Mod 7 TIM FUCHS: So we're going to continue with this conversation around partnerships, as you all know. But we're going to hear some suggestions and examples from the CIL perspective, and we're going to start with Karen. Karen? KAREN MICHALSKI-KARNEY: Thank you. My clicker. Got it. That's me. Okay. So you're going to hear from a CIL director who has a fairly small CIL. Our catchment area is maybe about 350,000. So we're going to do things a little bit differently than what you're going to hear from Darrel in just a few minutes, what you're going to hear from Darrel in just a few minutes, because they have a larger population that they're serving. Yesterday I talked a little bit about this, the mainstream housing vouchers, and the program that we were able to get started with our housing authority. And I just want to say, you know, the housing authority just didn't come to us like out of the blue. Right? And say, "We want you to do this with us." We had no housing consortium in our area when we got started. But we knew there were a lot of people that needed affordable, accessible housing. And so we actually started a housing network. And we started the housing network by inviting some of the local allies that Ann just talked about to the table. And we started having monthly meetings about housing. And we talked about different issues that we had in our community. One was the rental property. There were a lot of rental properties that nobody wanted to live in, quite honestly. And so we looked at doing an inspection program. So that every time somebody moved out of a rental house, the city would go in and do an inspection to make sure that the housing was suitable for people to live in. And so by starting that network, we started bringing our allies to the table. And we all started working on things that we knew were important to our community. A NOFA - Notice of Funding Availabilty - came out regarding these mainstream vouchers, and we approached our housing authority and said, you know, there is a need for affordable, accessible housing. Would you be willing to submit this application? And they said yes. And so we did. And we were awarded 25 vouchers, which is a small number of vouchers, but again, for our community, it was a pretty good number. And what we did was, we entered into partnerships with other disability organizations that we have a deaf and hard-of-hearing service center. We have our community services board. We have a brain injury program. We developed partnerships with them, and then we brought them to the table, and we let them know that we had these vouchers available, and we would refer people to the housing authority for those mainstream vouchers. And we continued to provide support to the individuals that got the vouchers. So we were there. If they had any issues, we worked with them to resolve those issues. And again, the way that it worked, we would identify the people. We would refer them to the housing authority. As long as they met the eligibility requirements for the Section 8 vouchers, they got a voucher. And then as people leave the program for whatever reason, those vouchers become available to us again. So that's a program that we got started, but it started because we started a housing network in our area. The housing network now is huge. There are city representatives, there are county representatives, there are builders, there's developers. And they all come together and talk about the need for affordable, accessible, housing. Community development block grant. Again, the city didn't just come to us and say "We want you to write the special needs section of our consolidated plan." What happened was, they were at the table. They heard about the need for funding for home modifications for individuals with disabilities. And then when we applied for the funding, we were awarded money to assist extremely low to low-income homeowners with disabilities. And we've been receiving these funds now for more than 15 years. And last year, our allocation was $108,189. And we do take some of that funding for administering that program. So we're willing to share our CDBG application if that would be helpful for you. Our contact information is in the information that you've received. If you get home and you decide you want to look at applying for CDBG funds, just go ahead and send me an email and I will be glad to email my application to you so you can see what we did. This was kind of an innovative program, or event that we did. You probably -- most of you have a home builders association in your community. How many do? Do you know if you -- okay. So quite a few. Our home builders have a Roanoke home builders association show each year. And again, what we did, because of the people who were at the table, we were able to get a grant. I'm not exactly -- cannot remember exactly where that grant came from. But we worked with some of the people who were at the table, some of the developers, some of the builders, and they actually reached out to the people that they work with. So cabinet, kitchen cabinets, accessible tubs, things of that sort. And we built an accessible unit at the home show. And that was a huge hit. There was TV coverage. And one of the TV representatives actually sat in the accessible tub and did his five-minute morning show from the tub. So the other thing that was kind of neat was we had assistive devices at the -- in the apartment unit. And one of the devices that got used for the three days was the grabber, or the reacher. Because some of the vendors were giving out balloons to the children. And being children, they would let go of the balloon and cry because their balloon was at the ceiling. And everybody kept coming over to use the grabber and reacher to grab the string to pull the balloons down for their children. Again, just making people aware of different devices and things. And we also, at that time, the University of North Carolina -- gosh, I can't remember his name -- Ron Mace? Anybody remember Ron Mace? They actually came to the home builders show. And they did workshops on universal design. So, again, just a unique way and a neat way in our community to make people aware of the need for affordable, accessible housing. And because of the reputation that we had in the state being proactive about the, you know, the need for affordable, accessible housing, we were actually approached by a developer who is developing an apartment complex in one of the rural areas of our catchment area. He came to us, and he said, "You know, would you be willing to enter into a memoranda of agreement with us if we apply for funds to do this?" And we said, "Who else will be involved in this project?" He said, nobody. Just Blue Ridge Independent Living Center. Well yeah, this is great. We're going to refer applicants. We are going to assist in the application process. We are going to equip individuals to request reasonable accommodations. And we are going to assist individuals to apply for some of the section 8 housing vouchers. At least five units of the 20 are going to be reserved for individuals with disabilities who could live independently if they had an affordable, accessible unit. And then ten units are going to be reserved for individuals with multiple barriers to independent living. So those are just a few of the projects that worked in our area because of the fact that we were at the table, and in this case, we actually made the table. Right? We involved everybody, and people come to us now with different projects that are happening in our community. So anybody have any questions? I know Darrel has a lot of information that he's going to share regarding the partnerships in an area where there's 2.6 million people versus our 350,000 people. DARREL CHRISTENSON: So the valley leadership story. I was thinking it's been probably two and a half years ago. We in fact, let me just do this so you're not focused on that. We got word of Valley Leadership program that has area professionals who, for professional development, go through this curriculum. And what you do is, they team up into groups of seven or eight people, and as an agency, you go on pitch night. And you make your pitch as to what you would like help on some project. And so I went in and made my pitch. Because -- I don't know about you all, but we have so many different housing directories. And we're trying to find some way to kind of put it all together so that it's an easy referral, you know, on what's available and what waiting lists are out there. The state department of housing has theirs. Each of the 11 housing authorities has theirs. Management companies have their portfolio. And we're trying to get that all together. Well, as we talked with one of the groups, we kind of thought this was a little bit of an interest. We came up with Plan B. So using the professional development group called Valley Leadership, then we decided that we wanted to produce a video and powerpoint to educate both realtors and developers. Remember, education was a keyword with me yesterday. This was the case here. We made the pitch to multiple teams, and they had nine months to complete their work. Our initial pitch was a housing directory, and then we went to changing it to educational pieces. The mission of Valley Leadership empowers, leverages, and mobilizes leaders to meaningfully impact the most pressing issues facing Arizona. And their vision is a broad spectrum of Arizonans working together to impact the issues that matter most, setting the example on leadership. So it was soup to nuts that each of the groups came up with. So their values, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Valley Leadership is not about a political party, income level, religion, gender, or race. And they value the person, any person, committed to leading Arizona forward. They respect different perspectives and know that a diverse Arizona is to our advantage. And their history, they say, is it's a can-do attitude to solve anything. They continually look to their history to inspire and move towards the next big thing. Partnerships. They can't do it alone. Valley leadership values partnerships and understands real impact is made together. And fun. They -- their team was great, too. The network of leaders, it's hard not to have fun. They value the social capital that comes from having fun and building relationships. That's their basis. So we soon realized that educating Realtors, developers, builders, and the whole housing industry was key to change. The need for accessible housing needed more attention for all these groups, and the team of eight started working with us on the needs, costs, benefits, and barriers. So this started, like, in October of '17, and they had to have it done by the end of may of '18. Nine months. So all our -- oh. And so we realize that all the arguments toward accessible housing are in our favor. I mentioned that yesterday. But 61 million Americans with a permanent disability. You know the stats. One in five, close to one in four. 20% of the population growing daily. Raising -- rising disability levels among middle age Americans, 40 to 64, and increasing disability among ages 55 to 64. 10,000 baby boomers in the US turn 65 every day for the next 19 years, and some call it a silver tsunami. Right? Those are sobering numbers. And we chuckle about it, but those of us who will be around in a few more years, that's going to be our new reality. That's going to change a lot of things in our community. A lot. So over the past 10 years, the population over 65 increased from 37.2 to 49.2 million people. In 10 years. That's a 33% increase. Yeah. Sobering. Right? The age 85 and over population projected to move -- or to be more than double from 6.4 three years ago to 14.6 in the year 2040. That's 129% increase. 85 and older. Are you going to be a part of that? The rates of disability increase with age. We all know that. For those 65 and over -- 35.4 have a disability. And approximately 22 million people, 65 and older, reported having physical difficulties 13 years ago. Again, the arguments for accessible housing are in our favor. Surveys show older Americans want to remain in their homes as long as possible. Almost 80% of adults, 45 and older, prefer to say stay in their homes as long as possible. At 45? You better believe I want to stay home. At least -- no, I'm 45 -- I don't want to be in a nursing home! No. At least 21% of the households have at least one person with a physical limitation. Are these numbers surprising? For some. Single-family home will typically hold seven different occupants over the course of a 50-year life span of that house. And there's at least a 60% probability that a single-family home will house at least one person with a disability over the course of that house's life span. 60% probability. I'm not going to dig deep into Arizona because you can take the numbers and apply it to your own community. But for us, 13% of the population, over 900,000, reported having a disability. 17% of the population in Arizona is 17 -- 65 and older, and rising. Current accessible, affordable housing stock is far below what the community needs, and continues to fall further behind each year. Like you guys, housing authority waiting lists, one to four years long. And the #1 fair housing complaints center around accommodations for people with disabilities. Part of that is because other types of protected classes have been dealt with earlier. And it was more recent that we had protection as folks with disabilities, and so those cases are higher. And a lot of those center around service animals. So the Valley Leadership, over the noon hour, I'm going to show you this video that we've produced. And our Cox Communications, our -- one of our local vendors, did the video for us, and that was a 10,000 dollars in-kind gift. We didn't pay any of it. The center paid nothing. Okay? That's partnerships. The play book. Any questions to this point? I'm just -- a lot of information. Just want to make sure I'm good where we're at right now. That means I'm stalling for a drink. Are you still with me? Okay. Good. Here's the play book. The project. The goal is to establish Ability 360 as a local resource and thought leader in real estate accessibility needs for individuals with disabilities. That was our goal. Ability 360, Valley Leadership. We wanted to be the go-to place. Mission, to create connections and influence with entities and individuals who can improve the disparity between individuals with disabilities and adequate housing. I should say to, part of the team of the eight, one person worked for the Arizona Republic newspaper. Another person worked for Cox Communications. Jeez. I'm drawing a blank on the others. But some really dynamic people that were involved with this. And partnerships that we would not have others been able to make. An important step in obtaining the mission objectives and goals is creating that meaningful relationship. Our relationship with Valley Leadership gave the necessary resources to support our work. The leadership group provided dedicated staff hours, access to network. In-kind services and collaboration. Other relationships that assisted in obtaining the mission objectives and goals were working with the Arizona regional multiple listing service. The Realtors association. Builders and developers. City government, including the department of economic security. And the relationship that we have with former director Michael Trailor who went over to our state human services department, he was on board with the Ability 360 from the get go. He came over before this Valley Leadership project and got to know us better in what we were doing, what our objectives were, saw our campus, and boy, I tell you. From the get-go. And this is a businessman by trade. He was in the housing industry for years, doing department of -- state department of housing. He is a businessperson, bottom line. And when he first came to our center and we talked to him, boom. Our message resonated with him. He was a true leader of ours and still is today. That was powerful. The marketing materials. We knew that many tangible pieces of collateral were needed and produced to aid in creating awareness in educating the community. You'll see the video over the noon hour. Giving a mission statement and testimonials. One of the gentlemen in the video is Brian Swanton, the president of Gorman company I talked about yesterday. And again, his -- check out his words. Because I couldn't write a check big enough to pay him for what he said there. And you will probably agree. Additional video content of allies' interviews in archives for later use. It wasn't just a one-time deal. A slide deck, social media content calendar, and local media coverage. We got more media on this as well. Materials specific to the Realtors. An infographic highlighting the needs for multiple listing services, 31 categories for awareness. The 31 accessible category descriptions. Photos for the 31 categories. Talking about if you were a realtor, and -- is it Shannon or Sharon? Sharon. Talked to Sharon yesterday, and said before -- about -- eight to 10 years ago, locally there were - - it was 14 or 16 fields on a new MLS listing defining a garage. And there were zero defining accessibility. Right? Now I'm a simpleton, because I'm thinking garage. Okay. One field would be one, two, or three-car garage. And your second field would be attached or detached. And I'm not sure what all the other categories were for. Right? And yet there were nothing -- there was nothing for accessibility. So advocacy by a couple of Realtors who came to us and learned and really wanted to learn more about it, they helped to get the 31 fields on there. So we wanted -- currently, with us, those are optional. To be populated for a new listing. I think Portland, Oregon, their MLS listings for accessibility are mandated. The optional is a nice idea, but generally not done. And it's because Realtors don't know what they're looking at. You've done plenty of surveys for your restaurants and hotels in your area, and you make phone calls to the hotel or maybe when you're making reservations to travel. Is your hotel accessible? "Well, yeah, we just have one four-inch step on the front door. We're accessible." Uh, wait a minute. Four-inch step. Yeah, just one small four-inch step. And that's accessible? Yeah, isn't it? No. So garbage in, garbage out. Right? And so what we've done here with this is to put photos and descriptors to help explain what they're looking at and looking for. So creating the listing value. Empowering people with disabilities for over 30 years. Our services include everything that a typical center would do. With our mission, in Phoenix, empower people with disabilities, take personal responsibility so they can achieve or continue independent lifestyles within the community. That's Ability 360's mission. Similar to yours. Programs, similar to you. Individual and systems advocacy. Information referral. Our employment services. ADA services. And counseling. Empowering youth in transition. The home modification program. Social rec opportunities. Our home care service. And we have a sports and fitness and health and well wellness center. So the need. A little bit more of what I've already covered. This is part of what we had in the information in our PowerPoints and such. And the takeaway is that individuals with disabilities and/or the elderly are a growing market in Arizona. And for realtors and developers, how much of that green do you want? Because as I said yesterday, folks, as a person with a disability, remind me. My green is as green as someone who does not have a disability. And if you're in the housing industry, it's on the table, how much of it do you want? And put it that way! I mean, present it that way. That's the language that so many of them hear. So talk their language. Missed opportunity. On average, one out of 10 MLS listings have at least one accessible feature selected. They offer 31 features. Many of them are very common and simply overlooked by realtors. And the takeaway that we present to folks is, realtors can add incredible value to their listings, by understanding and noting accessible features. I've heard many stories from realtors who said, "I had a client of mine, a chair user, and her husband wanted to buy a house from me, and I took them out to a number of listings, and because I didn't have all the information, we went to a lot of properties that really didn't meet their needs." And so when you're schlepping a couple around town looking at properties that -- you're just wasting everybody's time. They're frustrated at you as a realtor, thinking that you don't know what in the world you're talking about. And as a realtor, I'm wasting my time because I'm not getting a sale. Right? So save everybody the money. Give some good information. And that's what we're attempting to do, is provide that. Because my realtor friend, he listed out -- I wish I had brought it with me -- the amount of commission that's out there in the Phoenix metropolitan area each year from a buyer, from a seller standpoint. And how many transactions there are each year. And what is it, like Rick, do you know, is it 6%? Rick. Rick! Yeah, do you know -- with realtors, is it a 6%, 3% on either side? Huh? AUDIENCE MEMBER: Or four and two. DARREL CHRISTENSON: If you look at the value of homes, and then -- and 900,000 people in the valley, plus others moving from your lovely communities up north where it snows. That's a lot of -- that's a lot of potential commission. A lot. Right? And if you have -- even if you have a smaller community, even like, you know, folks in Marshall, Minnesota, or Nevada, it doesn't matter. It doesn’t have to be the big scale here with 4 million people. But in your community, you proportionately have that many individuals with disabilities who are moving. So you want realtors that know what they're talking about. That's what we were offering. The different features, and I'm going to rush through these because you know the drill anyway. But we have the zero-grade entrance. The ramps. The hallways, 36 and wider. Grab bars. Roll-in showers. Bath -- should be lever, not level -- levers. Lever-style faucets. Easy for me to say. The five-foot turning radius in the bathroom, raised toilets. The bath -- roll-under sinks. This is all -- should be common stuff for you all. Tactile visual markers. Remote devices. I tell you. The remote devices can do anything now. Right? Remote control for your temperature, when you're at work and you forgot to turn the thermostat up or down, you can do that. Climate control. You can have your blinds up and down. Just crazy stuff. Hard or low nap floors. The lever handles. Stair lifts. Grab bars, again. In Arizona, if you have a pool, the ramp entry. Multiple entries, not just the front door. The door width, exterior curb cuts, pool lift, power lift. And then on the slide, we have some research and resources that you can look into.