Latest / ChangeMakers with Katie Goar / Episode 141: Marcia Davis, Executive Director, Housing Authority of the City of Fort Myers

Transcript

Episode 141: Marcia Davis, Executive Director, Housing Authority of the City of Fort Myers · 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 today.
0:13
Speaker 2: My guest is Marcia Davis, the executive director of the
0:18
Speaker 2: Housing Authority of the City of Fort Myers. Marcia has
0:21
Speaker 2: spent more than two decades in public housing development and
0:26
Speaker 2: community development growth initiatives, and today Marcia oversees more than
0:31
Speaker 2: one three hundred homes and two thousand, five hundred vouchers
0:36
Speaker 2: while building a strong path to stability and upward mobility
0:40
Speaker 2: for families in Southwest Florida. Marcia, thank you so much
0:46
Speaker 2: for being here and welcome to the podcast.
0:49
Speaker 3: Well, thank you, Katie. I'm glad to be here.
0:52
Speaker 2: It's a pleasure to have you and Southwest Florida has
0:56
Speaker 2: so much going on, like so many communities, but I'm
0:59
Speaker 2: thrilled to highlight specifically what you were doing in several
1:03
Speaker 2: development spaces, disaster recovery, choice, neighborhoods. There's just so many
1:09
Speaker 2: things we can talk about. First. I usually like to
1:13
Speaker 2: start this by asking our guests how you started in
1:17
Speaker 2: housing and maybe some of your backstory before coming to
1:22
Speaker 2: your current position.
1:24
Speaker 3: You know, I've spent my entire career, you know, in
1:27
Speaker 3: housing and especially with the housing authority. So it's you know,
1:30
Speaker 3: it's easy for me. I don't have to I didn't
1:33
Speaker 3: wonder different paths, but I got here. But I think
1:37
Speaker 3: my you know, my first experience with public housing and
1:40
Speaker 3: Section eight as a kid living in public housing. And
1:46
Speaker 3: you know, when I was living in public housing is like, okay,
1:49
Speaker 3: you live over there. And so there wasn't the nicer
1:53
Speaker 3: apartments that you see today and things that are happening.
1:56
Speaker 3: But so I knew what it was like. And then
2:01
Speaker 3: more so in two thousand when I moved to Florida
2:05
Speaker 3: and I started working for the Department Childer Families because
2:08
Speaker 3: you know, I truly cared about protecting kids and I was,
2:12
Speaker 3: you know, straight out of college and had this opportunity.
2:16
Speaker 3: And so I came to Florida and started working as
2:19
Speaker 3: an investigator for the state. And I noticed in our
2:24
Speaker 3: community in Lee County and Fort Myers, we were removing
2:27
Speaker 3: a lot of kids, you know, from one of the
2:31
Speaker 3: bigger public housing sites, and I'm like, there's got to
2:34
Speaker 3: be something we can do, right, It's just, you know,
2:37
Speaker 3: the the real issues that some of these families were
2:40
Speaker 3: facing were you know, the things that we hear about
2:43
Speaker 3: till this day, you know, some challenges they're facing. And
2:47
Speaker 3: here I was in early twenties thinking, you know, gosh,
2:52
Speaker 3: I got to make the decision whether to remove their
2:54
Speaker 3: kid or try to help them, you know, in some
2:57
Speaker 3: form or fashion, I mean, And so really tried that.
3:01
Speaker 3: And so I got very familiar with all the public
3:03
Speaker 3: housing sights in my early twenties in Fort Myers, and
3:07
Speaker 3: even went so far as to try to, you know,
3:10
Speaker 3: get with the state and get with the housing authority. Hey,
3:12
Speaker 3: can we you know, do some kind of preventive program
3:16
Speaker 3: or something you know here, so that that we're not
3:19
Speaker 3: removing as many kids, Because I got to be honest
3:21
Speaker 3: with you, it may fix the problem, you know, immediately,
3:26
Speaker 3: but long term the effects of that on kids is
3:29
Speaker 3: just unbelievable. And so I remember a couple of years
3:34
Speaker 3: into that that there was an ad and it was
3:38
Speaker 3: this housing authority, the Housing Authority c Fort Myers was
3:41
Speaker 3: hiring a family self sufficiency coordinator and I raised my hand.
3:46
Speaker 3: I said, oh my gosh, that's it perfect, it is
3:48
Speaker 3: for me. So you know, I applied and I started
3:53
Speaker 3: in two thousand and three as a family self Sufficiency
3:57
Speaker 3: coordinator and started learning every thing there was. I was
4:02
Speaker 3: one of those nerds and geeks that I went and
4:04
Speaker 3: researched every housing authority under the sun so that I
4:07
Speaker 3: would know. I wanted to create the best program, and
4:11
Speaker 3: I got to go learn from all the best. So
4:14
Speaker 3: you know, that's really how my journey, you know, got
4:17
Speaker 3: started in the housing authority, and then I got exposed
4:22
Speaker 3: to different grants and all the wonderful things that you know,
4:24
Speaker 3: we started the FSS program. So you know, now that
4:28
Speaker 3: I look back at all the folks that are graduating,
4:30
Speaker 3: it's amazing to see, you know, after twenty plus years,
4:34
Speaker 3: you know, all the things that have happened. But also
4:37
Speaker 3: that's how I learned development because we started shortly after
4:40
Speaker 3: you know, I started of applying for Hope six you know,
4:44
Speaker 3: back in the Hope six days. So you know, I
4:47
Speaker 3: learned a lot of that stuff. And you know, just
4:49
Speaker 3: by happenstance, I always took the road of I'm going
4:55
Speaker 3: to learn everything I can from everybody that's working in
4:57
Speaker 3: and around the housing authority, to include you know, our
5:00
Speaker 3: consultants and our attorneys, and so I was not formally
5:05
Speaker 3: trained in finance. I can tell you I was trained
5:09
Speaker 3: from some of the best in the industry, and I
5:12
Speaker 3: credit all a lot of my foundation to them. So
5:18
Speaker 3: that led into you know, years of development and a
5:21
Speaker 3: housing authority, and I ventured out for a little bit
5:25
Speaker 3: to our larger housing authority, and then I eventually returned
5:29
Speaker 3: back home here to Fort Myers and I've been back
5:33
Speaker 3: here seven years and that is really my story, and
5:39
Speaker 3: I'll be here in until I retire, hop god willing.
5:42
Speaker 2: I've shared some of my own housing insecurity journey, and
5:46
Speaker 2: I appreciate you sharing, you know, some of your backstory
5:50
Speaker 2: and how you grew up. I think there's times where
5:52
Speaker 2: we can point to our definite level of energy and
5:56
Speaker 2: our push and our grit because of our backstories. But
6:00
Speaker 2: we also have a unique ability to talk about how
6:05
Speaker 2: housing can change people's lives for the better through establishing
6:11
Speaker 2: some stability. And I love that you're in a position
6:14
Speaker 2: of leadership that now you get to talk about compliance development,
6:20
Speaker 2: but yet that fundamental safety that housing can bring. So
6:26
Speaker 2: many people don't realize the connection piece that, and so
6:32
Speaker 2: thank you for sharing that.
6:35
Speaker 3: I've talked with.
6:36
Speaker 2: Somebody else recently about FSS. So I'm curious, is there
6:42
Speaker 2: a way that you think and we're just brainstorming here
6:46
Speaker 2: is there a way that you think the FSS program
6:49
Speaker 2: should be bolstered more so it can do more. It's
6:55
Speaker 2: really a secret weapon, but it's had its ebbs and
6:59
Speaker 2: flows over the last few years as far as.
7:02
Speaker 3: How it's been utilized. You have any thoughts on that,
7:05
Speaker 3: you know, I mean here lately we've we've been a
7:09
Speaker 3: jobs Plus recipient too, And I think if there was
7:13
Speaker 3: such a way that those two programs could be combined,
7:18
Speaker 3: you know, or there's some you know, I haven't put
7:21
Speaker 3: you know, much thought into it, but you know, thank
7:24
Speaker 3: you for asking me. But and I don't have the
7:27
Speaker 3: market cornered on all the good ideas, but it would
7:30
Speaker 3: seem to me that maybe some of these things kind
7:32
Speaker 3: of meshing together where there was resources to you know, Uh,
7:37
Speaker 3: it's like a menu of you know, helping with the
7:41
Speaker 3: rent subsidies and maybe moving on the track afterwards into
7:46
Speaker 3: the the savings portion, like the ESCRO portion, you know,
7:50
Speaker 3: could be a healthy balance, you know with somebody really
7:54
Speaker 3: starting off and trying. But that would you know, I
7:58
Speaker 3: think it is You're right, I mean, they're all you know,
8:02
Speaker 3: how's the authorities look at it? And I'm you know,
8:04
Speaker 3: no different, Like, hey, how are we playing for these positions.
8:06
Speaker 3: They're important and always, you know, tell everyone here, we've
8:11
Speaker 3: got to sell this program and it's you get your
8:13
Speaker 3: own personal life coach. I mean, you know people are
8:16
Speaker 3: paying for that stuff today, you know, to you know,
8:19
Speaker 3: help them, and so I think it's so important it
8:23
Speaker 3: really is to get you know, folks involved and to
8:28
Speaker 3: really have that program functioning well. But as any housing theory,
8:33
Speaker 3: you're wondering, how am we gonna pay for the positions?
8:35
Speaker 3: How's that going to work out? You know, where does
8:37
Speaker 3: E f it in? But we we just make it
8:40
Speaker 3: a priority because it's got to be.
8:42
Speaker 2: Something right right, and it's it's an untapped resource too.
8:48
Speaker 3: But you know, when.
8:49
Speaker 2: You're trying to look across the field of what needs done,
8:52
Speaker 2: sometimes it's not always a priority. But man, it's such
8:56
Speaker 2: a great program to have to be able to help people.
9:00
Speaker 2: I mean, that ESCRO feature is very creative, very complicated,
9:06
Speaker 2: very complicated, but it's a very creative tool in the
9:10
Speaker 2: in the toolbox here for housing authorities. You mentioned Hope
9:14
Speaker 2: six and I love that you mentioned that because that
9:17
Speaker 2: was one of a way back in the day when
9:19
Speaker 2: I was working at a housing authority.
9:22
Speaker 3: Man back in the Hope six days.
9:24
Speaker 2: But fundamentally it is a way to reposition assets. So
9:29
Speaker 2: let's talk about that because now it looks a little
9:32
Speaker 2: different and you guys are having to do more of
9:35
Speaker 2: the rental assistance demonstration, you're having to do tax credit.
9:39
Speaker 2: Talk about some of what's happening in the development space
9:43
Speaker 2: with Fort Myers.
9:45
Speaker 3: So we started years ago, you know, the the really
9:49
Speaker 3: the Hope six was the kick off to doing that,
9:51
Speaker 3: you know, and that really gets a housing authority. If
9:53
Speaker 3: you continue that, you know, than it happens. So we've
9:58
Speaker 3: you know, finished out our Hope six site and shortly
10:02
Speaker 3: after I think it was like twenty twelve, we did
10:04
Speaker 3: another two developments. One was an old PBR contract and
10:10
Speaker 3: one was a public housing site, so you know kind
10:14
Speaker 3: of the the the phenomenon have and we got two
10:18
Speaker 3: allocations of nine percent credits and one was rehab, one
10:22
Speaker 3: was new construction, so that that really helped the housing
10:25
Speaker 3: authority you know, further getting into the development space. And
10:29
Speaker 3: so I came back in twenty nineteen and so I've
10:36
Speaker 3: been i think back longer than I was gone. So
10:40
Speaker 3: that's telling you time flies, and we have really pushed,
10:45
Speaker 3: you know, since twenty nineteen had a strategic plan that
10:49
Speaker 3: was very ambitious and as I get older, maybe I'm
10:53
Speaker 3: slow and just I mensioned just a little bit. But
10:56
Speaker 3: we're rating the thickest things right now. So we are
11:00
Speaker 3: fully on our way out of the public housing sector.
11:05
Speaker 3: We have built our resources up in our nonprofit affiliate.
11:09
Speaker 3: We want to make sure that all of our new
11:11
Speaker 3: development structures, we are you know, the proud recipient of
11:17
Speaker 3: a of a choice neighborhoods. The amazing things that in
11:21
Speaker 3: those resources it brings to you know, a housing authority,
11:24
Speaker 3: and we have the added bonus of urban strategies doing
11:29
Speaker 3: some residence services here for a number of years. So
11:33
Speaker 3: we're very happy that has really caterpillar. We're you know,
11:39
Speaker 3: our last public housing site was demolished this year. This
11:45
Speaker 3: past year. I'm sorry, we just turned into twenty twenty six.
11:48
Speaker 3: So we're we're on our way. We are in the
11:52
Speaker 3: building phase. We do code development, we do self development.
11:58
Speaker 3: I've got one of development that is self development that's
12:01
Speaker 3: under construction, and we have a CNI phase. Uh just
12:08
Speaker 3: had a groundbreaking in October. We had in November the
12:11
Speaker 3: first phase. We had a ribbon cutting in our first
12:15
Speaker 3: phase and maybe just to speak about one project is
12:18
Speaker 3: really unique. Is that the ability to build off site first,
12:24
Speaker 3: so that we could start building some housing, you know,
12:26
Speaker 3: the age old thing. Let's build them off and loose
12:28
Speaker 3: them over and then come back. But we were able
12:33
Speaker 3: to get an off site. And so there is a
12:36
Speaker 3: road in Fort Myer's name forty one. It's got like
12:39
Speaker 3: three names. When I moved here, I figured that out.
12:42
Speaker 3: It was like Tammiami Trail forty one or Cleveland Atnew
12:45
Speaker 3: And every time when I first moved here, somebody would
12:48
Speaker 3: tell me, you know all these streets. I'm like, I'm
12:49
Speaker 3: looking for three different streets. But anyways, it's the main
12:53
Speaker 3: road through the town. And there was an old car
12:58
Speaker 3: wash or not a car wash, old Pontiac dealership that
13:01
Speaker 3: was for sale, and it was between the Walgreens and
13:06
Speaker 3: the McDonald's. And we said, that makes a perfect site
13:10
Speaker 3: for housing, don't you think. And and sure enough we
13:14
Speaker 3: went over there and we were able to get it
13:16
Speaker 3: with the partnerships. And I say all this because it's
13:19
Speaker 3: just not me. I have I have a ton of
13:21
Speaker 3: partners I have a wonderful city in a county that
13:24
Speaker 3: are behind me. This is just not Marcilla's show. This
13:27
Speaker 3: is this whole County show. And we were able to
13:30
Speaker 3: get this car dealership. The car dealership did have actual
13:35
Speaker 3: Pontiac parts still in it. It was a band for years. Uh,
13:39
Speaker 3: we were able to get it and we had to
13:41
Speaker 3: get everybody to you know, see the dream. And we
13:44
Speaker 3: were building our first phase. It was mixed use and
13:49
Speaker 3: mixed income so it has some market rate like teke
13:53
Speaker 3: units and it's it's beautiful. It sets you know, you
13:57
Speaker 3: talk about you know, urban design and the frontage has
14:01
Speaker 3: commercial space and we just celebrated and had our our
14:08
Speaker 3: ribbon cutting in November. It's called Ladimir Crossing. We named
14:12
Speaker 3: it after Lewis Latimir. He was prominent in developing the
14:16
Speaker 3: filament that went into the Edison light bulb and Myers
14:22
Speaker 3: we are known for the Edison Florida States. You know,
14:25
Speaker 3: that's you know, Edison was very prominent here with one
14:28
Speaker 3: of the laboratories. So at any rate, the really the
14:35
Speaker 3: greatest news, you know, part of that development and seeing
14:39
Speaker 3: it it's just beautiful, you know, on our LinkedIn we've
14:41
Speaker 3: got this fly around. I mean, it just it's such
14:45
Speaker 3: gives us such great pride that folks that are below
14:50
Speaker 3: eighty percent. Am, I can live there and they deserve
14:54
Speaker 3: to have a safe and decent but you cannot tell
14:58
Speaker 3: that between that developed in a market rate development. And
15:02
Speaker 3: that is really the whole goal that that I have
15:04
Speaker 3: personally and our board have is that you don't tell
15:08
Speaker 3: the difference. You can't see, you know, what's market rate,
15:12
Speaker 3: what's you know, affordable, And you're not going to be
15:15
Speaker 3: able to tell when you drive by the community, Oh
15:17
Speaker 3: that's an affordable That was our That was really the
15:21
Speaker 3: guiding point for us. So in the commercial space, we
15:27
Speaker 3: were able to get a commercial component to sign a
15:32
Speaker 3: lease and it's called Foxtail Coffees. It's a franchise. I
15:36
Speaker 3: think it's fancier than Starbucks. I'm not saying anything about Starbucks,
15:39
Speaker 3: but it is so fancy and it has that little
15:43
Speaker 3: Kelly's ice cream inside of it, and it's just going
15:47
Speaker 3: to be a wonderful addition to that that corridor. We're
15:51
Speaker 3: we're seeking some other health related services that could take
15:56
Speaker 3: up that commercial space. But can you just imagine being
15:59
Speaker 3: an affordable housing and you're living in this beautiful community.
16:03
Speaker 3: You can walk around around just like anybody else, round
16:06
Speaker 3: to the coffee shop and help access to these things,
16:09
Speaker 3: and it really is just beautiful and it has made
16:13
Speaker 3: such an impact on the city as a whole that
16:16
Speaker 3: you know, folks that live around and they have people
16:19
Speaker 3: trying to get in all the time, Hey can we
16:21
Speaker 3: live there? You know.
16:22
Speaker 4: So it's that's been a really beautiful surprise of our
16:27
Speaker 4: our choice neighborhoods that we did not plan as we were,
16:31
Speaker 4: you know, hustling to put this application in.
16:33
Speaker 3: So you hit the holy trifecta.
16:37
Speaker 2: It's affordable, it's got esthetics, and it's an added bonus
16:42
Speaker 2: for the community. So the absolutely great job there.
16:48
Speaker 3: And you know that's what is.
16:50
Speaker 2: The community you know, those you know, community macro grants
16:55
Speaker 2: or initiatives. It's supposed to create the momentum and the community.
17:00
Speaker 2: I mean, yes, it's supposed to do the build and
17:02
Speaker 2: the you know, the adding more units, but it's also
17:06
Speaker 2: supposed to generate that true community momentum. So a great,
17:13
Speaker 2: great return on the investment there, adding into that local
17:17
Speaker 2: economy and the community dynamics. Let's talk about Fort Myers though,
17:21
Speaker 2: because most people think of Fort Myers as a tourist
17:25
Speaker 2: destination obviously a great one at that too, but it
17:31
Speaker 2: is a community of itself, talk about some of the
17:34
Speaker 2: affordability challenges there for people who are wanting to move
17:39
Speaker 2: in or long term residents, Like, what are the dynamics
17:42
Speaker 2: happening right now?
17:44
Speaker 3: Well, I think there's It's like in any community, there's
17:47
Speaker 3: always a need for affordable housing. We go from you know,
17:51
Speaker 3: the real estate markets taking around here and then all
17:54
Speaker 3: of a sudden it's you know, skyrocketed and you know
17:59
Speaker 3: since twenty September twenty twenty two and Hurricane Ian, it
18:02
Speaker 3: has changed you know, the landscape and you know, for
18:07
Speaker 3: for the housing authority, we were you know smackdeb and
18:10
Speaker 3: trying to you know, in our choice neighborhoods, trying to
18:13
Speaker 3: get it off the ground and get closed, and and
18:16
Speaker 3: and and with a lot of development. So we've been recovering,
18:22
Speaker 3: you know, truly from the hurricane in its you know,
18:26
Speaker 3: destruction and things that just did you know, not not
18:29
Speaker 3: maybe physical, but the construction supply, the labor supply, you know,
18:35
Speaker 3: cost increases, escalation, was you know, starting to be out
18:39
Speaker 3: of this world. We thought we're never going to be
18:40
Speaker 3: able to build afford of housing again, you know, so
18:44
Speaker 3: we've ran the gamut with that. It it did bring
18:49
Speaker 3: the much needed resources to Lee County and it did
18:53
Speaker 3: that in the form of CDBG d R funds by
18:59
Speaker 3: you know, Lee On getting a billion dollars to rebuild,
19:03
Speaker 3: you know, to our Barrier Islands and to the infrastructure
19:06
Speaker 3: that was so damaged. And you can see all the
19:10
Speaker 3: stories about Fort Myers Beach and santavill and Pine Island,
19:14
Speaker 3: the surrounding little islands to Fort Myers was just devastating.
19:20
Speaker 3: So our county has has done an amazing job of
19:25
Speaker 3: getting out the CBG d R. You know, they broke
19:28
Speaker 3: it up into their buckets, and one bucket happens to
19:31
Speaker 3: be housing, and they committed I think it was three
19:35
Speaker 3: hundred million plus two housing initiatives and a lot there
19:43
Speaker 3: was rehab, then there was new construction and you know,
19:48
Speaker 3: rebuild our homes. But we applied as the Housing Authority
19:52
Speaker 3: and our nonprofit affiliates because what happens is a lot
19:55
Speaker 3: of our development projects started suffering major caps, and you know,
20:01
Speaker 3: not all of us can go out and find ten
20:03
Speaker 3: to fifteen million to fill a gap, like, you know,
20:05
Speaker 3: on a dime. But we were like, gosh, we got
20:10
Speaker 3: to have some relief. And that's exactly what it was
20:12
Speaker 3: for the county put out you know, this money, and
20:17
Speaker 3: so we were able to get one of our choice
20:19
Speaker 3: neighborhood's phases a gap filled, closed up, ready to go.
20:24
Speaker 3: That closed in October. I have a new construction. It
20:29
Speaker 3: filled a gap of twenty million instantly, two hundred and
20:32
Speaker 3: thirty units will be going up next month. It's starting construction.
20:38
Speaker 3: We have I have twenty seven million that I was
20:42
Speaker 3: awarded just for rehab, and I have mean rehab in
20:46
Speaker 3: my lie tech deals that you know are at almost
20:50
Speaker 3: at the end of their life cycle as far as
20:53
Speaker 3: in the compliance period, and everybody's taken depreciations, so insurance
20:58
Speaker 3: is not paying anything. So we're stuck in this, you know,
21:01
Speaker 3: real quandary. You know, how do you how do you
21:04
Speaker 3: do that? You know, get fix all these necessary things
21:06
Speaker 3: to keep these things going. And so we're using a
21:11
Speaker 3: lot of funding for our rehab of rate even our
21:15
Speaker 3: light tech deals that it may have some subsidy attached
21:17
Speaker 3: to them. And then we have one new construction of
21:20
Speaker 3: a senior facility that will be you know, the most
21:25
Speaker 3: hurricane resistant senior facility that we build, uh with a
21:30
Speaker 3: generator that will run the entire building and the apartments.
21:34
Speaker 3: We have built it, you know, almost just as you know,
21:37
Speaker 3: short of being the hurricane shelter standard, which you would
21:41
Speaker 3: basically have no windows, we built to that standard so
21:46
Speaker 3: that our residents and in particular seniors would be you
21:50
Speaker 3: know protected. I'm knocking on one. We don't have to
21:54
Speaker 3: experience this ever again, but it is extremely difficult on
21:58
Speaker 3: you know, low income seniors, and so we take that
22:01
Speaker 3: into account when we're building. What's going to be in
22:04
Speaker 3: the best and can we help others. I built it
22:06
Speaker 3: so that the ground floor could house another forty seniors
22:10
Speaker 3: or disabled folks, so that in case you know, we're not,
22:15
Speaker 3: we're not. It's like buying our own insurance policies. So
22:20
Speaker 3: that is where we've been. We've been fortunate. I think
22:23
Speaker 3: our grand total of recovery money that the county awarded
22:27
Speaker 3: us was eighty million, and that is that is a
22:29
Speaker 3: huge commitment to this housing authority on behalf of the
22:33
Speaker 3: county and all of our developer partners of getting all
22:36
Speaker 3: of our development going. So you talk about pressure, we
22:40
Speaker 3: got it. But it's been a it's a huge blessing
22:44
Speaker 3: and none of this would have happened had it not
22:47
Speaker 3: been for that infusion. I mean We've had a lot
22:49
Speaker 3: of stuff going, but you know, being this business, one
22:54
Speaker 3: one wrong turn could take a deal and and you
22:57
Speaker 3: know it's not revivable anymore. So that's that's how we've
23:02
Speaker 3: been going. And things are starting to pick up and
23:07
Speaker 3: and things are starting to uh look better for you know,
23:10
Speaker 3: folks that are interested in home ownership and you know,
23:13
Speaker 3: possibilities because you know, that's one of the goals if
23:16
Speaker 3: our family ashould see folks want to go to home ownership.
23:19
Speaker 3: Not all of them want to go, you know, and
23:23
Speaker 3: but there's you know, there's some homes that they would
23:25
Speaker 3: like to buy, you know, now that we're building the
23:27
Speaker 3: apartments and they're so beautiful, you know, it's a it's
23:31
Speaker 3: a real toss up for some of them. Like, you know,
23:33
Speaker 3: I don't know if we looked right. You know.
23:37
Speaker 2: I'm glad you mentioned the preservation strategies that you're doing
23:40
Speaker 2: and rehabbing existing because we do talk a lot about
23:44
Speaker 2: building new, but we also have to remember that you've
23:48
Speaker 2: got aged stock out there that has to be preserved too.
23:53
Speaker 2: But we don't always have the resources to come in
23:56
Speaker 2: and do these multimillion dollar renovations and rehab so it
24:00
Speaker 2: sounds like you guys have taken something bad that happened
24:03
Speaker 2: to the community and then be able to leverage it
24:06
Speaker 2: with those disaster recovery funds to be able to truly
24:09
Speaker 2: address them, not just age stock, but improve it.
24:13
Speaker 3: With hurricane standards.
24:15
Speaker 2: We've had some guests on the past from Alaska and
24:20
Speaker 2: the Virgin Islands who have talked about on the podcast
24:24
Speaker 2: that the cost of doing business because of the standards
24:28
Speaker 2: that you have to have is completely different than other communities.
24:34
Speaker 2: And you know you had the tool by which you
24:37
Speaker 2: can address some of those.
24:39
Speaker 3: Do you see that.
24:43
Speaker 2: Tension now playing out in a post disaster recovery setting?
24:50
Speaker 2: Like how moving forward now building and preserving? How are
24:55
Speaker 2: you guys going to be able to tackle to try
24:58
Speaker 2: to build it to those hurricane standard then.
25:00
Speaker 3: Or to try to improve it.
25:03
Speaker 2: Possibly without those disaster funds, Like what what's the landscape
25:07
Speaker 2: moving forward now?
25:10
Speaker 3: I think for us that's you know, that's all I
25:12
Speaker 3: can I can speak to is preservation is important. We
25:18
Speaker 3: have I tech deals that are about to go through
25:20
Speaker 3: a refinance, and you know, recapitalization go through a RAG conversion.
25:25
Speaker 3: It's time to They may be the last few phases
25:28
Speaker 3: that have public housing subsidy in them that that that
25:31
Speaker 3: will fully get us out of the public housing arena.
25:38
Speaker 3: We you know, are trying, you know, our best to
25:42
Speaker 3: you know, maintain those because you know, when I look
25:45
Speaker 3: back at them, I feel like we just built them yesterday,
25:47
Speaker 3: and then you look and like, yeah, it has been
25:49
Speaker 3: fifteen years, and then you know, you start thinking, what
25:52
Speaker 3: get that all? But you know, try, and we have
25:57
Speaker 3: to preserve some of these things, and we needed new
26:00
Speaker 3: SoC and certain circumstances. You know that the thing now
26:08
Speaker 3: is construction prices are not going down, even though we
26:11
Speaker 3: love that, but you know, I don't see anybody going down.
26:15
Speaker 3: It may not be escalating at the same rate. So
26:20
Speaker 3: the the expenses in which to do you have to
26:22
Speaker 3: look at all resources and I think that was probably
26:25
Speaker 3: gonna swirl me into you know, one of the things
26:28
Speaker 3: I think I was with one of your member team members,
26:32
Speaker 3: Jim of talking about RAD to commissioners, and you know,
26:36
Speaker 3: my number one thing, there's no big secret to RAD.
26:40
Speaker 3: You know, there's a RAD resource desk. You can go,
26:43
Speaker 3: you know, google it. It'll give you everything into the sun.
26:46
Speaker 3: But the one question I think you know, everybody asks
26:49
Speaker 3: themselves is you got to have a plan. You know,
26:52
Speaker 3: you're gonna have a strategic plan, and you know how
26:55
Speaker 3: descriptive or how simple, you know, you gotta you gotta
26:59
Speaker 3: know where you're going with these things, because you know,
27:02
Speaker 3: we're in that time that we have to try to
27:04
Speaker 3: start preserving and building at the same time because the
27:08
Speaker 3: need is not going away.
27:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, shout out to Jim Evans. Yeah, well we'll name
27:14
Speaker 2: him as we talk about him. Yeah, you know, and
27:18
Speaker 2: he's done some great job leveraging housing authorities to understand
27:22
Speaker 2: what some of those development strategies need to be, not
27:26
Speaker 2: to just kind of deal with the funding at hand,
27:28
Speaker 2: but then how to plan forward on what needs to happen,
27:32
Speaker 2: how to make sure those deals are not falling apart,
27:35
Speaker 2: because there's been some housing authorities that have gotten to
27:38
Speaker 2: the table and couldn't leverage resources, couldn't work through the
27:43
Speaker 2: compliance hoops. And you recently joined a panel with some
27:48
Speaker 2: Quadell experts talking about just this very same thing. Would
27:53
Speaker 2: you like to share some of the points that you
27:57
Speaker 2: covered related to housing authorities utilizing some of these tools
28:02
Speaker 2: today and moving forward.
28:04
Speaker 3: You know, I think that was one of my main
28:07
Speaker 3: main keys. It was, you know, what commissioners should know
28:10
Speaker 3: is one. You want to know how the you know,
28:13
Speaker 3: the agency is going to survive financially, and a couple
28:18
Speaker 3: of things. The writing has been on the wall for
28:19
Speaker 3: a very long time about public housing, so I don't
28:22
Speaker 3: think that's new news, but it could be new news
28:24
Speaker 3: to some folks, and you've got to catch up a
28:27
Speaker 3: little bit that it's it's really you've got to have
28:31
Speaker 3: a long term financial plan for an agency. It has
28:34
Speaker 3: to be around so that we can serve the people.
28:37
Speaker 3: And how do you do that? And what does your
28:38
Speaker 3: business plan look like for the future, even with all
28:42
Speaker 3: of your deals, you know, even if you don't manage
28:44
Speaker 3: them as a housing authority, what is your financial plan
28:47
Speaker 3: for moving forward and that you can sustain these things
28:51
Speaker 3: and hopefully, you know, build more as you go along.
28:55
Speaker 3: I think that was one of the key things, that
28:57
Speaker 3: is having a plan and executing. Oh I'm I don't
29:00
Speaker 3: have some big secret up here other than I had
29:02
Speaker 3: a plan and every day we're just executing it and
29:06
Speaker 3: some days we have to take ten steps back. But
29:08
Speaker 3: it is the same plan. It was the same thing
29:11
Speaker 3: and it hasn't changed and we're almost you know, another
29:15
Speaker 3: couple of years will be done with it and then
29:17
Speaker 3: you know, the other thing that I shared with commissioners
29:21
Speaker 3: at this during this talk is, you know, there's so
29:25
Speaker 3: many resources at HUT and they're a little complicated, but
29:29
Speaker 3: there's a lot of folks like you, Katie that can
29:31
Speaker 3: help you decipher through some of the regulations. But rad
29:37
Speaker 3: is so it gives you the ability to be very
29:41
Speaker 3: creative if you think outside of the box, right transfer
29:45
Speaker 3: of assistance, what is possible? And I think, you know,
29:49
Speaker 3: sometimes you know, folks have just well I got to
29:51
Speaker 3: just do this because it's here on this site and
29:53
Speaker 3: that's where I got to do it. And when you
29:56
Speaker 3: give your sound, you know, what is best for the community,
29:58
Speaker 3: Like you know, I have more land next to one
30:02
Speaker 3: of my places, but is it best for the community
30:05
Speaker 3: in this neighborhood for me to build even more and
30:07
Speaker 3: you know, and and increase the density to it's you know,
30:11
Speaker 3: that was the whole point we got our hope sex
30:13
Speaker 3: is not to do that, you know, to lower density.
30:16
Speaker 3: And so you know, being able to think outside the box,
30:19
Speaker 3: no ideas a dumb idea, you know, lay it all
30:22
Speaker 3: out there and be like you know and kind of
30:23
Speaker 3: work through you know the ideas of what you think
30:27
Speaker 3: could be a possibility. And I always I mean, one
30:30
Speaker 3: of the things I've heard early on is I always
30:32
Speaker 3: dream in color. I always think everything's possible till it's not.
30:36
Speaker 2: You do a lot of collaborating in the community, whether
30:39
Speaker 2: it's with development partners or whether it's within community organizations.
30:44
Speaker 2: What are some of the secret tools that's making you,
30:47
Speaker 2: guys and making you so successful with that community partnering concept?
30:54
Speaker 3: Do you want to share a few of those? Well,
30:56
Speaker 3: you know that I can tell you particular, Lee County
31:01
Speaker 3: has we have a community foundation that's named the Collaboratory,
31:05
Speaker 3: and they really spearheaded this among all the providers and
31:08
Speaker 3: and different disciplines. And it was probably a low result.
31:12
Speaker 3: There was a you know, a resiliency plan put together
31:16
Speaker 3: after the hurricane, took a year. Everybody, you know, the
31:19
Speaker 3: health and wellness and and everybody sit on a committee
31:22
Speaker 3: and it got everybody talking again. Right, everybody's working in silos,
31:26
Speaker 3: and we've all been there. We've seen this ebb and
31:28
Speaker 3: flow of you know, hey, we're all gonna work together,
31:31
Speaker 3: and then next year everybody's kind of still, you know,
31:33
Speaker 3: with their head down and moving forward. But this this
31:38
Speaker 3: really brought uh, this to an intentional point in the
31:43
Speaker 3: collaboratory developed coalitions. We've got a housing coalition, We've got
31:49
Speaker 3: health coalition, and it really is these major players in
31:54
Speaker 3: the community. It can't be that you send somebody that
31:57
Speaker 3: can't make any decisions. It has to be there and
32:00
Speaker 3: that can commit the decision and the resources and be intentional.
32:05
Speaker 3: And so in a part of that, if nothing else
32:08
Speaker 3: happened here, everybody talks to each other, and that has
32:13
Speaker 3: really been the game changer. Everybody is starting to know
32:17
Speaker 3: why is it so important that we have health? Why
32:19
Speaker 3: is it so important that we have grocery and food
32:24
Speaker 3: and so close to where people live? I mean, you
32:28
Speaker 3: know it's important. And why is it important that we
32:32
Speaker 3: have good schools? We all know that, but you know
32:35
Speaker 3: the physical structures and what's there. Why is it that
32:38
Speaker 3: we have good housing? It's wonderful that if I can
32:42
Speaker 3: provide housing to people, but if it's substandard stuff, is
32:46
Speaker 3: it really doing? I mean, we can do better. We
32:50
Speaker 3: know better, so now we can do better. And so
32:54
Speaker 3: that itself, I think has made everybody here and the
32:58
Speaker 3: accounting more successful because everybody has come together and these
33:02
Speaker 3: different groups to work together that normally may have not
33:06
Speaker 3: even understood how we all played a part. I play
33:09
Speaker 3: a part in affordable housing, play a part in health,
33:12
Speaker 3: You play a part in in home ownership. And yes, government,
33:16
Speaker 3: you play a part in county. Maybe there's some restrictions
33:20
Speaker 3: and stuff that we need to remove, zoning restrictions. I mean,
33:23
Speaker 3: you know, there's a couple of things. But I can
33:26
Speaker 3: say that has really truly been the key at least
33:29
Speaker 3: for Lee County and how really make an intentional effort.
33:34
Speaker 3: And there's another generation, a younger generation that is coming
33:39
Speaker 3: up and they're so excited about collaboration and that is
33:43
Speaker 3: amazing to watch too, because that keeps a lot going.
33:47
Speaker 3: It just was it's been such an educational process for
33:50
Speaker 3: a most like the you know, some of the attorneys
33:54
Speaker 3: from the court getting involved in understanding what an eviction
33:58
Speaker 3: does to a resident record, you know, and how do
34:02
Speaker 3: we prevent that. Legal Aid has become our best friends.
34:06
Speaker 3: We work together, we work together with Legal Aid. We
34:09
Speaker 3: we enjoy having a good relationship because they could help
34:13
Speaker 3: us and we can help them. And it's not an
34:16
Speaker 3: adversarial relationship here. That has been key and so it
34:22
Speaker 3: keeps a lot of accountability for both. So that I
34:26
Speaker 3: think those really are the secret sauces. Everybody is playing
34:30
Speaker 3: playing in the sand.
34:31
Speaker 2: Box together, and that is not something that you see
34:36
Speaker 2: in a lot of community. So just you laying that
34:39
Speaker 2: out to others as quite an industry challenge to try
34:43
Speaker 2: to make that happen too. I don't I don't know
34:47
Speaker 2: many housing authorities who are going to say legal aid
34:50
Speaker 2: is their friend. Maybe I'm the only one today, but
34:54
Speaker 2: you know, but I mean because everybody, and not that
34:58
Speaker 2: it's them or you guys, it's just that they're competing
35:01
Speaker 2: interests and it makes it really really hard when you
35:04
Speaker 2: don't have a baseline of cooperation and understanding even the
35:09
Speaker 2: regulations that govern the process.
35:11
Speaker 3: So you know, it's not it's not that you.
35:13
Speaker 2: Know, there's this inherent animosity obviously, it's just that you know,
35:18
Speaker 2: people are coming at lease enforcement or leases or what
35:23
Speaker 2: people should be doing from completely different vantage points. But
35:27
Speaker 2: you guys have have built the groundwork to form a
35:31
Speaker 2: more collaborative relationship.
35:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that really has been key because you know,
35:36
Speaker 3: they're they're fighting, they don't want evictions on the tenants records.
35:40
Speaker 3: We've worked around some of that. You know, how can
35:42
Speaker 3: we you know, think outside the box so that you know,
35:46
Speaker 3: this is not hurting a family that is still going
35:48
Speaker 3: to be in need of affordable housing once they're out
35:51
Speaker 3: of out of my stuff. If that's not you know,
35:54
Speaker 3: there forever point and we got that leads to homelessness,
35:59
Speaker 3: and how do we sell that? I mean, so everybody
36:01
Speaker 3: started to get like, this is why we really got
36:03
Speaker 3: to try to tackle some of these issues that are
36:06
Speaker 3: that are you know, preventing homelessness really and and helping
36:10
Speaker 3: further that we don't have any So it's that's been
36:14
Speaker 3: a big part of the key. And and I think
36:19
Speaker 3: for for us and our success to make sure our
36:21
Speaker 3: projects are going is we go after everything just like
36:24
Speaker 3: everybody else. And and I stand up there just with
36:27
Speaker 3: the rest of them, Listen, we deserve it just as
36:29
Speaker 3: much as anybody else. We're on a mission to build
36:33
Speaker 3: affordable housing for the future. And and I I got
36:38
Speaker 3: to have the resources. I didn't say I guilted people
36:41
Speaker 3: into it, but maybe a little bit.
36:46
Speaker 2: Well it helps when you have the community wrapped around
36:49
Speaker 2: what you're doing, and you're also you're building that awareness,
36:51
Speaker 2: you're leveraging expertise. So I mean, it's a it's a
36:55
Speaker 2: great job to be able to put your Housing Authority
36:59
Speaker 2: as as a leader in this space, because you know,
37:03
Speaker 2: you can't just sit and say, you know, the units
37:06
Speaker 2: we have or the units we have. I mean, you
37:07
Speaker 2: guys are really, you know, bringing all of the things
37:11
Speaker 2: together to preserve what you have, but then build more,
37:14
Speaker 2: build more, and that's that's a chucky balance there.
37:18
Speaker 3: Yeah.
37:19
Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate your time. Again, I've been talking with
37:23
Speaker 2: Marcia Davis, the executive director of the Housing Authority of
37:26
Speaker 2: the City of Fort Myers. Thank you so much, Marcia.
37:30
Speaker 2: I appreciate what you're doing and keep up the great
37:33
Speaker 2: work for Fort Myers and Southwest Florida. We appreciate the
37:39
Speaker 2: success by which you guys are moving affordable housing forward.
37:43
Speaker 3: Thank you, Katie. It's been a pleasure. Thank you.
37:46
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to change Makers with Katie Gore. To
37:50
Speaker 1: find out more about Katie, go to quad L dot com.
37:53
Speaker 1: That's qu a d e L dot com. This has
37:58
Speaker 1: been a production of Forbes.
38:00
Speaker 2: It's radio