A Message from Steve K...09/26/2022

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Date: 09/26/2022

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.

Plastic Blocks

We’re now emptying the W6 roll-off every Monday and Thursday. The Monday drop last week represented the highest tonnage we’ve had so far. You all crammed 1.1 tons of plastic into that bin over the weekend. Here’s the ticket:

If you came by on Sunday, you saw how jam-packed the bin was. It’s going to be tough to beat last week’s 1.1-ton total. If we were filling the bin with paint cans, concrete, and other solid waste I’d be less impressed. But that’s over a ton of bubble wrap and candy wrappers. Good on you all for taking this project so seriously. And if you come by and the bin is missing it simply means you hit one of the two hours per week when we’re emptying it out at Tank’s. If that happens, please just leave your bagged plastic by our back door and we’ll toss it in when the bin is returned. Several of you took us up on that last week. One lady insisted on leaving the cardboard box for us to toss. Fine – that's better than having her throw it into the plastics bin.

If you come by and you find the roll-off jam-packed full, please just leave your bagged plastic by the back door of our office. We’ll take care of it after the bin has been emptied. The fact that I’m even writing this demonstrates the popularity of the program. I’ve had conversations with the ByFusion folks and have communicated to city staff about what the next steps might look like.

Last week, I had some pictures of what the students at Rincon/UHS had brought to the assembly at which I spoke. This week I got an email from the Marine Biology teacher out at Oro Valley Basis. His students have joined as ambassadors for the plastic program. Here’s one of the pictures they included in the email showing what’s happening on their campus. Every school in the region can do this. Sadly, but it’s our current reality.

At Basis OV it’s the seniors in the Marine Biology class who are doing the legwork. They’re working with the teachers and administration on the collection and transportation logistics. I met their teacher, Eric, out by the bin and helped load their stuff into the roll off. We’re happy to have them partnering with us – and the RUHS students – on this important project. It’s yet another example of how we need more drop off/collection sites than just our Ward 6 roll off. It’s coming.

Here’s the finished product over at Himmel. The 4 benches surrounding the playground area. We’re grateful to the Kappcon guys for partnering with us on this project. They’re a local contractor so it’s good to see the support for this work in the community.

And of course, the seat top was fabricated by Anita at Bottle Rocket using our crushed glass -

Here’s our current progress report. We began this on August 1^st. Now, in mid-September we’re over 9 tons of waste that you’ve diverted from the landfill. Every morning I go out and use a broom to push the material in the roll off to the back of the dumpster so there’s room to toss your stuff in.

Over 1,200 of you have signed up to get regular updates on the project. Shame on us for setting the goal at only 500. At the time it felt reasonable. You’ve shown how popular this program is though by more than doubling our initial target. As for the tonnage, we’re nearly ½ way to the 20-ton goal. We’ll get there. Ahead of that though we’ll be shipping what is now being stored at Tank’s over to ByFusion and get some blocks being made. A part of that shipment will also be seeing how much contamination is being tossed into the roll-off. I told a lady last weekend that my expectation – based on casual observation into the dumpster – is that our contamination rate will be far lower than what’s going into the blue bins. That’s a very important piece of this if the program is going to continue and expand. On Sunday I was disappointed at having to pull out a paper grocery bag filled with cans and food waste. That’s a tiny fraction of the people who choose to do it right.

The social media contacts went from 9,922 last week to over 11,000 this week. And of those nearly 8,000 have clicked to dig deeper into what we’re doing. That’s an amazing participation rate for a social media platform.

We continue getting new people signed up on the program. Here’s the link. Signing up will do a few things – one, by giving your zip code we can track how widely dispersed throughout the community the program is. That’ll be an important consideration later when we try to go regional with the program. Signing up also gets you periodic updates on how the program is working. And it will get you access to other work ByFusion is doing nationwide. I’m hoping that we’re in this relationship for the long haul, so knowing your partner is a part of this pilot stage.

https://www.byfusion.com/pilot-program/

Keep your non-recyclable plastic coming. The driveway area by the roll off turns into a steady stream of cars. We appreciate you taking the time to come by and do the drops. We’re still giving away clear bags – come grab some if you’d like. We’re open until 1pm every weekday.

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 1^st 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:

Low-income renters must compete with higher-income households for the limited number of rental homes affordable to them in the private market. Seventy-one percent of extremely low-income renters are severely cost burdened by housing. This graphic shows how the issue is endemic across the nation. Note that Arizona is well below the national average of 36 units per 100 families who are looking for a rental.

Rents have increased in Arizona by over 35% in the past year. Nationally the median asking rent has for the first time exceeded 2,000 per month. Our SOI ordinance won’t solve rent escalation, but it will prevent landlords from filtering out applicants solely based on whether they’re receiving rental assistance through the Housing Choice voucher program, or if they’re on a form of fixed income.

The William E. Morris Institute for Justice and the Southwest Fair Housing Council jointly penned a letter of support for the Income Source Discrimination ordinance we’ll soon be considering. This is a section from that letter:

My mom was a single mom raising 2 kids back in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. She struggled to keep us housed, finding apartments and houses to rent while working full time and doing the work of a mom and a dad. Feeling the stress housing insecurity can place on a family is a lived experience for me. While I know the SOI ordinance isn’t going to convince landlords across the board to lighten up with the rent increases, it will give renters one tool they don’t now have anywhere in Arizona. That tool will simply say to a landlord that you may not discriminate against me because you don’t like the source of my income. I’m hopeful the rest of M&C will support that direction.

Refugees

Above I noted the ongoing need for various items we’re collecting for South American immigrants. With the increased numbers arriving at Alitas the needs have grown considerably. Another group that is trying to get to safety is all those we left behind in Afghanistan. Each week I continue having exchanges with families who are stuck in Kabul or other parts of that country, who are dodging Taliban every day, and who are exhausted by our exit process. Here’s another example of how disconnected our refugee/State Department personnel are from the people on the ground.

This is one part of a family’s answer to a request from the State to provide badge numbers from their work for the U.S. Forget the fact that wearing a U.S. identification badge isn’t the most appealing bit of clothing in Afghanistan right now but asking for this a year after the evacuation presents these families with some other very basic challenges. One is the information we’re asking for simply doesn’t exist:

As taliban siezed my house and burt all my house goods, book libruary , documents incloding my MSS badge ( identity card ) and I have left my house with my family living in an unkown area now so I hope you accept and feel my problem about badge and identity card.

Another family has been sending me their documents and I’ve been sharing them with embassy staff. In each email, I of course include the family members – and I note very specifically that I’m writing on their behalf to assist with language and procedural issues. Never once has the embassy staff done a ‘reply all.’ Instead, I get the reply as though I’m the one who’s applying for the visa. Here’s this week’s example.

Dear Sir/Madam:

The National Visa Center (NVC) received all of the documentation necessary to complete your Chief of Mission (COM) application. Your documents are with the COM designee. The COM designee cannot estimate how long the review will take. Please note that currently a large number of SIV cases are pending review and it may take longer than usual to complete the processing of your case.

If you want to know the status of your case, please send your inquiry to afghansivapplication@state.gov.

In the event that additional information or clarification is required, either you or your employer will be contacted. You or your employer should respond to that e-mail and forward the required documentation to that office.

The NVC will contact you when a decision is made, and will provide further instructions.

Sincerely,

Helen| Special Immigrant Visa Unit

DOS – National Visa Center | 32 Rochester Ave |Portsmouth, NH 03801-2909

While I appreciate the note from Helen, it appears to not understand that the recipient (me) isn’t the one applying, and all it says is ‘we’ve got your information, if we need more, we’ll tell you, and we don’t know how long it will take.’ If you are a family running from house to house trying to avoid being murdered by Taliban, that’s not the personal touch you’re probably hoping for. Especially considering that all of the people now trying to get out under the Special Immigrant Visa status worked on our behalf.

Also last week one of the Tucson Afghan refugees called and let me know his brother had been abducted by Taliban. He has been missing for 2 weeks. This guy asked me to help with the rest of his family. He had contact information for the International Rescue Committee in Tennessee – his Tucson IRC case manager has been somewhat less than aggressive in pursuing the case. I reached out to the Tennessee IRC person and again the response makes it clear they don’t grasp that I’m not the person stuck over there:

I received your email and am so sorry to hear of what you and your family have been through. I can certainly understand your desire to bring your family to a country that offers safety for all of you.

Catholic Charities of Tennessee provides refugee resettlement services to refugees who have been approved for relocation to the United States by U.S. Department of State. Unfortunately, our agency is not involved in any of the process overseas or at the federal level here. We have no way to request that someone be granted refugee status or that any particular refugee be granted the opportunity to resettle. When it comes to bringing people to the US, we have no direct ability to do so.

You might have them contact their local Congressman Office.

Sincerely,

Donna

It’s a sad message to the people who have made it out; that is, we’re stuck working through State. Her last suggestion is to contact a congressional office. Um, been there/done that, for nearly a year working for Ahmad, Nilofar, and their 2-year-old.  On Sunday, I was out pushing plastic into the roll-off when a former UA journalism professor rolled up with her plastic. We chatted – she has been working on trying to reunify an Afghan family for a year. Her conclusion is they’ve pretty much given up on getting them to the U.S. and are now working on Canada as an option. People are dying. We really need to be better than this.

Alley Maintenance

From time to time, we get calls from residents and businesses about overgrowth in the alleys behind their homes or business operation. There are lots of good reasons to keep alleys trimmed back, one of which is allowing access by utilities. Another is that it’s the law.

Property owners are responsible to keep their ‘half’ of the alley clean and easily accessed by utility companies. That’s from say your backyard wall or fence to the midpoint of the alley going towards your neighbor across the alley. Utilities that need access into our alleys for routine and emergency maintenance include SWGas, TEP, Tucson Water, and Pima County wastewater. Please take a couple of minutes and watch this video. It explains what you’re responsible for – and why it’s important that we have everyone do their part.

Watch the video (English)

RTA Funding

Last week the RTA sent out an update on their revenue predictions and funding obligations. It’s pretty much the same sort of message we’ve heard before; they’re continuing to collect the ½ cent sales tax in support of finishing up the projects they committed to the voters in 2006. But they also continue to add the caveat that is a major point of contention between the RTA leadership and city of Tucson leadership. Here’s a piece of what they sent out that highlights the ongoing dispute:

Let me break some of those bullet points down. “Local dollars from the lead agency’s general fund” simply means the city of Tucson would have to come up with well over $100M to finish the RTA promised projects. The next two bullet points are just saying if new federal dollars come in, they might be used to help offset some of the unfinished RTA promised projects. When we apply for federal funds it’s aimed at new projects, not bailing out the RTA. And the final bullet point is simply pushing the unfinished projects back to the next RTA and hoping the voters pass it.

Here’s some language that never appeared on the RTA ballot in 2006; any cost increases that are due to inflation over the next 20 years will become the obligation of the local jurisdiction. If the 2006 ballot measure had even hinted at the notion that member jurisdictions would be responsible for funding inflation-driven cost escalation, the RTA would have failed at the ballot box. Everybody knows things will be more expensive in 2 decades. Voters are smart enough to avoid taking on an unknown and unfunded obligation such as that.

The RTA’s own policy statements reflect its own obligation to cover inflation costs. I’ve shared these in the past – evidently, the RTA leadership isn’t convinced by its own internal policies. Let’s give it another try:

They changed policies after that were adopted but continued to recognize the reality of inflation. Just like gravity, some things are predictable. Inflation and cost creep are two of those.

When the M&C voted early this year to stay at the table and continue trying to work through some of the issues we’ve got with the RTA, fully funding our current projects was one of the major concerns. Some estimates are now in the $150M range for the RTA to complete our projects and cover the inflationary increases. If the RTA board wants a unified voice coming from the Tucson governing body in support of RTA Next, addressing this one issue isn’t something they should continue to play games with.

Transit Fares

Transportation-related is our free transit fare policy. Later this fall the M&C will be considering whether to keep transit fares free and hopefully have a healthy discussion about what possible funding sources exist. The impact on the general fund is estimated at just over $9M. You can share your thoughts on free transit through this survey tool:

Transit fares survey (English)

Transit fares survey (Spanish)

Sun Tran/Sun Link

Sun Tran is putting the finishing touches on a ridership study they’ve compiled. Of note is that roughly 60% of the riders on the streetcar are UA students. They account for about 20% of the Sun Tran riders. Given those data, it’d certainly be nice to see the UA step up and help fund some of the lost revenue the city is experiencing through the free fare system. Other jurisdictions have identified a variety of other funding sources. According to the Sun Tran study, Tucson is the only jurisdiction that funds our free transit from the general fund that’s considering continuing the practice.

Right now, there is very likely enough support on the M&C to continue the free fares. Given that it’d be great to hear some creative ideas related to how we might fund the lost revenues.

Parks and Rec Classes

The fall 2022 indoor leisure classes are now taking registrations for all sorts of classes. The registration deadline is Wednesday, October 19^th at 8am. The classes range from the usual arts and crafts for all ages, to dance, gymnastics, jewelry making and some new ones like Chair Yoga and Pom.

These are both activity classes and classes where you can learn or hone a skill. You can see the class listing as well as get registered through this link:

Register for classes Tucson Parks and Recreation

Pima Alano Club

The Pima Alano Club has been operating at the corner of Pima and Catalina (just east of Columbus) for decades. They serve people who are working on sobriety from a variety of causes. Those include the ones your mind will likely immediately go to – alcohol and opioids – but also gambling addictions and other behavioral challenges that grip peoples’ lives. Alano is a 501c that is in the business of trying to help people get their lives together – and they don’t turn anyone away.

Much of the work non-profits do is funded through their own internal programs. If you’ve driven past Pima Alano you’ve likely seen their bingo sign. That’s one of the funding sources. They host dances and other events for their members as well – all in an effort to keep the doors open so their work can continue. In a meeting I held last week with them it became clear they’re having a tough time keeping the doors open. I said I’d help spread the word that their work is critically important to hundreds of primarily low-income Tucson residents attending their meetings who are working hard on sobriety.

You can find meetings of all sorts that Pima Alano hosts by checking the www.aatucson.org website. If you have friends or family who might benefit, please get in touch w/them over at Alano. And if you’ve got the means to help them continue their work, I know they’d appreciate the help.

Rainbow Fentanyl

Speaking of addictions, I’m repeating a message of concern and warning related to fentanyl. In the past week since I first ran a piece on this issue the news (both local and national) has run stories related to the thousands of pounds of this stuff that’s being caught on the border.  The Phoenix PD just confiscated a million pills of the stuff over the weekend. The fact that they’re catching so much only suggests that a whole lot more is getting through and is winding up on our streets.

It’s cheap. A pill can run from $2 to $5. That’s less than half the cost of a 6 pack of beer. And it packs a much more significant wallop. The stuff is highly addictive, and in its mass produced and uncontrolled form there’s no way users can know either the strength of the pill they’re using, or whether it’s cut with other substances that make it even more toxic than it already is.

Talk to your kids about fentanyl. To the boomers out there, this is not at all like the talks we had with mom and dad about smoking pot back in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. This is a drug that can kill your child. That’s not hype. I pulled this from one CDC site – there are plenty of citations and references if you want to do a word search.

The folks at Pima Alano work with people suffering all sorts of addictions. All too often though fentanyl doesn’t give the user a second chance.

COVID

There were 82 more COVID-related fatalities in Arizona last week. Even though case counts are seemingly on the decline, for those who become infected it has the potential to be severe. You know about vaccines and boosters. Pima County health and all major pharmacies have them available.

I’m not giving the lengthy reports on COVID that I was for the past 2 years, but the current data is still important to stay aware of. Here’s the table I’ve been keeping. You can see that both the statewide and Pima County numbers dropped to very close to their 2 week-ago levels.

Anybody who is around others who are in vulnerable categories should really take their own vaccination status seriously. But you already know that, and most have acted on it.

Here’s the statewide COVID count map by county.

Sincerely,

Steve Kozachik
Council Member, Ward 6
ward6@tucsonaz.gov

City of Tucson Resources

• COVID-19 Updates: https://www.tucsonaz.gov/covid-19/covid-19-updates
• I Want To... : https://www.tucsonaz.gov/i-want-to