will roll it out toward December. That’s going to address issues for the very low income. We’ve been a part of the Human Services Campus in downtown Phoenix. What they’re doing is a very novel approach. As people come in, they are looking to engage them as soon as possible in a more permanent solution. They start talking to you about a job, about where you want to live, about getting medical benefits. They look at you like a person. They’ve been extremely successful. In a year’s period of time they have taken 150 single people, primarily men, who are the longer-term homeless population, and getting them into permanent housing. About 10 percent of the homeless population use about 50 percent of the homeless resources. So those people who have been homeless for a long time are the ones who have the most need. If you concentrate on helping them, then you should in the long run see that you have more resources to help those that are not in quite as much need and therefore better serve people and not have it cost quite as much money.

Thanks for your time. —