Mod 8 DARREL CHRISTENSON: So we have the powerpoint. We have the video. And each was designed for the specific audience. And -- in the last year, I've had, I don't know. Three, four, maybe five builders come to our office asking, you know, about this and what are some of the features they need to be aware of, and cost factors. Because they heard about us from somebody else. So I just share this with you not to say that you necessarily can replicate this, but the point that I want to share is, this information needs to get out to your community. It needs to be out there. And if you have a builder that's really doing some good stuff in your community, hold them up as a model. If you have an annual banquet or awards ceremony, give them an award. Recognize them. Call the newspaper. Get the publicity. That will help you to raise the bar. Because I'll tell you. Their competitors are looking over their shoulder. I know for sure that Gorman company, their competitors are looking over their shoulder because Gorman is getting a lot of attention for this. So it's, again, part of that messaging relationship building. I'm going to stop right here at this point and take any other -- or any questions or comments upfront here. Lisa has something. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Darrel, are you offering trainings to the local real estate associations? You know, are you going in and -- has there been an demand for that type of training? DARREL CHRISTENSON: We -- yeah. We're working on getting in front of the realtor associations. Because there's a few of them in the valley, and we want to get in front of them and do presentations. So that we don't have that garbage in, garbage out. Yep. Definitely. Go ahead. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Real quick, what was it –have you found any resistance to working with some of the realtors associations? DARREL CHRISTENSON: The big -- yeah. The biggest resistance that we've seen has come from the builders association. I'll just say, too, that I moved down to Arizona about 21 years ago. And soon after I got there, the Phoenix mayor's commission on disability issues was working on passing a visitability ordinance. And we almost had all the votes lined up to pass it in Phoenix. I'll say, 17 years ago. And the Central Arizona Builder's Association came in and said, "Wait a minute. We need to study this to make sure that there's a need." The city of Phoenix, in its infinite wisdom, spent $100,000 on a survey that was poorly done and didn't show us anything. It was a delay tactic that worked, because two or three of our key supporters on the city council termed out. And 17 years later, Phoenix still does not have a visitability ordinance. And for all the building that has been done in the city over 17 years, talk about missed opportunities, Brian. Huge. And so and yet, by a matter of twisting arms. The Southern Arizona Builders Association finally got on board about that same time where the city of Tuscon in Puma County and the county there both passed visitability ordinances. And so we thought, since they had a presedent down there, we could do the same up in the valley about two hours away. If we have Phoenix, like dominoes, we were hoping the other cities, Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale, would follow 17 years later, Tempe just passed one. It's a little watered down, but we got a little something there. But long story short, that's been our biggest objectors. Tim, do you have somebody? AUDIENCE MEMBER: I have a couple of questions. But first, I believe I heard you say that your employees at the CIL do home assessments. DARREL CHRISTENSON: Yes AUDIENCE MEMBER: Is there any type of specific training or certification that they receive in order to be able to do that? DARREL CHRISTENSON: Right. Good question. So the gentleman that does our program right now, he's had years of experience doing it. But additionally, a little while back, he got his CEAC certification, and somebody's going to ask me what that stands for. Certified environmental assessment something. Consultant. Maybe. I don't know. Yeah. CEAC is the certification. And it was, like, you know, less than 100 bucks. He did the training online. So he was able to do it, you know, kind of in his free time. Passed it right away. So that gives more validation to, you know, who he is and what he is certified to do. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Is that certification and course something that you would be able to share with the group? DARREL CHRISTENSON: It's available nationally. It's not Arizona specific. AUDIENCE MEMBER: I meant just the actual name. I've written down as much as I think – DARREL CHRISTENSON: We're looking it up. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you -- and then I also – DARREL CHRISTENSON: Yeah AUDIENCE MEMBER: we were talking about, I'm sorry. I'll wait. So I believe I, we were talking about CDBG funding, which we also do have some of that. But as you mentioned, it is for homeowners and is not able to be used on modular homes. And I think I heard you mention something about [some other type of funding and work you are able to do with the modular homes in Arizona? And I was wondering if you could say that again. I think I missed it. DARREL CHRISTENSON: Sure. In most of the cities that we have CDBG funding, it's written into our contract that we can do homeowners and rentals. There was one city who was doing rentals via another program. It might have been their weatherization program. And they lumped in the rentals into that. So they said, we're already doing rentals over here. But we'll award you a contract for homeowners over here. And we'll do that. The other cities all said, "You can do both." AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay. So the CDBG will let you, they're allowing you to do both. DARREL CHRISTENSON: Oh, yeah -- AUDIENCE MEMBER: -- and modular homes -- DARREL CHRISTENSON: Yes. You can't have like a, you know, RV that's parked in a spot for three months during the winter. Then zipping off again, you can't do a ramp or anything. And then the other part is our Medicaid program does a lot of both. And you have it there, ma'am. DARREL CHRISTENSON: Certified environmental access consultant! Smart women. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Just last question that I have, and thank you very much for that. I am wondering, you mentioned that your CIL works with contractors. DARREL CHRISTENSON: Yes. AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm wondering if those contractors are by any chance aging in place certified? Or is that something that you even look for? DARREL CHRISTENSON: I don't think any of our guys are. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you. DARREL CHRISTENSON: But they're all licensed, bonded, experienced, vetted, the whole nine yards. And usually what we have done is work with small companies like a one-man shop with another crew. Because the big companies don't want to be bogged down with two and $5,000 projects. Yep. Yes? AUDIENCE MEMBER: I just wanted to make a statement. I don't know if they're still doing it or not. But at one point the DBTACs, were doing some trainings and had materials on the site surveys, and kind of broke the ADA site survey things down to where they were more readable than having to go through your actual ADA specifications and stuff. But it, they did have specs and stuff, but the regional DBTAC did some trainings, and would also send people at one time to the state to do onsite trainings and I'm not sure if they're still doing that but you might check into it. DARREL CHRISTENSON: The local DBTAC Disability Business Technical Assistance Centers, now called ADA centers, there's 10 regions throughout the country. And those checklists and surveys were for public areas. Not homes. The ADA centers did not have checklists for homes. They were all public areas. And they did -- and so the site surveys are certainly available through the organizations that might be subcontracted out. We're subcontracted with Pacific out in Oakland. But after 29 years, the number of requests for site surveys has really dropped a great deal. But again, that's the public accommodations, not the home side of things. Yes? Tim? AUDIENCE MEMBER: You know, this might be too simplistic but one of my best tools is going to be, am I able to show a realtor association in Memphis the MLS in Arizona? DARREL CHRISTENSON: We can talk afterwards and I will give you my card and we can get you that info. The reason why I say that, again, I'm sorry, Shannon? Sharon. Sharon might be able to help me out. MLS listings should be national, but aren't they somewhat locally – you need a mic for you, please. Right. We're getting a mic. Yes. Thanks, Tim. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi, thank you. No, the MLS are owned by, for the most part, the realtor boards in each of the municipalities, and they choose which platform they want to use them, whether or not those fields are mandatory or optional. In the most cases, what we've found is they are optional. There are no standards. Agents don't really know what the definitions are. They're very, very broad. And so in collecting the information, we're finding that it's nonsense. In our case, we're creating our or our own website, so that folks would be able to search and find what they're looking for. But it's – it's hit or miss. DARREL CHRISTENSON: Thank you for that. Tim, you and I can talk offline and show you the 31 that we do have. Much of those were covered in the last slides. But we'll talk. Yep. Good question. And again, thanks. Others? TIM FUCHS: I've got some Post-its that are relevant. DARREL CHRISTENSON: Please. AUDIENCE MEMBER: A very similar question. Aren't the MLS produced by a national organization, we now know the answer. Could NCIL help to get more accessible features into the MLS at a national level? With it being divided, is there any strategy there that you're aware of after going through this at Arizona? DARREL CHRISTENSON: Not at a national level. I'm co-chair of the NCIL housing subcommittee. There's no activity on our subcommittee standpoint to go with a national umbrella for consistency. But certainly a great goal. Yeah. TIM FUCHS: Sharon, is there a -- I imagine there's national realtor associations or councils. Is there are a group like that that would be helpful? Very decentralized. DARREL CHRISTENSON: Decentralized. Thank you. TIM FUCHS: Darrel, how does that Pay It Forward program work at 360 that you mentioned -- DARREL CHRISTENSON: Right. So for the 10% match, a home modification consumer from a CDBG standpoint, not the Medicaid program. But just the CDBG from the cities. We, as an agency, request the 10% match. That can be cash, you can volunteer or attend advocacy class. And if the person, the family or friends are not available to do the match, then as a fall back, default, we have our consumer volunteers who come in to the center and help us with different projects. And they will sign off their time sheet, and we can use those hours on behalf of the home modification consumer. So that volunteer, most times, 99% of the time, has never met the home mod consumer. They're just donating their time that they've given to the center to this home mod person for their match. And in a sense, that's the way they feel, and we feel – that they're paying it forward. Yeah. And we also say that if like, we have one -- one person who volunteers at the Humane Society in our community. That is counted as volunteer hours. And so that can be used for home mod match. In a sense, paying it forward. Is that -- okay. AUDIENCE MEMBER: That just triggered something with me, too. Don't forget, in the states where you have experienced recently a lot of disasters, there is CDBG funds that are coming up. And make sure you're at the table to make sure that you get some of these homes and apartments and things that are being rebuilt or are being put back on the market, as far as rentals and so forth, that you make sure that they do the accessability that they're supposed to be doing for those. I can tell you from firsthand experience after Katrina, they were just getting ready to put things back up, and they weren't even thinking about accessibility. And so you've got a perfect opportunity to get to the table. The other thing, when you were talking about the in-kind, Habitat For Humanity will also do that for people who have disabilities, and they cannot actually work on the sites and do different things. So they will do that. And we have talked with Habitat in helping us get accessibility housing and so forth before. And they will help those houses be accessible for that individual. DARREL CHRISTENSON: We talked about that a little bit yesterday. And Habitat's been great in being receptive to incorporating accessible features in their homes. Pretty much, I think across the country. So yep, thank you. Anybody else? Yes. AUDIENCE MEMBER: In Indiana, the state housing authority did a set aside, and they called it the Ramp Up Program. But it only -- you have to be a homeowner. It has to be a stick-built home or a mod off the axles, on a foundation. The majority of the people that we deal with are low income and they're lucky to own a trailer. There were groups here that said they were successful in getting ramps built through CDBG funds? I am just curious, if they could get in touch with them to find out if there's certain types of wording that they have in their contracts? We have been able to, back home in Indiana alliance, advocate to have those things loosened, but they're not loosened enough to actually make it a good program for the people that we serve. DARREL CHRISTENSON: Yeah, no, we -- I mean, I don't know. I'm surprised that that's an issue because we've been doing that for 30 years now with owners and rentals. AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'm curious if I can find out what that language might be to see if I can grab a hold of that and try to put that into Indianapolis and see if we can get – DARREL CHRISTENSON: I can give you my card AUDIENCE MEMBER: Awesome. Thank you. DARREL CHRISTENSON: You bet. Is this making sense? I mean, I -- as a presenter, I really hate to make it sound like, well, this is the way we do it in Arizona. This is what works for us in Phoenix -- and not be applicable in your community. I -- if I'm in the audience, I hate presenters that do that. So I want to make sure that my information can be applicable to you in your community. Okay? And that's the -- that's my intent of sharing this. Thumbs up? Okay. Okay. Thank you. Anything else? ANN DENTON: I looked up whether or not CDBG works with mobile homes in general. And the HUD answer is, that CDBG regulations allow the rehab of owner-occupied mobile homes, if they are considered part of the community's permanent housing stock. I'm just .yeah. DARREL CHRISTENSON: There's a difference -- ANN DENTON: renters don't count. Right? It sounds like -- that's the answer on the HUD website DARREL CHRISTENSON: And there's always that gray thing about, well, I own my trailer, but the lot is rented. ANN DENTON: Yeah, no -- CDARREL CHRISTENSON: -- or the owner. ANN DENTON: It says they have to own the lot that the mobile home is on. DARREL CHRISTENSON: Thanks. All right. All right, well, anything else -- and what we're going to do is take a break then now? No? No? Okay. And I'll show you the video. So stay tuned. AUDIENCE MEMBER: I'll ask you one more. Did you say that it was the home builders association that is responsible for passing the visitability - DARREL CHRISTENSON: No, they were the ones -- no. The builders association was the one that resisted it the most. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay. DARREL CHRISTENSON: They fought us tooth and nail. And you felt, 17 years ago and today, they've been successful in keeping visitability out of the city of Phoenix. AUDIENCE MEMBER: That's terrible. DARREL CHRISTENSON: Even though it's actually helping their membership make money! Right? AUDIENCE MEMBER: Exactly. So what is the process for trying to advocate for that? What avenues have you attempted, unsuccessfully – DARREL CHRISTENSON: People, the information that is up here about the changing dynamics of our communities, use those as the weapons, as the bullets to fight off the naysayers. Because I don't care if you're looking -- like I said yesterday. I don't care if you're looking at it from a standpoint of future use by seniors and folks with disabilities. The numbers are going to increase. Growing population, economic development, being a good Christian, it doesn't matter what your hot button is. All the buttons are on our side! And these are bullets that we can use. AUDIENCE MEMBER: So who is responsible for passing the visit -- DARREL CHRISTENSON: City council. Or, if you take it to a state, because I know there's a few states that have passed it from a state level -- AUDIENCE MEMBER: Okay, thank -- DARREL CHRISTENSON: -- single-family, duplex, triplex, new construction. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you. AUDIENCE MEMBER: It's going to be your local zoning or building codes that you want to get that into. Because that's what governs that type of thing. So sometimes the zoning -- in Illinois there's not a lot of counties that have a building code. So you want to get in your zoning or if you do have a building code, get it into your building code. DARREL CHRISTENSON: Thank you for the classification. Those are the bodies that bring it up to city council for passage. So thank you for that. Yes. Very true. But everything is on our side! It's just -- you just got to articulate it. AUDIENCE MEMBER: I had a question for Karen about the contractors. KAREN MICHALSKI-KARNEY: I hear my name! I don't know where it is coming from. AUDIENCE MEMBER: In Georgia, in our rural areas, we do have a lot of difficulty finding contractors who will work with the home modifications, small ones that we need, and I'm just wondering if you or other participants have found successful ways to find small contractors that are qualified to do them. KAREN MICHALSKI-KARNEY: So we do have a problem trying to find qualified contractors. We have even put public service announcements in some of the small community newspapers that are always dying for, you know, news and information, and that's why they let Darrel do a column, you know, in the small town community paper. DARREL CHRISTENSON: They're really desperate! That what you're saying, Karen? KAREN MICHALSKI-KARNEY: But one thing I will caution that happened to us, right, like, the first year we were doing a home modification program, we had a workers' comp audit. And they came in, and, you know, looked at our information, and came back to us and said "Well, you owe so many thousands of dollars." And we were like, what?? And they said, "Somebody needs to make sure that the contractors who are working for you have their own workers' comp policies." And we had not done that. Luckily, we didn't have to pay the thousands of dollars, but if you start doing home modifications, you might want to take that into consideration. Unfortunately in Virginia, some our smaller contracts aren't required to have workers' compensation. So now it's making it even more difficult for us to find contractors because now we are saying, yeah, we know the state says you don't need o have workers' comp, but if you're doing work for us, you have to have workers' compensation. So public service announcements, we put something in the home builders association newsletter. We've tried reaching out to churches. And so we've had some success, but, boy, once you get a hold of a contractor, do not let them go! You know. I mean, award them awards or whatever you have to do. Free lunches or something. But don't let them go because they are very difficult to find. DARREL CHRISTENSON: When you're talking about the rural areas too, it minds me that a few years ago, the center for independent living in Tuscon had a great working relationship with rehab Services Administration, RSA. And they were doing home modification with RSA money. Well, then fast-forward to more recent times. A new staff position was created in RSA where this guy came in, and his process was so incredibly over the top detailed. I mean, he was almost asking us to identify the type of screws that we were using and, you know, the code name, or the code number, the serial number. It was like, so over the top. Right? That we were interested, because we know the work is there, but he basically put a kibosh on everything for us, and for Tuscon. It just dissolved. But that's another option, RSA money. AUDIENCE MEMBER: In our community, in Michigan, we used the retired senior volunteer program and called it Tuesday Toolmen, and I'm a little concerned now because I was the ED of the program but I don't know about workers' comp. But their liability was covered under our liability policy. We had a lot of retired contractors who were willing to do that work for individuals. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Another source I've used successfully many times is the local schools have a construction trade vocational class. I have built -- I think seven ramps this last winter by having the local kids build the ramps at school, and then in some cases, they were able to go install them on a field trip day. In other cases, we got volunteers, usually family members of the recipient, to work with the instructor and install them on a Saturday morning. DARREL CHRISTENSON: Where was the funding coming from those? AUDIENCE MEMBER: Part of their schoolwork. I mean, we were funding -- I had a grant from a local telephone company to buy the materials. But they were just happy to have the work to do. For practice for their kids at school. DARREL CHRISTENSON: Yep. Good. Good stuff. TIM FUCHS: All right. We had set aside these few minutes before lunch for this. Work through some of this. After lunch you guys will be working on the action plan, you will literally be putting down on paper what this might look like for you, what partners you all would need in your communities. I've got a few more of these Post-its that I want to try to get to. So some rapid-fire questions for you all. If I toss it to the wrong person, just tell me. So, Ann, how does a Continuum of Care get funded? We have a local committee focused on housing but not funded like a Continuum of Care. ANN DENTON: The Continuum of Care, your local community has decided whether or not they're going to participate in the Continuum of Care planning process and make application to HUD for Continuum of Care homelessness assistance. It's all about homelessness. And I would go to the housing committee and say, why aren't we doing the homeless assistance? If you're not covered by a local collaborative, then you're covered by the state balance of state. Continuum of Care plan. Did that help? Okay. TIM FUCHS: Karen, what entity serves as the housing authority in rural areas? We don't have one serving our rural counties. KAREN MICHALSKI-KARNEY: And so again, you know, housing authorities are not required, correct? ANN DENTON: Right. KAREN MICHALSKI-KARNEY: So there may not be a housing authority that covers the rural area. Unfortunately. ANN DENTON: So you're covered under the state. The state gets housing assistance money. Your state housing agency will cover the balance of state and rental assistance. The problem is they might have something like 90 vouchers and has to cover every area in the state. The devil's in the details. But somebody should be covering you. ANN DENTON: USDA is another source. If you're in a rural area, you should have access to housing assistance from HUD. Housing choice vouchers from HUD under the balance of state. You should also be able to have more easily tapping into USDA. You should have more properties out there. TIM FUCHS: What is the difference between section 8, and section 8.11? ANN DENTON: We will cover this in excruciating detail tomorrow, but I will preview it now by saying that a section 8 program is now properly known as the Housing Choice Voucher program. And it's a housing voucher. It's what we all want from the housing authorities. The 8-11 program is a program -- my friend Ann O'Hara calls it a boutique program. It's a very small, lightly funded program that used to build small enclaves of apartment-style housing for people with disabilities. And now, starting in 2011, it also can be used as a funding stream to add deeply affordable, accessible units to housing developments that are under construction. So tax credit properties, other kinds of properties under development, can apply for the funds in the states that have them, and we'll show that tomorrow on the website. And use those dollars to make some of the units affordable and accessible. TIM FUCHS: Great. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Just kind of to -- not clarify, but just more of a statement. The way that we typically try and explain it in Colorado is the housing choice voucher is actually assigned to the person. And they can use it whenever -- ANN DENTON: Yes -- AUDIENCE MEMBER: -- will accept it does, the 811 one is usally attached to a specific property or an address. ANN DENTON: Specific -- that's a great clarification. Yes. It's tenant-based rental assistance for section 8 which means I get the voucher, and if I take that anywhere. That'll accept my voucher. The 8-11 program is attached to specific units and specific developments. It's great. Thank you. AUDIENCE MEMBER: In our area, the 8-11 is the project that is now gone voucher. So they're getting -- that's the homeless, the people with disabilities that are homeless or in danger of being homeless get the 8-11 voucher. And it's used exactly the same way as the housing choice voucher. ANN DENTON: Okay. Let's talk about that. Because that's fascinating to me. Could be an opportunity -- AUDIENCE MEMBER: We just did that -- NCIL just sent out the thing about the 8-11 voucher being refunded. And to contact your housing authority. That's the one that they have to partner with the center to get those vouchers. ANN DENTON: Right. AUDIENCE MEMBER: One of our four agreed and got 45 vouchers, and our local housing authority actually in Akron just contacted us. They want us to help them with the second round of those 8-11 vouchers. ANN DENTON: Okay. I mean ... Let's troubleshoot it over lunch or something. TIM FUCHS: Coincidentally, our last question before we break is about vouchers. We just talked a lot about housing choice. There's two others on here. Is there any quick summary then of the mainstream or vast vouchers? ANN DENTON: Okay. So there's a -- you know, in the housing world, there's this whole, like, circle of things that are called tenant-based rental assistance. It's tenant-based rental assistance. It is the rental assistance that someone is awarded from some source that is attached to the person and can go to anyplace that will accept the voucher. And the big category inside that circle, that conceptual circle is section 8 or housing choice vouchers. That's the most common kind of vouchers. Housing authority administer those, those are the ones that you have waiting lists that are very long. Mainstream vouchers are also in that circle of tenant-based rental assistance. They're also administered by a housing authority. And they are for people with disabilities. And -- and they -- the housing authorities don't have to apply for them. So the opportunity for advocacy is as these things become available, get your housing authority to apply. But the mainstream vouchers are all in tenant-based rental assistance. The other one is V.A.S.H. Veterans something, Administrative Supportive Housing, something like that. And it's for veterans, and it's a voucher, a tenant-based rental assistance voucher that comes through HUD to a housing authority, but it's a collaboration of HUD and the VA. The funding is. And it -- and it's, again, discretionary, the housing authority can choose to apply for it. So your opportunity for advocacy, if you've got that population that you want to assist, like you guys were talking about, it's to get them to apply for the V.A.S.H. vouchers. Tomorrow when we look at resources, Tim will have the websites up and we will hop around and look at them. TIM FUCHS: Great. Thank you. So, great questions, great presentations too. And great questions, I think. We're right on time. I hope you all are feeling good about where we are. You can see we're getting a lot more specific. One thing I wanted to mention, too, with these vouchers, these questions are right on point. And relevant. But some of this stuff gets into trending towards that individual assistance piece, right? Like what -- what is the right way to -- what is the right way to help a consumer? And a lot of this content of this training, by design, is about expanding the options. Right, making more housing. So I just wanted to highlight too, so if you imagine the Venn diagram of housing, and the individual piece and the systems piece, we've got a ton of resources on the individual piece too. The manual that Ann did, the online course that you do is more about individual assistance. Correct? And so we've got a lot of that on the website, on ILRU.org which is where all of this stuff lives, you can go to the housing resources page. If you have to go to revisit or if you have new staff that need a primer on this stuff, there's years they come off after their -- we believe that they're dated -- I don't know if there's a time line on that, Darrel. It seems to be about five years. Most of the trainings are from the last five years. They're current. They're relevant. And that way if you want to drill down into some of the individual support stuff, you can do that.