Good evening, everyone.

Welcome to the City of Tempe Housing Authority meeting.

Item number one here is call to order.

Just I wanted to make sure that we're all ready to go here.

And also want to note that our resident member Kaylee Moss is attending the meeting virtually.

And is our resident.

I got you, Councilman Rakita, as is our is our resident member Moss on, Jason.

Yes.

Okay, great.

And that item then passes.

Let's see.

Do you want to give you a yes to?

Yes.

Oh, there we go.

Look at that.

That item then passes unanimously.

Thank you so much.

All right, next to item number four housing authority governing board updates.

Item 4A, Housing Authority Governing Board quarterly update for the quarter ended June 30th, 2025.

I'd like to invite Irma Hollandby Kane, our deputy community help and human services director for an update.

And once again, this is just for an update, but there'll be uh no action needed here.

Irma.

Well, good evening, Mayor Woods, Council members.

Uh, my name is Irma Hollandby Kane, and I'm here on behalf of the Tempe Housing Authority to provide you an update as to what we've been up to over the last quarter.

So our work in community health and human services is directly linked to your priorities and associated performance measures as demonstrated on this slide.

All right, last year the Tempe Housing Authority administered over 14 million dollars in housing assistance subsidies in our city.

This year we're on track to administer over 18 million.

Housing voucher types are broken out on the screen, and all in, we have the capacity to assist 1,256 households with housing assistance.

Who are these households that we are assisting with a housing assistance payment?

The people that are behind those numbers.

Well, what they all have in common is that they are very low income or at or below 50% of area median income.

Many Tempe Housing Authority voucher participants are working people in the very jobs that can keep our community running.

So child care workers and uh education aids and health care supports and hospitality staff and retail clerks and transportation and bus drivers, um, parks maintenance crews, they're essential workers, but many seniors and veterans and disabled adults living on fixed incomes are also a primary client.

Single households balancing part-time work and caregiving, uh workers in multiple part-time jobs without benefits or stable schedules.

So that's who we serve.

The data over the next couple of slides is specific to the Tempe Housing Authority's performance and its actual embedded data as of May 2025.

So as you know, HUD contracts with TEMPE with a budget amount referred to as budget authority and then allocation of vouchers.

We track our performance in both of these areas.

So as for voucher performance, if I could take your attention to the left of the slide, we administer on nearly 19 million in budget authority.

Um we are utilizing our budget at 90 at a rate of 98.67%, and our current per unit average cost is uh 1,476.79 cents.

This is nearly a 77 dollar increase in per unit average since a year ago, July of 24.

So let's take a closer look at uh per unit costs.

So uh per unit cost in the voucher program is the average housing assistance payment that the PHA pays on behalf of the voucher holder per month.

It includes their share of the rent, it includes uh we pay directly to the landlords after the tenants portion has applied to the rent and any utility reimburses made on by on behalf of the family.

So when you see our PUC or uh per unit cost at 1493, that's the average monthly subsidy that the Tempe Housing Authority is paying per household.

If I could take your attention to either of these graphs on the slide, you will see visual representations of year over year per unit increases from 2020 2015 to 2025, and over the last five years' time, Tempe has endured a 65% per unit cost increase six since 2015.

It is nearly doubled.

So, what does all of this mean?

Again, per unit cost is the average monthly rental subsidy that we pay per voucher household.

Um, back in 2020, we might have been paying closer to 850 per household.

Today we're paying an average of 1476.

So, why has it increased?

You've heard me up here before talking about the rents in Tempe and in the valley have surged far faster than incomes have.

And HUD's fair market rents, which set the subsidy benchmarks, they rose steeply in response, but participants' incomes are not keeping up, and the housing authority ends up paying a bigger share of the rent.

So, what that means for us is that we serve fewer families with the same funding.

Every voucher now costs us approximately 65% more than it did years ago, and so these budget dollars don't stretch as far.

And what this means for us is that we face greater risk in going into shortfall.

What would actually happen to us last year when we are overspending um the revenues that we earn from HUD versus the amount of families that we are keeping stably housed?

And what are the policy implications?

So these rising per unit costs reflect market conditions that we can't control but we must manage.

And it underscores why TEMPE needs local housing strategies like our housing bond and our city programs and all of our various partnerships alongside of these HUD programs because federal dollars alone can't keep with the local rent inflation.

So on to leasing, um taking your attention to the left side of the slide during this reporting cycle, we have 1,058 vouchers leased up in our community.

Our 12 month attrition rate is 8.15.

We have 21 households that have ported in or moved from another housing authority to Tempe, and we have six, we're reporting 60 that have ported out or moved from Tempe to an alternate jurisdiction.

Um we're required to pay the costs associated with these vouchers that poured out of our jurisdiction, and there are many reasons why voucher participants elect to move.

They might seek a more affordable city to live in.

Some households move where voucher acceptance is higher or where there's housing stock that's less competitive.

Participants also often move closer to family child care, elder care, and other informal supports.

And finally, the graph on the right shows how we compare nationally in leasing.

National is the black line, and our performances in teal, and as you can see, we're outperforming the national average.

This slide compares Tempe's leasing performance with the average performance of all Arizona housing authorities.

Tempe's on the left and Arizona is on the right.

If I may turn your attention to the blue highlights, you'll see our leasing performance compared to the balance of state.

Ideally, all of us housing authorities would be around 95 to 98 percent.

And if I may turn your attention to the green highlight, this is annual attrition.

Um, ours again is 8.15, while the balanced estate is reporting over 10 percent.

So for additional housing services division updates, I'd like to share with you that emergency housing vouchers will sense will sunset.

We've received word from HUD that they are to sunset.

So these housing vouchers were created by the American Rescue Plan, and these vouchers were used to assist families that were either experiencing homelessness in danger of becoming homeless or fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault stalking, or human trafficking.

HUD has officially notified the PA housing authorities like our own that EHV funding will no longer be renewed under the current budget projections.

So the remaining funds are estimated to sustain our current families through late 2026 into 27, but no new funding will be available after that.

Housing authorities are encouraged to transition our emergency housing voucher participants onto our housing choice voucher program.

Um that's so long as we have the funding capacity to bring them onto our program.

So to prepare for this transition, we're currently working very closely with HUD, and we will eventually be working closely with the 34 participating households on this program to transition them to our wait list and then onto our housing choice voucher program.

I'd also like to share with you that our community development block grant purchased three three three three-bedroom single family homes, and they have been transferred to the Tempe Coalition for Affordable Housing for Renovation and eventual uh rental.

Um HUD VASH vouchers.

So uh VASH are veteran supportive housing vouchers.

Um we have an allocation here at the city of Tempe, and I would like to supplement it with additional vouchers.

So I will work with our local VA and together we will put in an application for veteran housing vouchers.

And then finally, Law Victoria Commons.

This is a housing development that is a partnership between the City of Tempe, COPA Health, and Newtown CDC.

Um, and this project will bring online 104 of uh affordable multifamily units and 19 for sale homes.

COP COPA's construction of their multif multifamily project is at 60 percent complete, and they anticipate their certificate of occupancy in the first quarter of 26.

Similarly, Newtown's homeownership units are about 50 percent complete, and they anticipate certificate of occupancy by April of 26.

And finally, on behalf of the Tempe Coalition for Affordable Housing, um, and as their board president in your materials includes uh the TEMPE coalition's July 2025 board packet.

If you have any questions after your review, please feel free to reach out.

This concludes my presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Irma.

Really appreciate it.

Uh, do any of the board members have any questions for Irma?

Board Member Hodge.

My question is I know that the 34 people who are losing their impact to HUD.

Are they on some kind of a earlier list or what's I know that we're working with them, but how are we working with them to continue on with their housing after that?

Thank you for that question, Councilmember Hodge.

So we've received kind of little guidance from HUD.

We are just in preliminary conversations.

How we understand that this will work is that uh we will sooner rather than later later put our emergency housing voucher families onto our wait list, and as capacity becomes available in our own programming, starting pretty early, we're not going to wait until the funding runs out.

It will be run concurrent.

We will start pulling people onto our housing choice voucher program, and there won't be a delay in anything.

They won't have to reapply, they won't have to go out and find a different unit.

It will be it will feel seamless to the client.

And that is what we're hoping for all of them.

Thank you so much, and thank you for the presentation and all the hard work that you and your team do.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, anyone else any further questions for Irma?

All right, seeing none, thank you so much.

Really appreciate it.

That brings me to item number five, which is adjournment.

The next Tempe Housing Authority uh meeting will be on November 13th, 2025.

Uh, we are adjourned and we will be back uh promptly at 6 p.m.

to start the regular council meeting.