Latest / ChangeMakers with Katie Goar / Episode 135: Neil Brickfield, Executive Director, Pinellas County Housing Authority

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Episode 135: Neil Brickfield, Executive Director, Pinellas County Housing Authority · ChangeMakers with Katie Goar

0:05
Speaker 1: This is change Makers with Katie Gore finding the right
0:09
Speaker 1: solutions for the affordable housing community.
0:13
Speaker 2: Today's change maker is Neil Brickfield, the executive director of
0:17
Speaker 2: the Panellas County Housing Authority, which serves more than eighty
0:22
Speaker 2: five hundred residents each day through affordable housing programs and
0:26
Speaker 2: programs that are really empowering people. Under his leadership, Panella's
0:31
Speaker 2: partners with public and private organizations to improve housing quality
0:35
Speaker 2: and create pathways for self sufficiency. Neil, Welcome to the
0:40
Speaker 2: change Makers podcast.
0:42
Speaker 3: Thank you, Katie. I'm excited to be here. You have
0:44
Speaker 3: a great show. Thank you.
0:46
Speaker 2: You and I have talked several times at industry events
0:49
Speaker 2: at Narrow and I'm always encouraged by how much you
0:53
Speaker 2: are leading in those industries. But I want to talk
0:57
Speaker 2: about Panella's County first and really get a lay of
1:02
Speaker 2: the land, what's going on. It's incredibly densely populated, So
1:08
Speaker 2: why don't we just start there and you share where
1:11
Speaker 2: it is, what it's like, and some details before we
1:14
Speaker 2: get going into some of those specific leadership initiatives you're
1:18
Speaker 2: working on.
1:20
Speaker 3: Thank you. So Tampa Bay is where Panela's County is.
1:23
Speaker 3: On one side of the Bay is the city of Tampa.
1:26
Speaker 3: That's the inside on the peninsula. And then we're a
1:30
Speaker 3: peninsular on a peninsular. So Panella's County has clear water,
1:35
Speaker 3: Saint Petersburg and my city Safety Harbor. Right, that's Panella's County.
1:41
Speaker 3: We are a county of about a million people. We
1:44
Speaker 3: are the most densely populated county in the state of Florida,
1:49
Speaker 3: and you could say that we're probably ninety seven ninety
1:54
Speaker 3: eight percent built out, so there's not a lot of
1:57
Speaker 3: vacant land out there anymore.
2:00
Speaker 2: So what have you seen on the rent trends? Because
2:02
Speaker 2: I'm sure with those cities you named off, everybody wants
2:06
Speaker 2: to move there. So what's happening in the rent space?
2:10
Speaker 3: So Miami leads the country and rental increases in Tampa
2:15
Speaker 3: and Orlando are not far behind. So we've seen tremendous
2:20
Speaker 3: growth in rents and right now the top of the
2:24
Speaker 3: market's a little soft, but anything eighty percent below is
2:30
Speaker 3: still growing. Right, there's a lot of demand at those levels.
2:35
Speaker 2: So how did you first start working in housing? Because
2:39
Speaker 2: your background is quite varied, isn't it tell us maybe
2:43
Speaker 2: about your background and how you got started?
2:45
Speaker 3: Okay, So I am not in housing for three years yet,
2:50
Speaker 3: but I've kind of been in it for a while.
2:53
Speaker 3: I've read run my own business or did, and then
2:56
Speaker 3: I got involved in politics as a city commissioner, and
2:59
Speaker 3: then it got to served the Great County of Penell's
3:01
Speaker 3: County for a while, and then I actually went to
3:05
Speaker 3: the toughest, most neglected neighborhood in Panel's County called Lelman.
3:10
Speaker 3: It's not a city, it's just a neighborhood. And I
3:14
Speaker 3: spent ten years helping kids with the Police Athletic League.
3:17
Speaker 3: And I got a call one day from a friend
3:20
Speaker 3: of mine and Joe said, why don't you put in
3:23
Speaker 3: to run the housing Authority? And I thought, I don't
3:25
Speaker 3: know anything about housing, and he said, well, you know
3:28
Speaker 3: a lot about helping people, so why don't you follow
3:31
Speaker 3: your passion and apply? And the Lord was good to me.
3:35
Speaker 3: I ended up in Penell's County Housing Authority, leading housing
3:39
Speaker 3: initiatives in Panell's County, state of Florida, and one of
3:42
Speaker 3: the most exciting and times we've had excellent.
3:45
Speaker 2: What was it like working for the athletic club? That's
3:48
Speaker 2: such a unique niche there.
3:51
Speaker 3: So it was the Police Athletic League and they called
3:56
Speaker 3: me coach, right, So we use athletes athletics to bring
4:00
Speaker 3: the kids in after school and make sure the homework
4:03
Speaker 3: was done, that they were fed, and that they had
4:07
Speaker 3: some recreation. So if you think Boys and Girls Club, YMCA,
4:11
Speaker 3: all these great organizations that do the after school programs,
4:16
Speaker 3: PAL Police Athletic League. We make our name nationally because
4:21
Speaker 3: we go into neighborhoods where other organizations don't. So we
4:25
Speaker 3: were dealing with some pretty great kids living some pretty
4:28
Speaker 3: tough lives and we did our best to bring them along.
4:31
Speaker 3: And success for us was when they graduated, they punched
4:34
Speaker 3: the ticket. Right. So every year we graduated, if we
4:38
Speaker 3: could keep kids involved into there were seniors in high school,
4:42
Speaker 3: we could get them to punch that ticket and we
4:44
Speaker 3: could launch them in life and with a big advantage.
4:48
Speaker 2: So how does that work now parallel into what you're doing,
4:52
Speaker 2: because now you're able to help change those neighborhoods, so
4:56
Speaker 2: to speak. What's that been like?
5:00
Speaker 3: It's interesting that was a tough neighborhood. That's not the
5:05
Speaker 3: only tough neighborhood. It's a lot of fun. When you
5:08
Speaker 3: go in and you create or you're creating a much
5:12
Speaker 3: better place to live. You know, Katie, There's a lot
5:16
Speaker 3: of things I had to learn working for the Police
5:20
Speaker 3: Athletic League. For instance, I'm a middle class guy. Right
5:25
Speaker 3: when I sent my kids off the first grade, they
5:27
Speaker 3: knew their name, they knew their address, they knew their
5:30
Speaker 3: phone number. Right, most people do. Right. I had a
5:34
Speaker 3: tough time working with the middle schoolers because they would
5:38
Speaker 3: point or tell me what color house they lived in
5:41
Speaker 3: in the neighborhood. It took me a while to understand
5:44
Speaker 3: that they moved so frequently that they considered memorizing your
5:50
Speaker 3: address a waste of time because it was only going
5:53
Speaker 3: to change in three or four months. Right. And the
5:56
Speaker 3: other big thing I learned was, like you, right, you
6:01
Speaker 3: taught your kids what to do with the fire or
6:03
Speaker 3: a tornado or any of the emergencies that could come up. Right,
6:06
Speaker 3: you had a safe place to meet if there was
6:09
Speaker 3: a problem. I never once talked to my children about
6:14
Speaker 3: what to do if we were evicted, and well, like
6:16
Speaker 3: every family, we've had good times and bad times, right,
6:19
Speaker 3: But it never occurred to me that that was a
6:21
Speaker 3: conversation to have. And one day I'm sitting there and
6:24
Speaker 3: a couple of kids from middle and high school explaining
6:27
Speaker 3: to me exactly what you do when you're evicted, because
6:30
Speaker 3: they've been evicted so many times in a life. It
6:32
Speaker 3: was routine. There was nothing unusual about being evicted. And
6:36
Speaker 3: if there's anything that they value, they left it at
6:39
Speaker 3: Powell because Powell was a safe place. They wouldn't bring
6:43
Speaker 3: it to their house. So it was a big eye
6:45
Speaker 3: opener for me working with those kids.
6:49
Speaker 2: And now you get to be part of the solution
6:51
Speaker 2: for housing stability. So you've really come full circle and
6:55
Speaker 2: what you were doing there and what you're doing now.
6:58
Speaker 3: I'm helping the same family were the same type of
7:01
Speaker 3: families in very different ways. So it's very gratifying. You know,
7:05
Speaker 3: I have a personal mission statement. It's I serve God
7:08
Speaker 3: by improving the lives of others. So this fits right
7:12
Speaker 3: in with what I do.
7:14
Speaker 2: And you have to have a personal mission statement because
7:17
Speaker 2: this work is hard. Speaking of which, I want to
7:21
Speaker 2: highlight one of the things you guys just successfully navigated.
7:25
Speaker 2: As I was preparing for this, I was reading about
7:28
Speaker 2: the Flats on Fourth. Will you tell us more about
7:32
Speaker 2: what you guys have been able to do and what
7:34
Speaker 2: your goals are there.
7:36
Speaker 3: So Flats on Fourth is one of our senior housing buildings.
7:42
Speaker 3: I believe we'll have seventy eight units when it's done.
7:46
Speaker 3: We're working inside the city of Saint Petersburg. It's been
7:48
Speaker 3: very supportive. In fact, they asked us to put in
7:51
Speaker 3: an application for state funding for that area and we
7:55
Speaker 3: were successful. It's a for the insiders. It's a a
7:59
Speaker 3: sale and four percent bond deal. We're fortunate we have
8:04
Speaker 3: some good partners. One of our partners, aside from Panel's County,
8:08
Speaker 3: is Saint Pete Housing Authority. I was saying, c St. Pete,
8:11
Speaker 3: I'm sorry. Is Ever a healthcare Ever is a federally
8:16
Speaker 3: qualified health clinic. So we have a number of projects
8:19
Speaker 3: going right now. Ever and US have made a commitment
8:24
Speaker 3: that we're going to have a wellness center in every
8:27
Speaker 3: one of our facilities. So if that doesn't mean twenty
8:29
Speaker 3: four to seven, they're right next door to us. And
8:32
Speaker 3: then all the unit Panela's heights older as ten years old,
8:37
Speaker 3: they're in there a couple of days a week. For
8:39
Speaker 3: the seniors, you get geriatric care, you get basic, basic
8:44
Speaker 3: doctor care, and probably the most popular, the pedietrist comes
8:49
Speaker 3: in and cuts their toenails while they line up for that.
8:52
Speaker 3: You know, not a big deal unless you're a senior
8:55
Speaker 3: and you can't do it, then it's a really big deal, right.
8:58
Speaker 2: Well, it's quality of life. Visit it and it's something
9:01
Speaker 2: that I remember where I was pregnant. I was like,
9:05
Speaker 2: you know, there are things mobility just changes your life
9:09
Speaker 2: on when when something happens. And for our seniors, I
9:12
Speaker 2: mean there are mobility concerns to navigate rout related to
9:16
Speaker 2: their quality of life.
9:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we were out for Yes, I agree with you.
9:21
Speaker 3: We're out for a ribbon cut. I'm sorry, a groundbreaking there,
9:23
Speaker 3: and we're in Florida. It was August, so from seven
9:27
Speaker 3: thirty to seven thirty five we took a picture. Right,
9:31
Speaker 3: we didn't do the whole ceremony. Well wait till it's
9:33
Speaker 3: cooler to do a topping off party. But we were
9:37
Speaker 3: all reflecting that today it was dirt, but soon enough,
9:43
Speaker 3: there's going to be eighty people in our community who
9:46
Speaker 3: aren't going to have the burden or the worry of
9:49
Speaker 3: where am I going to live? Right, there's going to
9:52
Speaker 3: be a place for them and one big worry is
9:57
Speaker 3: going to be off their shoulders, right, and all they
10:00
Speaker 3: got to do now is live and enjoy. So that's
10:02
Speaker 3: pretty exciting stuff. For our seniors.
10:04
Speaker 2: And I'm sure with the eighty people that you're going
10:07
Speaker 2: to be able to house. If you were estimating how
10:11
Speaker 2: many people, actually, what's the need? You have eighty units?
10:16
Speaker 2: Are you going to have five thousand people apply? I mean,
10:19
Speaker 2: what's the dispairy there?
10:22
Speaker 3: Okay? So two things flats on fourth is I believe
10:30
Speaker 3: about a year out before we can start putting the
10:34
Speaker 3: list out to occupy it. Heritage Okes, which is less
10:37
Speaker 3: than a mile from my office, that's opening in November.
10:41
Speaker 3: In fact, November fourteenth is our remend County. You're invited
10:44
Speaker 3: right to yes, right, that's another eighty seniors. That is
10:49
Speaker 3: a former public housing site. So we demo, dispod, we
10:55
Speaker 3: knock down, We gently and carefully and lovingly relocated all
11:01
Speaker 3: of our tenants with white glove treatment so we could
11:04
Speaker 3: proceed with the demolition. And now we have eighty new
11:08
Speaker 3: units coming online. And my goodness, I don't think we
11:12
Speaker 3: were open for seventy two hours and I took leave.
11:15
Speaker 3: We had close to one thousand people applying, and that's
11:18
Speaker 3: only because they couldn't apply fast enough. I mean it
11:20
Speaker 3: was a short window. Penelas County leads the state of Florida.
11:27
Speaker 3: In senior housing needs right now, and it translates into
11:33
Speaker 3: some senior homelessness. So this is a challenge, and we
11:38
Speaker 3: can't build enough senior housing in Panelas County in the
11:41
Speaker 3: state of Florida right now. It's always a high priority
11:44
Speaker 3: for us.
11:46
Speaker 2: And what I like about senior housing back in the day,
11:49
Speaker 2: I used to be a manager over several properties that
11:54
Speaker 2: were senior housing, and what I like is that there
11:57
Speaker 2: is that intent of care and there can be that
12:02
Speaker 2: attentive care as opposed to when they're living in a
12:09
Speaker 2: different type of a setting that there's not as frequent
12:12
Speaker 2: check ins or there's not as frequent people who are
12:15
Speaker 2: in the hall or have they seen them? Or are
12:17
Speaker 2: they coming down for the meals on wheels?
12:19
Speaker 3: Are they you know?
12:20
Speaker 2: So there seems to be more interaction. And I know
12:24
Speaker 2: that's a huge general statement, but senior housing is so vital,
12:30
Speaker 2: not just because it provides the affordable rent, but there's
12:34
Speaker 2: also this connectivity piece that I think senior housing provides
12:38
Speaker 2: so much better than other types of housing.
12:42
Speaker 3: I will tell you that the level of tenant activity
12:47
Speaker 3: or engagement in one or other is clearly higher in
12:52
Speaker 3: our senior units than it is and are well, they're
12:56
Speaker 3: not working right, so they're not leaving early and coming
12:59
Speaker 3: home late. They're seeing each other all day long. It
13:03
Speaker 3: makes it fun.
13:05
Speaker 2: There was something else about the flats on fourth that
13:10
Speaker 2: I read related to the water recycling system.
13:15
Speaker 3: Oh, the greywater system.
13:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, tell us more about that because I found that
13:18
Speaker 2: to be very fascinating as well.
13:20
Speaker 3: Okay, so first, in the state of Florida, if you
13:23
Speaker 3: use gray water, so gray water is water goes through
13:26
Speaker 3: your sink or your shower or bathhub and we're capturing
13:32
Speaker 3: that underground. We're putting it through a filtering system to
13:36
Speaker 3: clean it, and then it's returning to either water the landscaping,
13:44
Speaker 3: or more importantly, it's being reused in the toilets to
13:48
Speaker 3: do the flushing. So it's essentially setting up to drainage
13:53
Speaker 3: and reis water distribution systems within the facility. And if
14:01
Speaker 3: you go to that, and I don't know about everybody
14:05
Speaker 3: other state, I can tell you that water is our
14:08
Speaker 3: biggest expense after payroll. Right when we look at the utilities,
14:13
Speaker 3: watertops the list. So we get a bonus and a
14:16
Speaker 3: number of units we can put on we could build
14:20
Speaker 3: at that location, and we get a long term savings
14:23
Speaker 3: on our water and water usage, so you win twice
14:25
Speaker 3: on it. I believe it pays for itself within three
14:28
Speaker 3: to four years, so it's not an investment that's a killer,
14:33
Speaker 3: and it's good for the environment, it's good for us.
14:36
Speaker 3: It keeps the price of the facility lower. It's a
14:39
Speaker 3: win win win right there.
14:41
Speaker 2: How did you guys come up with that idea? Is
14:43
Speaker 2: that a state mandate or is that was that your
14:45
Speaker 2: developer's idea or staff?
14:47
Speaker 3: It's not a state mandate, but it is a state
14:50
Speaker 3: law that if you use gray water you can get
14:53
Speaker 3: a density bonus. So okay, the developer came to us
14:58
Speaker 3: and said, this is what we want to do, and
14:59
Speaker 3: this was we were equate out.
15:03
Speaker 2: If you had all the tax credit and bond of
15:08
Speaker 2: unlimited wallet, how much would you build and what would
15:14
Speaker 2: it look like? Dream for a moment there.
15:18
Speaker 3: So Katie, I have an awesome board and when we
15:22
Speaker 3: set up to do our five year strategic plan, we
15:26
Speaker 3: talked about enlarging our footprint. Currently we have approximately two
15:30
Speaker 3: thousand units and we set a goal as an organization
15:34
Speaker 3: to double our footprint within five years. So we have
15:38
Speaker 3: about five hundred units under construction or under development right
15:42
Speaker 3: now and a project starts when the board takes a vote,
15:46
Speaker 3: and then we have more in our pipeline that we're
15:49
Speaker 3: waiting to get funded. So we're being really aggressive. You're like,
15:54
Speaker 3: if it was unlimited, I'm like, we have a lot
15:58
Speaker 3: to handle right now, and uh, we we have that
16:02
Speaker 3: one coming online. We opened up our h our vash
16:08
Speaker 3: Valor Preserve, which which serves our veterans last year, and
16:12
Speaker 3: we have a number coming on in the next next
16:16
Speaker 3: year online. So we're being aggressive. I don't know if
16:19
Speaker 3: I want to dream on being more aggressive. I want
16:22
Speaker 3: to make sure that we're we're staying at a pace
16:25
Speaker 3: that we can handle and we can handle excellently.
16:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, that you can execute well, and it's based on quality.
16:33
Speaker 3: Right. I will tell you that we we recently purchased
16:37
Speaker 3: two assisted living facilities. We had one that we built.
16:41
Speaker 3: We learned that we were not good at running at ourselves,
16:44
Speaker 3: so we went out and got a third party management,
16:48
Speaker 3: and then we just added two smaller ones. They each
16:51
Speaker 3: have about thirty beds each. We're really excited about that.
16:56
Speaker 3: You were alluding to this before. We have and we
17:00
Speaker 3: do independent living, right, that's what we're doing. But you
17:04
Speaker 3: begin to see someone. You know, that guy hasn't changed
17:06
Speaker 3: his clothes in a couple of days, or he's suddenly
17:09
Speaker 3: losing weight, and you know, looks like they're not eating,
17:12
Speaker 3: or they're becoming less social, all the signs that tell
17:15
Speaker 3: you something isn't going right. We have a mission statement
17:21
Speaker 3: provide quality, affordable housing and prove the rives of residents.
17:24
Speaker 3: So we're talking about the second part now, right. We
17:26
Speaker 3: want to make sure that we have a place that
17:29
Speaker 3: we can provide for them and house them. I like
17:32
Speaker 3: to tell you that it's as easy as calling up
17:35
Speaker 3: their child, their cousin and saying, you know, miss, he's
17:39
Speaker 3: having a problem. We need you to help. Frequently there's
17:45
Speaker 3: nobody to call like that. These people are independent and
17:49
Speaker 3: we can't stand by and just let's watch them deteriorate.
17:52
Speaker 3: We recently had a gentleman with dementia, and fortunately for them,
17:58
Speaker 3: for him, he had a son in another state that
18:02
Speaker 3: made arrangements to come down and take his dad back
18:06
Speaker 3: with him. He's a fortunate one. Not everybody has one.
18:09
Speaker 3: So we look at the assisted living facility as a clear,
18:15
Speaker 3: wonderful next step so that we can keep them in
18:19
Speaker 3: a safe place and move from independent care to assist
18:22
Speaker 3: a living care.
18:24
Speaker 2: What type of community partnerships are you mostly relying on?
18:29
Speaker 3: Wow, So, like everybody else during COVID, we kind of
18:35
Speaker 3: shut down and we didn't excel at the partnership part.
18:39
Speaker 3: But now we're back. So we'll have a family Self
18:44
Speaker 3: Sufficiency graduate this month at this board meeting. We had
18:49
Speaker 3: one last month to graduated with thirty seven thousand dollars.
18:54
Speaker 3: And the number one goal for these folks is buying
18:59
Speaker 3: a home. And one of our big partnerships is with
19:02
Speaker 3: Habitat for Humanity. It seems that it's a very good
19:05
Speaker 3: fit for our FSS graduates to enter in there. That's what.
19:10
Speaker 3: The only one is a community services Foundation in clear
19:13
Speaker 3: Water that we have somebody buying a house with. So
19:17
Speaker 3: we have a number of those on our I mentioned ever,
19:20
Speaker 3: a Healthcare our great partner on our wellness, and then
19:25
Speaker 3: or Seniors and Service Saving our Seniors Boys and Girls Club.
19:31
Speaker 3: We have a fifty year relationship with head Start. We
19:34
Speaker 3: partner with the VA Hospital on our VASH vouchers and
19:39
Speaker 3: we have five hundred and sixty three VASH vouchers. As
19:42
Speaker 3: of Monday, everyone was either leased up or in a
19:46
Speaker 3: veteran's hands. Where they're out looking for for housing right now.
19:51
Speaker 3: So not only the VA. Our other partner is Bowlie,
19:53
Speaker 3: which does the support of services part And I'm sorry,
19:59
Speaker 3: I'm not doing this justice. There's another twenty I've just
20:03
Speaker 3: not got them off the top of my head. But
20:06
Speaker 3: we try to make partners because we go further with partners.
20:09
Speaker 2: You know, there's this philosophical divide whether housing authorities and
20:14
Speaker 2: community developers, whether they're just you know, inside the wall
20:18
Speaker 2: or outside the walls, or whether they should be inside
20:21
Speaker 2: the walls. But the reality is is to be able
20:24
Speaker 2: to deliver that comprehensive housing support. You've just highlighted exactly
20:29
Speaker 2: all the community partners that have a piece in this
20:33
Speaker 2: continuum of housing stability and just even mentioning the veterans
20:38
Speaker 2: vouchers the fact to be fully utilized because so many
20:42
Speaker 2: communities struggle. You have veterans who need the housing or
20:46
Speaker 2: who are experiencing chronic homelessness, but they can't provide the
20:50
Speaker 2: links to help get them into housing, to help get
20:55
Speaker 2: them with the wrap around services and then to remain
20:58
Speaker 2: in housing. So what you just even in one bullet
21:01
Speaker 2: point that you just mentioned, there's five hundred and sixty
21:04
Speaker 2: three veterans. That is more than just leasing to a veteran.
21:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, Katie, I have fantastic staff here and they are passionate,
21:17
Speaker 3: and not only a VASH which is an award winning program,
21:22
Speaker 3: but with many programs. We're dedicated. We want to improve
21:26
Speaker 3: these lives and no obstacle will stop us if we
21:31
Speaker 3: can find a partner to help us get there.
21:34
Speaker 2: Excellent, excellent way to reframe that. So let's talk about
21:38
Speaker 2: CIRQUE Narrow. Congratulations because you just got a legislative appointment
21:44
Speaker 2: on that committee. That's a big, big moment. Tell us
21:49
Speaker 2: for people who don't maybe know what certain NARU is,
21:52
Speaker 2: but maybe give us some grounding about what that is
21:55
Speaker 2: and then what your involvement is going to look like.
22:00
Speaker 3: Oh boy, So following two giants, Ivory Matthews and Yolanda Bean. So,
22:06
Speaker 3: I don't know, I don't know if I'll do them justice.
22:09
Speaker 3: But CIRQUE is the Southeastern Regional Council of NARO. NARO
22:14
Speaker 3: is the one of our two big national trade groups,
22:17
Speaker 3: Narrow and Fodder. CIRQUE is ten states in southeastern part
22:24
Speaker 3: and please don't make me name them all, but Florida
22:26
Speaker 3: is part of it. And then I made the mistake
22:31
Speaker 3: of calling this new SHIRK president Michael Wang and say,
22:36
Speaker 3: who's the legislative network chare And that kind of greased
22:42
Speaker 3: my path right there. And I have a habit. My
22:46
Speaker 3: board asked me in our review, I have an outstanding board.
22:49
Speaker 3: They said, we'd like you to communicate more. So I
22:52
Speaker 3: started testing them, how much do you want? You know,
22:55
Speaker 3: how much detail about our work do you want? And
22:59
Speaker 3: I started sending them are narrow and fought o newsletters
23:02
Speaker 3: and they ate it up. And then I thought, well,
23:04
Speaker 3: as long as I'm sending them out, I might as
23:07
Speaker 3: well send them out to our other legislative leaders or advocates.
23:12
Speaker 3: And just sending any news story or newsletter that comes
23:18
Speaker 3: across as has gotten me in the position I in.
23:23
Speaker 3: I'm into If you're listening and you want that, you
23:26
Speaker 3: have to email me and be happy to add you
23:29
Speaker 3: to the list. You don't get an explanation, You usually
23:32
Speaker 3: get FYI at whatever it is that I forwarded. So
23:37
Speaker 3: I think that we have a responsibility, if we're going
23:39
Speaker 3: to serve our our residents to the best of our ability,
23:43
Speaker 3: to be involved and know what the federal government and
23:47
Speaker 3: HUD is doing right because that affects not just us
23:49
Speaker 3: and our operation, but what affects every resident in our community.
23:54
Speaker 2: I've even seen some ripples about how people adjust their
23:58
Speaker 2: development pipelines because they may be wondering about their funding
24:03
Speaker 2: or wondering about the rules or the changes. But so
24:07
Speaker 2: monitoring those things, you know, is crucial, and many of
24:11
Speaker 2: us are sitting around saying, you know, hey, you know,
24:13
Speaker 2: I'm not a policy wonk, I'm not a person that
24:16
Speaker 2: you know, I understand certain pieces. But now so many
24:22
Speaker 2: more people are having to follow things closely to make
24:26
Speaker 2: informed decisions on how that's impacting their operations. But I
24:30
Speaker 2: have seen several people try to say what can be
24:34
Speaker 2: done on the legislative front to help speed up that
24:40
Speaker 2: production line, to reduce regulations to make it easier to build,
24:48
Speaker 2: or easier on the housing front, and those conversations are
24:54
Speaker 2: always time Like, for example, I've seen some recent conversations
24:59
Speaker 2: about the wage to termination, the Davis Bacon wage requirements,
25:02
Speaker 2: and does is there an exemption for affordable housing? Is there?
25:07
Speaker 2: You know, right now it's like eleven or twelve units,
25:10
Speaker 2: you know, should that be three hundred or should affordable
25:14
Speaker 2: housing development be completely exempt? And so that legislative committee
25:20
Speaker 2: that you're on is going to be crucial to try
25:22
Speaker 2: to bring up suggestions to do just that.
25:27
Speaker 3: So I just I just started this morning that a
25:31
Speaker 3: trade group is working on David Bacon and Build America,
25:35
Speaker 3: Buy America, Build America, by America. Build America has a
25:38
Speaker 3: great name, that's never going away. Right, who wants to
25:41
Speaker 3: vote against Buy America, Build America. But we would like
25:44
Speaker 3: to see some like during COVID, some exemptions for affordable
25:49
Speaker 3: housing if it's a priority. And then we do have
25:52
Speaker 3: to give some kudos to the federal government. They did
25:58
Speaker 3: pass a big light tech EPs this year to make
26:03
Speaker 3: more tax creads available so we can do more We
26:07
Speaker 3: as an industry can do more development. And right, it's
26:11
Speaker 3: the numbers. Are there. Eighty percent of affordable housing that's
26:14
Speaker 3: that's being built is being built with lie tech, right,
26:17
Speaker 3: So that's the program that works the most. So we've expanding.
26:21
Speaker 3: That's a pretty big deal.
26:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. So what is the appetite for your
26:27
Speaker 2: developers in that community? You know you mentioned your landlocked
26:31
Speaker 2: or peninsula locked. What appetite do you have for the
26:36
Speaker 2: private industry? You know, are they saying bring us the
26:38
Speaker 2: deals and we'll build it or what's that look like?
26:42
Speaker 3: Actually, we do it just the opposite. But you have
26:44
Speaker 3: to know, I get an opportunity here. Canellas County and
26:52
Speaker 3: the City of Saint Petersburg puts some of their one
26:55
Speaker 3: percent infrastructure sales tacks, they dedicate it to affordable housing.
27:00
Speaker 3: Oh wow, So they do prador and there's a land trust.
27:04
Speaker 3: So we got a lot of tools in Penelas County
27:07
Speaker 3: to address this, and both government, all governments. There's twenty
27:10
Speaker 3: four city here is just about every city here is
27:13
Speaker 3: unanimous that affordable housing is a priority. And on top
27:18
Speaker 3: of that, the State of Florida pass to Live Local Act.
27:21
Speaker 3: Live Local Act essentially took inclusionary zoning and monetized it.
27:27
Speaker 3: It's one of the most revolutionary affordable housing legislation passed
27:33
Speaker 3: to the United States. You put all three of those
27:36
Speaker 3: together and you really have some high octane things going on.
27:41
Speaker 3: So when I came here, we let every affordable housing
27:47
Speaker 3: developer in town know that we're open for business. Right.
27:50
Speaker 3: We see that this point in time where affordable housing
27:55
Speaker 3: is such a critical need, right, and all these tools
27:59
Speaker 3: are here. Right, the alarm bells ringing, we need to
28:03
Speaker 3: go and answer the call right right. So we're trying
28:06
Speaker 3: to use every tool we can to work with as
28:09
Speaker 3: many quality developers as we can at this time to
28:12
Speaker 3: see what we can do to alleviate this problem, both
28:15
Speaker 3: long and short term.
28:17
Speaker 2: I like how you put that. You talked about the
28:20
Speaker 2: financing tools, you talked about how the communities are already
28:24
Speaker 2: actively engaged, and it really is an alarm bell moment
28:28
Speaker 2: for people to just mobilize here. What do you think
28:33
Speaker 2: is some of what are some of the obstacles you're seeing.
28:36
Speaker 2: I mean, we've talked about the logistics and what you're doing,
28:40
Speaker 2: but are you what obstacles do you see in the
28:42
Speaker 2: community or just with delivering these types of programs.
28:47
Speaker 3: First, I really have a conversation with any business owner
28:53
Speaker 3: where affordable housing and workplace housing doesn't come up, right.
28:58
Speaker 3: They're recruiting outside of our county. This is hospitals, this
29:03
Speaker 3: is the school board, this is just about every major
29:06
Speaker 3: employee right there. There are our including us. Some of
29:11
Speaker 3: our employees live in the next county in their commuting right.
29:14
Speaker 3: So there's a reason that Lombell is there. What we
29:19
Speaker 3: as much as we congratulate the federal government for improving
29:23
Speaker 3: and expanding LIE Tech in Florida, one out of every
29:27
Speaker 3: ten applicants gets funded. Right, So even with all these tools,
29:32
Speaker 3: we still can't address the need. So auxiliary housing units
29:39
Speaker 3: eighty US or a big topic of conversation this year
29:43
Speaker 3: and the legislator in Florida because right we're layd locked. Right,
29:48
Speaker 3: being able to put a a mother in law cabin
29:53
Speaker 3: or suite or garage conversion is the next frontier.
29:58
Speaker 2: We're seeing a lot of places, even in South Florida,
30:02
Speaker 2: California and some in Arizona that are looking at their
30:07
Speaker 2: zoning rules to do casitas and those you know, grainy
30:11
Speaker 2: flats or whatever you want to call them. But they're say,
30:14
Speaker 2: you know, there's only so much space that we can maneuver,
30:18
Speaker 2: and so the original code didn't think about allowing conversions.
30:25
Speaker 2: And it's great to have these conversations because land is changing,
30:29
Speaker 2: prices are changing, especially you know in a geography that's
30:35
Speaker 2: like yours, where there's only so much you can there's
30:38
Speaker 2: only so many places you can build, right, or.
30:41
Speaker 3: Tear down and rebuild. Although we are looking at or
30:46
Speaker 3: we're involved with the Padellas County school Board, they have
30:49
Speaker 3: some of their aged out facilities that they are looking
30:55
Speaker 3: at converting into workforce housing for their workforce. People being
31:00
Speaker 3: creative at the same time.
31:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've even seen people do designs for abandoned malls,
31:07
Speaker 2: like the big old storefront malls that had all of
31:10
Speaker 2: them and where they've looked at converting those into some
31:13
Speaker 2: senior housing and so forth. So people are really getting
31:17
Speaker 2: creative times up necessity. It's that old saying the mother
31:21
Speaker 2: of necessity or something it.
31:23
Speaker 3: Was, Necessity is the mother revention.
31:25
Speaker 2: Not to there we go, I mean, we'd come up
31:28
Speaker 2: with it. That's what is being required of all of
31:30
Speaker 2: us who are in this industry to try to to
31:33
Speaker 2: try to meet the need of what's going on. Well, Neil,
31:37
Speaker 2: it's been great talking with you as we close out.
31:40
Speaker 2: Is there anything else that you would like to bring
31:43
Speaker 2: to our podcast listeners?
31:45
Speaker 3: Yes, I like everybody know that we're a mission and
31:48
Speaker 3: value based organization. I told you I have a fantastic
31:51
Speaker 3: board and outstanding team members, but you should know that
31:56
Speaker 3: we're dedicated to this. Our mission has provide quality, affordable
32:00
Speaker 3: housing and improve the lives of our residents. Our value
32:04
Speaker 3: statement is Penel's County Housing Authority sets the standard for
32:08
Speaker 3: affordable housing in Panels. Our belief is that everybody deserves
32:12
Speaker 3: a quality place to live. And our core values are integrity,
32:16
Speaker 3: cultural learning, embracing innovation, and accountability. And we, as an
32:21
Speaker 3: organization top the bottom all embrace these and live our
32:25
Speaker 3: missions so we can improve other people's lives.
32:28
Speaker 2: Excellent. You guys are doing a great job and I
32:31
Speaker 2: look forward to seeing you on the next year Narrow
32:35
Speaker 2: Merit Award winners. Hopefully, hopefully we'll speaking of the action,
32:41
Speaker 2: won't we.
32:42
Speaker 3: So, Katie, I really enjoyed being on here, and I
32:45
Speaker 3: have to tell you I listened to Change Makers whenever
32:49
Speaker 3: it comes out. I've learned so much about it. You
32:51
Speaker 3: have such impressional people. You had Greta from Richmond. I
32:56
Speaker 3: replayed some of the things that she's doing with funding. Yeah,
33:00
Speaker 3: that gentlemen in Saint Louis who owns movie theaters and
33:03
Speaker 3: other commercial venues. Ye, I'm very, very inspiring. I hope
33:07
Speaker 3: I get more than two listens on this one.
33:10
Speaker 2: You will, you will. You will be surprised how many
33:13
Speaker 2: people are going to come up to you and tell
33:14
Speaker 2: you they heard you. So I appreciate the shout out. Well, Neil,
33:18
Speaker 2: it has been great talking with you again. I'm talking
33:21
Speaker 2: with Neil Brickfield, the executive director of the Panellas County
33:24
Speaker 2: Housing Authority in Florida. Thank you, Thanks.
33:28
Speaker 1: Katie, Thanks for listening to change Makers with Katie Gore.
33:33
Speaker 1: To find out more about Katie, go to quadel dot com.
33:36
Speaker 1: That's qu A d e l dot com. This has
33:41
Speaker 1: been a production of Forbes Books Radio