City Of Tucson A Message from Steve K Newsletter - September 26, 2022

Topics in This Issue:
Migrant Needs
Plastic Blocks
Water Security
Source of Income Discrimination
Refugees
Alley Maintenance
RTA Funding
Transit Fares
Parks and Rec Classes
Pima Alano Club
Rainbow Fentanyl
COVID

Migrant Needs
Last week, Border Patrol began some ‘street releases’ of migrants. Most of who we’re seeing are coming here from Venezuela, although there are still a mix of Cubans and golden triangle migrants. They’re all coming here due to the life-threatening conditions in their home countries. To dispel a misnomer, when they arrive at the Alitas Center, or the bus depot or whichever location CBP decides to drop them at, the people are here legally, pending adjudication of their status hearings. CBP processes them to that point before any releases occur. So, for those of you who feel compelled to call and criticize us for ‘harboring illegals’ - kindly, you’re wrong.

The reason for the street releases is simply the capacity at Alitas is stretched. The city is engaged in finding temporary housing for the migrants while we work to get them to sponsors or next of kin in some other location in the country. My office is taking in donations of the following items - 

New and unopened underwear (men’s and women’s and children’s,) new socks, personal hygiene products. That’s shampoo, sunscreen, lotion, toothpaste, feminine products, soap – that sort of thing. New children’s toys.

NO CLOTHING PLEASE. Just the items listed. We’re located at 3202 E. 1^st Street – across Speedway from the Loft. Our office is open until 1pm every weekday. We appreciate the responsiveness of the community each time I try to turn on the donation spigot again.

Water Security
Last week, the city announced we are leaving 30,000 acre-feet of water on the Colorado River this year. Our legal entitlement is 144,191 acre-feet. The Bureau of Reclamation has told all of the river water users that combined we must come up with somewhere between 2- and 4-million-acre feet of water savings. I do not believe the 30K is much more than a drop in that bucket, and our earlier declaration that we’re taking all of our entitlement sent a message to all the other users that they might as well do the same. Bud Foster ran a segment on this last week. Here’s the KOLD link:
https://www.kold.com/2022/09/21/tucson-will-leave-cap-water-lake-mead-price/

In August the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) issued its 24-month study of Lake Mead. The conclusion was on January 1st of next year we’re entering what’s called a Tier 2a water shortage. That means the state of Arizona will leave nearly 600,000 acre-feet of water on the Lake. The state gets 1.4M a/f annually, so the 600,000 is not pocket change. The impact will largely be felt by agricultural users, which is valid since they use nearly 70% of the statewide CAP allocation.

There are 7 states that are pulling water from the Colorado River. Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. They each have a legal entitlement to a certain amount of water. Together those entitlements are greater than the amount of water that’s naturally replenishing the river each year. The arithmetic is pretty simple – the river is drying out.

Our 30,000-acre-foot contribution is not for nothing. The Central Arizona Project (CAP) will pay us roughly $8M for the water. I said to Bud Foster that if everyone goes to the CAP board with their hand out expecting to be compensated for water that is running out then we might as well just invite the BOR to step in and impose an entirely new set of standards on all of us. That’s where this is headed if everyone taking water from the river stands firm and takes what we’re each ‘entitled’ to. I know nobody wants to be first and put their legally negotiated entitlement at risk by leaving it on the table, but we’re jointly running out of CAP water. Therefore, traditional negotiating and bargaining tactics don’t apply to this set of circumstances.

The amount of money we’re being charged for CAP water fluctuates annually. We pay a fixed rate throughout the year, but around April of each year, the CAP does an inventory of the river and adjusts what users will be charged in the next annual cycle. So, it gives users a chance to plan and set budgets based on the new amounts. For 2022 we’re paying a fixed rate of $136 per acre-foot. That’s going up to north of $147 next year. As shortages continue to be our reality the value (cost) of the water will continue to escalate. The government is not going to continue paying us for the water we’re leaving on Lake Mead. Our $8M payment this year is not something anyone who’s ‘on the river’ can expect over the long term.

The NPR segment that I shared with you last week was changed a bit for airing in other markets. This is a 7-minute report by NPR that ran in Las Vegas. In it, you’ll hear from others who feel as I do – that this is a water emergency we’re not addressing seriously enough – and you’ll hear from a farmer who feels that it’s unfair for his family farm to be targeted for larger water reductions. It’s a complex issue, and in the desert, it’s an existential one.

Where the Colorado River crisis is hitting home - KUOW

Source of Income Discrimination
This week we’re scheduled to have our final vote on ‘source of income discrimination’ (SOI) language. The real answer to rent escalation is adding more housing units. Everyone understands that. The SOI ordinance is intended to avoid having the available affordable housing stock artificially reduced by landlords or property management firms refusing to lease to people who are on fixed incomes. The fastest growing demographic group of homeless is seniors. And the ones who are losing their housing are on fixed incomes. Some of that is Social Security. Some are people receiving rental assistance through the federal government in the form of Housing Choice vouchers. Whatever their source of income, if they’re refused a lease extension the result is the same.

Last week, I wrote about an unfortunate missed opportunity by some business leaders to have a productive discussion about crime and homelessness. Check last week’s newsletter if you’d like to see that summary. While driving down to the event I was on the phone with Jean Fedigan from Sister Jose securing housing for an 80-year-old woman and a 78-year-old woman. Both were first-time homeless, and both lost their apartments when a landlord jacked up the rent beyond their ability to qualify for HUD support. That story is all too common these days. The SOI ordinance may allow some to remain housed.

People receiving rental assistance such as through the HUD Housing Choice program are experiencing fewer and fewer housing options. I have people from the multi-family industry telling me the SOI ordinance isn’t the problem and that the solution is building more housing units. Of course, more units are needed. And yet if people are being told they can’t access the existing ones, then the solution is multi-pronged, and the SOI is a part of that.

The Housing Choice program is very simply the federal government giving the city funds we use to help people cover the gap between the rent they can afford and what’s being charged. Last month there were 610 families actively searching for housing using the vouchers. Historically it took less than a month to find a housing unit. Now it’s taking up to 6 months. The vouchers expire if not used in 120 days – you can see the issue. We distribute the vouchers, and they’re invalid by the time the family finds a place to stay using them. Building more market-rate apartments doesn’t address that part of the housing affordability issue.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) produced a study in April that gives lots of data on who is being impacted by the affordable housing deficit. This is a national problem, not just a Tucson one. Nationwide there are 36 rental homes that are affordable for every 100 households who fit the ‘extremely low income’ category. The report identified the renter households as largely being made up of seniors, or people with a disability. And yet another 44% are in the labor force, in school, or are single adult caregivers. Not a single state has a sufficient supply of affordable and available homes for low-income renters. You can see from this chart that people all through the various classifications of ‘low income’ are being affected by the shortage:

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