TIM FUCHS: So I introduced Karen in abstentia earlier, but here she is in the flesh.

I'm so glad you made it.

KAREN KARNEY-MICHALSKI: So am I.

TIM FUCHS: She went through it yesterday and probably today too, but I haven't heard the story yet.

KAREN KARNEY-MICHALSKI:  You don't want to.

TIM FUCHS: But as you all know, Karen is executive director of Blue Ridge Independent Center in Roanoke.

And here to talk, again, not only about not only rural issues, although that is part of her expertise, but about all of the work that you have done not only in Roanoke, but also state-wide in Virginia too.

We borrowed some of your time to talk about barriers so I'll let you jump right in on community housing processes and scattered site housing model.

KAREN KARNEY-MICHALSKI:  Processes or process-is.

Does anybody know "processeses"?

Hi, everybody.

I'm so glad to be here.

I can't tell you how glad I am to be here.

I can tell you one of the issues in living in a rural area is that sometimes you only have two flights a day to go to anyplace.

If you miss that flight or if one of those flights gets socked in because of weather, you don't go anywhere.

Of course you don't find that out until you sat at the airport for at least six hours.

Anyway.

We're going to talk a little bit about -- and I'm sorry about my voice.

But sometimes late in the afternoon it gets a little squeaky.

So just bear with me.

We're going to talk a little bit about community housing processes, and then Darrel will take over and talk about some scattered site models.

How many of you are familiar with your consolidated plan?

Everybody, yes?

Ooh! No!

You definitely want to find out about your consolidated plan.

If you don't have a consolidated plan that's happening in your locality, then your locality is going to be a part of the state-wide consolidated plan.

All right?

Consolidated plans are really important, because they govern a whole bunch of different programs that are paid for using federal funds.

So one of those programs is CDBG.

I have to tell you a sweet things that happened to the Blue Ridge Independent Living Center in Roanoke, Virginia.

The city was doing the consolidated plan.

They had heard that we worked with people with disabilities.

So what did they do?

They came to us, and they asked us to write the special needs section of the consolidated plan.

Really??

Wow!

Right?

That's fantastic!

So guess what we did.

We wrote into the consolidated plan how people with disabilities do not have funding to do home modifications.

And guess what happened the next year.

We applied for community development block grant funds to do home modifications for people with disabilities, and guess what!

We were awarded funding.

How cool is that?

We've been getting -- [clears throat] here goes froggy.

Squeaky.

We've been getting CDGB funds now for the past at least 20 years.

And we have been able to assist people who live in the city of Roanoke with their home modifications.

And we've done some really cool things with that money.

If you get an opportunity to write the special needs section of your consolidated plan, take advantage of it.

Another program that the consolidated plan governs is the ESG.

And you have home program.

You have HOPWA, the housing opportunities for people with HIV and AIDS.

And then also your national trust fund.

So really, your consolidated plan is something that you need to be involved in, either at the local -- local area or at the state level.

Again, it controls how federal funds will be used to increase affordable housing.

It also determines who is going to benefit from those activities.

It links other HUD housing programs together.

It's available through the city or the county offices.

Sometimes they're called community development plans or neighborhood housing plans.

But they're out there.

You need to take a look at what those plans say, and you need to be involved any which way you can in developing the plans for your locality.

And again, areas that don't receive HUD funding fall under your state consolidated plan.

Again, in Virginia, the agency that's responsible for putting together the state consolidated plan for what's called the balance of state, they will do hearings and –

AUDIENCE MEMBER: [Sneeze].

KAREN KARNEY-MICHALSKI: God bless you.

Town halls and meetings around the state.

You need to figure out when those are, you need to be present and make sure that they understand what the needs are for people with disabilities.

Continuum of Care.

So Ann asked you a little bit about how many of you are involved in the Continuum of Care.

It's not always fun.

But it's really important to be at the table.

We, with our Continuum of Care, we had an opportunity to work specifically with individuals with disabilities who were homeless, and we were able to get Section 8 vouchers for those individuals.

The local planning process offers an opportunity for advocacy.

Again, the old saying, if you're not at the table, you're where?

You're on the table.

Right?

So you want to make sure that you're at those meetings.

The HUD dollars are targeted to low-income households.

One of the reasons that the city of Roanoke loves our empowering people with disabilities program is because we are working with those people who are low, very low, and very very low income individuals.

So they love the fact that we're providing home modifications for people with disabilities.

Excuse me.

Also, HUD's definition of low-income is significantly greater than the poverty line.

If you look at HUD's definitions of low, very low, very very low, you would be surprised at how high that is compared to the poverty line.

So you need to be familiar with what their low income guidelines are.

And it's also possible for HUD to target assistance to households that are in the extremely low income category.

So 30% and less of the median family income for your community.

Does everybody understand what we mean by the median family income?

Is that something everybody's family with?

Most everybody?  Yes?

I think so. Okay.

So the Continuum of Care is responsible for conducting a planning process that pulls together an annual request for funding.

We had a problem in the Roanoke area.

We had most of our providers who were providing information into that annual report, but we had one provider who didn't get any state money, didn't get any federal money, and so they were not providing us with their numbers for the individuals that they worked with.

And every year, when we did our plan, we got dinged by the Feds, because we didn't have all of the information that was needed for the plan.

So we were able to help them see the light and the benefit for the entire community, and they finally came on board.

And now our plans are scoring higher, and we're bringing additional funds into the city of Roanoke.

Another program that the Continuum of Care discusses is Supportive Housing.

Everybody familiar with Supportive Housing?

It's basically where you can provide both housing assistance and services.

Another program is Shelter Plus Care.

And that's another voucher program that must be matched with services.

One of the programs that we don't have up there is Housing First.

Everybody familiar with Housing First, where you will house somebody -- what's a unique idea -- you will house them first, before you talk to them about services that they may need or -- and so that's another program that's under the Continuum of Care.

Public housing agencies or authorities.

Those are the entities that receive funding directly from HUD.

They are also required to put together a plan that discusses how they're going to use the resources that they get from -- from HUD.

So lots of opportunity for CILs to provide input into different plans that are out there.

You just kind of need to infiltrate does figure out the best way to do that in your community.

Each community is different.

Again, the PHA's control the largest share of affordable housing resources.

Unlike the consolidated plan resources, most PHA's assistance is more closely targeted to households that are at or below the poverty line.

So again, the distinction between median income and poverty line.

And there are more than -- well, there's just under -- 3,000 PHAs nation-wide.

And as Ann would say, "They have more flexibility than you think."

So if they're telling you that they can only do certain things, that may not necessarily be the case.

Okay?

What can PHAs do for you?

They can establish preferences.

Now, we've heard -- I forget where the example was.

Was it Charlotte?

Where we had some preferences.

And so preferences aren't always a good thing, depending -- of course, on what those preferences are.

So again, you just have to be certain that the preferences that they are targeting are the ones that are going to work for people with disabilities.

They can make exceptions to their own rules and processes through a case by case, reasonable accommodation method.

I don't know whether Ann got into it or not.

Darrel will talk about.

ANN DENTON: We talked about reasonable accommodation a little bit this morning and talked about the different elements of how to do it.

KAREN KARNEY-MICHALSKI: Okay.

Good, good, good.

All right.

They can operate waiting lists for preferences, and rules can be waived or modified for separate waiting lists.

But as Ann said, they don't necessarily like to have more than one waiting list that creates more work for them, and they don't necessarily like more work.

So they may not be willing to do that.

They can also apply for special programs, such as the Nonelderly Disabled Vouchers that were released in 2011.

And they often administer the Shelter Plus Care vouchers on behalf of communities.

Several years ago, I can't even tell you how many, I've been a CIL director at the Roanoke center for 30 years, so I was 12 when I started.

Just so you know. [Laughter.]

My hair wasn't always white.

We actually went to them and said, "We would like you to apply for 50 vouchers, specifically for use for people with disabilities."

Lo and behold, our friend said sure, we will be glad to do that, and we put in a joint application and he actually got -- and we actually got 25 vouchers specifically for people with disabilities.

And it was a really easy program to administer, because people would come to us.

We would refer them to the housing agency.

And as long as they met the eligibility requirements, voila, they got a section 8 voucher.

So they can do a lot of things for you if they are willing.

A community-specific resource map is useful for your city and/or state.

There's information about HUD resources at various places online.

Consolidated plans, you should be able to go out to your city, county, and find those.

I'm sorry.

I'm getting confused, because Virginia is one of the strangest places in the United States.

I think there's only -- Darrel's -- no?

In Virginia, if you live in a city, you are not in a county.

How is that possible?

Right?

Every place in the United States, as far as I know, maybe there's three.

Three Commonwealths is why we don't have cities that are in counties.

So for us, we have cities.

We have counties, if you're a town, you're in a county.

But not if you're in a city.

So you have to -- that's why I'm kind of getting confused here about cities and counties and places.

You should be able to find the Continuum of Care information about your local community, and that's available at the HUD website.

And then your public housing plans are also available at the HUD website.

But if you're not familiar with these documents, you need to take a look at them.

You need to become familiar with them.

You need to understand what the process is for providing input into those plans.

Because these plans dictate where the majority of federal funding goes when it comes to housing programs.

Questions?

That was quick, wasn't it?

Questions?

I did such a wonderful job, or you feel so sorry for me because I just got here.

You're not going to ask me any questions.

[Laughter.]

Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I appreciate it.

[Applause.]

DARREL CHRISTENSON:  This group is not going to feel sorry for you, Karen.

This is an active group here.

Let me grab the clicker for a minute.

Thank you. All right.

We're going to bring it on home.

Home stretch here for the day.

Community affordable housing programs and strategies to meet consumer needs.

Catchy title.

Here's a lot of different bullet points that you can use for your time when you get home, and so I want to just say that the state department of housing, they can be your ally.

They have special needs programming for housing.

Get to know those staff people.

Just a few years ago, Arizona became the 49th state to actually have a housing authority, I think.

I think Indiana is still without, if I'm not mistaken.

But we've really found them to be useful partners in trainings, workshops, their annual conferences, and keep pumping accessibility and our population out with them.

The public housing authorities, again, as mentioned today, get to know the staff.

You know, in the Phoenix Valley, we have 11 or 12 different housing authorities.

Mason, Scottsdale, Tempe, Phoenix, et cetera.

We need to continually make those connections and get to know people.

I used to work in a rural area in Minnesota, southeastern Minnesota.

And those small town relationships were very easy to make.

And they were very important to make.

But after 20 years in Phoenix, I realize, it's still the same game, you know, large Metropolitan area.

It's relationship building.

And you need to look at folks as opportunities and partners, rather than adversarial enemies, and you will go further that way.

The housing authorities, you know, get to know their programs.

And their regulations.

And get to know their staff, because that's going to come in handy.

I mentioned also, consolidated plans.

You know, that's something that quite honestly, I think our center can do a better job of.

That we haven't always been at the table with all 11 of those meetings, continual meetings for the consolidated five-year plans.

So be involved with those.

Know when they are, and be in attendance, because like was just mentioned, if you're not at the table, you're on the table.

I love that.

And that's true.

And use that.

State attorney general's office or the fair housing enforcement agencies.

Boy, I tell you.

What has it been?

Almost 15 years ago we started a fair housing partnership.

And we had the Multifamily Housing Association, the Department of Housing, municipalities, other nonprofits, and every year we host a fair housing training, primarily for landlords and management companies.

In the last few years we've been able to host it at our center, in our conference center.

About 150 each year are attending.

Being a part of the group, being visible, being active.

I can't say it enough.

You are going to hear it all week.

Get involved.

If you're not, you're losing a lot of opportunity.

The management companies of apartments.

We find in at least in our area, we have a lot of out of state owners of the big properties.

So to get any type of approval for modifications and such, we have to go out of town.

But work with your local folks.

And we know that, you know, the people onsite probably aren't getting a great deal of pay.

They're not going to stay a long time.

But while they're there, you need them.

And so keep nurturing those relationships.

Get on the boards and committees.

You know, that's not only for yourself and staff.

But get your consumers involved.

Get consumers involved, and get them on boards and committees.

Because they're going to be -- like your peer mentors and your centers.

They're going to be, like, extra tentacles going out to the community.

Because you can't do it all.

Everybody's trying to do it all on a 40-hour week.

But you can't be there for every meeting.

You can't be on every board.

So get that network going with your consumers and peer mentors.

And say, "Look.

The commission -- the Phoenix Commission on Housing."

Get involved.

And get your pom-poms out and cheer them on to get to the conference.

Reach out to home builders and developers.

You know, I talked about Gorman and company.

We've got to continue to work with them, and hold them up as the model.

And their competitors will look over their shoulders and say,

"Wow, they're getting a lot of recognition over there.

What are they doing?"

That's why.

So build those.

And build the relationships, and get to know the staff one-on-one.

Over the past few years, you know, we get builders and developers saying, "You know, I talked to so and so the other day, and they said you're the person that I need to talk to."

That's the position you want to be in.

You know?

Another builder told me that I need to talk to your center.

That's your goal, people.

When you walk out of here on Friday, that should be one of your main goals.

Is to be the place that people want to talk to, and relationship building is a part of that.

So attend the trainings and provide -- or sponsor the trainings.

Become visible.

We have -- the Department of Housing, the state has their annual conference.

It's like a three-day conference somewhere around the state.

And by being visible, just keep being visible.

Business cards.

Get them out there.

You need to attend.

Educate the community and educate yourself.

We talked about that earlier.

Deliver qualified consumers to help them fill accessible units with people with disabilities.

I just want to share an email I got from my staff from yesterday.

So we were written into five different applications from housing authorities for the mainstream vouchers.

And all five of them were funded.

So all told, there's 212 vouchers.

And with the -- with Maricopa County, Ability 360 has been designated for 10 vouchers with them.

And through the city of Tempe, Ability 360 has been allocated 18 vouchers for our consumers.

So I have put it out to my staff that they need to kick butt.

Because we need to deliver consumers to fill the -- these vouchers.

Because we scream left and right every day of the week that we need this type of housing, and my feeling is, if we don't deliver now, they're going to say, "Look. Y'all told us --" I'm starting to talk Texan.

[Laughter.]

"Y'all told us that you had all this need.

Well, where are your applications?"

You know.

I mean, you talk big about how much the need is.

But where are they?

I'll tell you where they are.

We had ten approved at Maricopa, out of the 10 consumers that were proved, three consumers completed housing applications also for Tempe, and they're included in the pending 18.

Let me see.

Pending is eight, over income, there were five, two consumers completed apps for Tempe and are included in the pending 18, so we have 10 approvals in Maricopa fully.

And they're in the process -- I think the meeting will take place in our office this week for Tempe.

My staff has to work really hard right now.

They're busting it.

People in nursing homes, people in the community who are homeless.

Those mainstream vouchers, homelessness, threat of homeless, nursing home, threat of institutionalization.

Four categories.

So we're getting after it.

So you got to deliver.

Help the housing industry see profit potential for accessible, affordable housing.

Again, you know, if they built it, we will come?

You know.

There is a need there.

So we need to do that.

And we're not just a niche population.

And that's what we hear -- I'll bet you everybody's heard that.

"Well, people with disabilities are just a niche population.

Why should I accommodate or worry about building all these units?

I don't see that many people with disabilities around anyway.

I see a couple of people with wheelchair but there's not that great of a need, is there?"

Yeah, there are.

There's other disabilities.

You know, like I said, 900,000 in our valley.

The same thing with your community.

Connect to your housing community.

Do your research on the housing scene and housing planning process.

They are not going to come to you.

You got to go out, research it, and find out what's going on.

And understand their programs and strategies.

You know, if it's going out for a beer with somebody or going out for lunch, you know, get together and get to know folks individually.

It's important.

I can't stress it enough.

Attendant and participate in the consolidated housing plan meetings.

And your CIL staff from your center and/or consumers get on local housing boards and committees.

Get involved.

As we're saying throughout independent living, nothing about us without us.

Let's say it together.

AUDIENCE: Nothing about us without us.

DARREL CHRISTENSON: One more.

Take it to heart.

Relationship building is huge.

Huge.

And regardless if you're a small rural town or a large metro area, it's all the same.

Don't come up to me and during break or afterwards and say, "But my town is different. My state is different."

Except for Virginia, where you are different.

[Laughter.]

Aside from Karen.

An hour ago I could have safely said it before you got here.

But you're not.

I mean, it's the same game.

It's the same problem.

Same issues.

Same solutions.

And it's crazy.

When I go from a community of, you know, 20,000 in rural Minnesota, farming community, and then I have 4.6 million in the valley in Phoenix, there's some differences, but it's all the same.

Create a consumer advisory council for input.

Get input.

We as professionals a lot of times think we know what's best for our consumers.

And then you know what?

We go back to them and ask, you know, what do you need, how can we help.

They give you something totally different.

You were way off the mark.

And Lord knows I've learned from that experience.

Bring together the housing authorities, management companies, public health, human services, disability organizations, even start a brown bag lunch on housing at your center.

Let people in the community know who you are.

Bring them on-site in your conference room and say, "Look. We all know housing is an issue in our community.

Lets talk. What's going on?

What are you doing in Marshall, Minnesota?"

"I'm doing this over in Redwood Falls and I have some openings over here."

"She works for a center and knows of three people right off the bat who could fill the units in Redwood even though she's in Marshall.

Let's connect.

It could happen.

And invite the same group.

It's just another option to be a community leader in housing.

Feel your power and influence as a player in the game.

I tell you, folks, I will tell you this -- oh, my gosh -- so often over the years as a nonprofit, center for independent living, we felt like we can -- should only accept the crumbs of the community.

The leftovers.
We got to stop that.

It stops here with you.

You have power and authority, and you have a big population behind you.

61 million Americans, one in five soon to be one in four in this nation, you have authority, power, and more importantly, again, do not overlook the fact that you have economic power.

You and your consumers do have economic power!

Your consumers may be on $750 a month, but that $750 a month in that community that has power.

Don't sell yourself short.

Don't sell your consumers short!

You have the numbers behind you.

You have the economy behind you.

You have things going for you, and feel the power.

Reach out to the builders, developers, management companies, the housing authorities, the architects.

Reach out!

It may be a cold-call, you know, or looking at the local association or whatever it might be.

But reach out.

Say, "Look.

We're a center for independent living working with people with disabilities.

Let me talk to you about what we do."

And maybe there's some connection that can be made.

You have units.

You're building a new complex.

We can help you with your marketing, to be laser-sharp.

I have a laser pointer.

That's how laser-sharp your marketing can be!

Rather than shooting BB's in a sky and hoping that something falls.

If they know that you're a resource for more potential tenants, that's a win-win deal.

You have what they want.

And that's paying tenants to fill their accessible, affordable units.

And they have what you want, and that's housing units.

Including those accessible, affordable ones.

So building relationships for a win-win result.

Paying tenants to fill their units.

Like I said, you need to -- you need to deliver when they call you, and your consumers get housing, and they get filled units.

A theme going here?

Okay?

Talk to the -- and know your value in the community.

Talk to the media.

Back in the day, in that small community of 20,000, Austin, Minnesota, Hormel corporate headquarters.

Home of Spam!  [Laughter.]

That's right.

The local newspaper, that little town of 20,000, I was able to get a guest column on a monthly basis.

And I wrote on disability issues.

They wanted space filled.

I was willing to fill it for them.

And spread my message, our message.

I just reached out and took a shot in the dark and said,

"Hey. You know.

I could write an article for you, a monthly on disability issues.

Would you be interested?"

What kind of topics are you talking about?

I said, will say a long list.

Got it in there.

That visibility.

Use your social media.

That's where young people are nowadays.

Use your social media.

I'm so blessed, because about three, four years ago our board of directors new that marketing was a huge part of what we needed to do to up our game.

We had social media going, and we had designated staff in a marketing department.

Now, you won't be able to do that in every center.

I know.

I'm not trying to, you know, say, no, no, no, but use social media.

If you have young folks primarily, I'm generalizing, young folks know how to use social media.

Get on it.

Because that's going to help to spread the message about needs and what's happening in housing for your community.

The website as well.

That's where more and more people are getting their information.

Present the facts on the need and cost benefits in your community.

The facts, again, are on our side to do housing.

It's for everybody.

Put a face on the issues.

When you're doing media, get a consumer who has successfully transitioned, maybe from a nursing home back to the community.

Get their permission, and maybe they can tell their story.

Put it on your website, in your newsletter.

Social media.

You know, people see that, and it's like, "Okay.

Now I get it, because I see that face."

"Now I don't just have a bunch of statistics, but I hear personal story."

And that really brings it home for me.

Use that.

And build your reputation in the community as housing experts.

And be the go-to place for housing questions for people with disabilities.

That should be part of your goal, along with your action plan.