Good evening, everyone.

Welcome to the City of Tempe Housing Authority meeting agenda.

Just a note to our resident member Kaylee Moss is going to be actually attending the meeting virtually, so she can participate in both discussions as well as the vote.

Item number two is called to the audience.

The Housing Authority Board welcomes public comment at this time only for items listed on this agenda.

There is a three-minute time limit per speaker.

Let's see, Madam Clerk, do we have any cards?

Nothing for this meeting.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Anyone in the audience though wishing to address the council on uh item number two?

If so, can you please get my attention?

All right, seeing that I'll close that portion of the meeting and move to item three approval of City of Tempe Housing Authority meeting minutes for August 28th, 2025.

So it's been moved by board member Keating and seconded by board member Hodge.

Please vote.

And is our resident member available?

Yes.

Okay.

And that item passes six to zero with board member Garland and board member Adams absent.

Next up, item four, a Housing Authority Governing Board quarterly update for the quarter ended September 30th, 2025.

And I'll look to Irma Holland B.

Kane, our deputy human services director for housing for an update.

Irma, good evening.

Thank you, Mayor.

Council members.

All right.

Well, I'm here on behalf of the Tempe Housing Authority to give you an update as to what housing's been up to over the last quarter.

Our work in housing division is directly linked to your strategic priority and associated performance measures as shown on the screen.

So last year uh the Tempe Housing Authority administered over 14 million in housing subsidies this year.

We're on track to administer over 18 million, actually closer to 19.

So the housing voucher types are broken out on the screen all in.

We have the capacity to assist 1,253 households with housing assistance.

So the data over the next couple of screens is specific to the Tempe Housing Authority's performance and is actual embedded HUD data as of July of 2025.

And as you know, HUD contracts with us with a budget amount that I refer to as budget authority and an allocation of vouchers.

And we track our performance in both of these areas.

First, we'll discuss leasing performance, taking your attention to the left of the slide.

Um during this reporting cycle, um, we have 1,039 of our vouchers leased up in the community.

Um we have a 7.66% attrition rate, so that's over averaged over a year.

Um we have 30 folks who have ported in with vouchers from other jurisdictions, and another 68 who have ported out.

And as for budget performance, if I could take your attention to the left of the slide, um, we administer, as I mentioned, over 18 million in housing assistance, and as of July of 2025, we're utilizing 99.76% of our budget and a per unit cost of 1,502 or two dollars and ninety cents.

So let's talk about per unit costs for a little bit.

Um this month it's also gone up.

Um per unit cost is at 1,502 and 90 cents.

Um and over the over the couple of years that I've been here, I've kind of oversimplified the explanation and explained that uh per unit cost is largely based on the rents being commanded in our area.

Um, these are actually all of the varia variables that go into determining per unit costs.

And as you can see, like utilities, for example, increasing affect how much housing assistance that we pay towards households.

All of that said, um, each year we're responsible for uh establishing fair market rents for our area based on HUD's fair market rents that they publish.

And we are to establish our payment uh standard to between 90 and 110 percent of the area fair market rents.

Um, as you can see on this particular slide, the green number on the slide illustrates where we are proposing to set our payment standard within that allowable range.

So as you can see, um we have gone as low as 90 percent of area fair market rents, um upwards of 100 percent in other areas.

Um by the way, there was a deep dive analysis that occurred to help us establish what these market rents should be.

Uh additionally, there was a subsequent informal market study that confirmed our findings and also in an informal survey of my counterparts all across the state.

Um, our payment standards are in line with what everybody else is doing, with exception of maybe Chandler, who is maximizing that 110%.

But I think we all know why Chandler needs to do that.

So all payment standards except for the two bedrooms in zip code 85284 are reduced.

So who is going to be affected?

New voucher holders, families that pour in from another jurisdiction, and families that end up deciding to move to another unit.

And everyone else, our current participants who remain in the same unit, they will remain unaffected.

And so I do have a brief TCAH update, if you don't mind.

So in your board materials, by the way, you have our last board packet.

If you have any questions about what you've read, please reach out to me.

So as you know, the Tempe Coalition for Affordable Housing's mission is linked to your affordable housing priorities, and it's actually the implementation party of the city's hometown for all initiative.

So allow me to paint a picture for you of who we serve based on a survey of 61 households that responded.

So our properties today are house 131 individuals, 83 adults and 48 children.

100% of those households have income, whether it is from employment, social security, or their pension.

74% are single parent households.

And the average household size is two.

Many of the people we serve are younger couples, although 21 households with defend dependents, and nine households have elderly members.

So our longest existing tenants are upwards, have been with us for six years now.

These are the lives who call the impact of our work home.

So the Tempe Coalition for Affordable Housing has 73 units of various bedroom sizes and housing types scattered throughout the city of Tempe.

This year we acquired three additional homes that will undergo renovations and increase the active rentals in our portfolio.

The map here is an image of the concentrations of home mostly near ASU, retail, and industry areas in Tempe.

And we'll continue to grow our portfolio with the intentions of uh spreading our reach throughout the city while keeping the option to move quickly when a good opportunity arises.

So our work is meaningful.

The promise of permanently affordable housing is why our work is meaningful.

But how we do our work is also meaningful.

Each unit we remodel is an investment in permanent affordable housing stock for our Tempe neighbors.

It is an investment in our commitment to the long term, making quality renovations as we include the TCAH of tomorrow in our decisions today.

And we take the thing that the time to do things right because we know our work matters and it produces homes that restore dignity for families all across Tempe and affordable housing in our community.

And what's in store for us in the future begins with a public presence and today we launch our website.

On our imaging and logos and our brand and identity and now our website.

And I'd also like to recognize my colleague Christopher Grossback, who has led this effort.

And of course, we're going to have a presence on social media.

So you can find us on Facebook and LinkedIn under the Tempe Coalition for Affordable Housing.

So please like us, follow us, share our posts, and introduce us to your business connections and constituents.

The support would be invaluable to us.

And our public presence will continue to evolve with in-person events like the one our Team Tempe attended last October or just last month.

We'll increase our participation in events where we can meet the public and talk about the good work that we're up to.

And by the way, here's a QR code if anyone wants to put their phone to it and find where we're online.

That concludes my presentation.

I'm available for questions.

Thank you, Irma.

Really appreciate it.

Councilmember Hodge.

Thank you, Erma.

It's always it is always a great presentation, and the information is always, you know, we what we do in Tempe, people really need to hear it because I know people believe that we're not doing enough, but I think that with the presentation you just said, we're always going in the right direction.

My question is I know that we talk about our vouchers.

How is that going to be affected with the federal level and what's going on?

Is that cutting our voucher by any finances in any way possible?

Because I think I heard that on one of our earlier meetings that someone was talking about the federal level versus what we're doing in Tempe.

So can you kind of explain what's going on with the federal level in the vouchers right now and how is that going to be affected?

Thank you, Councilmember Hodge.

Um, mayor council members.

Uh as of this date, our voucher uh subsidies, our voucher payments from HUD are level, they're stable.

Uh money's in the bank to make the payments through December.

Um, and we have not heard from HUD that they would be uh in any way, shape, or form um cutting their contract with the city of Tempe and messing with the money.

Thank you.

That's what we needed to hear.

We need our constituents to hear that.

That's what's happening on our end that we haven't heard anything on that part of it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Any uh further comments or questions for Irma?

All right, hearing none.

Thank you, Irma.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

That brings me to item 5A, which is to adopt a resolution to adjust the Tempe Housing Authority's payment standards to align with the fiscal year 2026 small area fair market rents as published by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, effective January 1st, 2026.

Board members, any comments or discussion?

All right, seeing none, uh, I'll look for a motion to adopt resolution THA R2025.03.

It's been moved by board member Hodd for a second.

Second, seconded by board member Adams.

Please vote.

Sorry, it's a yes.

Okay.

And board member Moss.

Yes, it's a yes.

Okay.

Uh that item passes seven to zero with board member garland absent.

Next up, uh, item six adjournment.

The next scheduled Tempe Housing Authority meeting will be on January 22nd, 2026.

Uh, this meeting is adjourned.

We're gonna take another minute and a half or so and turn it around and start our regular council meeting.

So don't go anywhere.