Latest / ChangeMakers with Katie Goar / Episode 123: Milet Hopping, President & CEO, Waco Housing Authority

Transcript

Episode 123: Milet Hopping, President & CEO, Waco 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: This week's change Maker is Mallett Hopping, the President and
0:17
Speaker 2: CEO of the Waco Housing Authority and Affiliates in Texas.
0:22
Speaker 2: Mallett has led efforts to expand access to housing and
0:25
Speaker 2: oversee more than eighty staff and is helping to find
0:29
Speaker 2: stable homes for nearly two thousand residents and six thousand
0:33
Speaker 2: voucher recipients. Working for three decades in Waco, Mallett joins
0:39
Speaker 2: me on Change Makers.
0:40
Speaker 3: Welcome, well, thank you for inviting me, Katie. I really
0:43
Speaker 3: appreciate you and obviously Quadell and what you obviously do
0:47
Speaker 3: for generations of housers. We really do appreciate it.
0:52
Speaker 2: I am so glad that you're here. We met several
0:55
Speaker 2: several months ago. We were on the same panel together
0:58
Speaker 2: and it was really fun because we were at a
1:01
Speaker 2: Texas NARO conference, if you'll remember, and we were all
1:05
Speaker 2: up there with several other people from Austin National NARO
1:11
Speaker 2: and it was such a great moment because we shared
1:14
Speaker 2: some things about affordable housing specific to Texas and I
1:18
Speaker 2: cannot wait to hear what you guys are doing because
1:21
Speaker 2: just a few minutes that we were up there, I
1:24
Speaker 2: learned so much about the redevelopment and some of the challenges.
1:28
Speaker 2: So thank you for taking the time to come onto
1:31
Speaker 2: this platform.
1:32
Speaker 3: I'm happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me.
1:35
Speaker 2: Before we get going and we talk about all of
1:38
Speaker 2: the development that you're doing, I want to talk about
1:42
Speaker 2: how you first got started into housing. I like to
1:46
Speaker 2: ask this question because there are some common themes, but
1:50
Speaker 2: there's always a fun tangent, if you will, about what
1:54
Speaker 2: drew people to housing. So would you like to start us.
1:58
Speaker 3: Thereol, So I will tell you that I'm a social
2:00
Speaker 3: worker at heart, so obviously thought I could change the
2:03
Speaker 3: world when I first graduated college. I don't want to
2:06
Speaker 3: date myself, but at one point I did a bunch
2:09
Speaker 3: of different things with runaway kids with adoptions. But I
2:15
Speaker 3: really lost my heart basically when I got to work
2:19
Speaker 3: with immigration families. Families who were immigrants who came to
2:23
Speaker 3: Washington State to pick crops right and the family had
2:28
Speaker 3: a culture where they needed the kids to also help
2:31
Speaker 3: pick crops. But what I found was the farmers would
2:35
Speaker 3: house them and it was basically temporary shelter. So one
2:39
Speaker 3: of the things my job really was about was really
2:43
Speaker 3: getting the kids in school and trying to get a
2:47
Speaker 3: culture that was already very well established to understand how
2:51
Speaker 3: important education was. Most the adults had never been beyond
2:55
Speaker 3: school sixth grade because it was better to work and
3:00
Speaker 3: work together as a family. But the housing was often
3:03
Speaker 3: converted barnes, very bunklike types of housing, and you know,
3:09
Speaker 3: it was there for a crop. I'm here to pick
3:11
Speaker 3: tillops or I'm here to pick daffodils, potatoes, apples, whatever
3:16
Speaker 3: it was, so nobody really felt the need to really
3:21
Speaker 3: house them in a safe, secure place. I will say
3:26
Speaker 3: that the farmers did try in a lot of respects,
3:28
Speaker 3: but for them, you're here for three months and you're
3:31
Speaker 3: moving on to the next crop somewhere else. So that's
3:35
Speaker 3: how I fell into housing, not in a traditional housing
3:39
Speaker 3: way whatsoever. Eventually, my husband and I, when we started
3:42
Speaker 3: a family, wanted to be around family, and we tossed
3:45
Speaker 3: a coin to either go to Texas or go back
3:48
Speaker 3: to Massachusetts and Texas one and so we came down
3:52
Speaker 3: here and the very first job I saw that I
3:56
Speaker 3: felt was uplifting was a family self sufficiency coordinator, and
4:00
Speaker 3: I became that basically and I fell in love with housing.
4:06
Speaker 3: Could see it fired me in a way that maybe
4:10
Speaker 3: other career paths might not have. I felt really strongly
4:15
Speaker 3: that people could get on a path if they were
4:19
Speaker 3: housed in the safe environment where you could really talk
4:23
Speaker 3: about issues, you know, everything from mental health to workforce
4:28
Speaker 3: development and reach for goals that maybe you'd never thought
4:32
Speaker 3: of in your whole entire life, that that was something
4:35
Speaker 3: you'd ever achieved. So it became a big uplifting part
4:40
Speaker 3: of my life to start there and get to do
4:43
Speaker 3: that for so long.
4:45
Speaker 2: I love that your path took the family self sufficiency.
4:48
Speaker 2: You may be my first podcast guest that started in
4:51
Speaker 2: that particular position. We've had people who started as housing
4:55
Speaker 2: specialists and other roles. In fact, what was your journey
5:00
Speaker 2: once you started there? Because I think that you were
5:02
Speaker 2: in several positions. You want to talk about some of that.
5:05
Speaker 3: So I started off as a family self Sufficiency coordinator
5:09
Speaker 3: and sort of became the community engagement person for the agency.
5:14
Speaker 3: So I saw the point that maybe others didn't see
5:20
Speaker 3: in that macro level of instructions, basically that you had
5:24
Speaker 3: to have the community buy in if you really wanted
5:27
Speaker 3: to have growth over time. So there needed to be
5:31
Speaker 3: contacts in the chamber with the city of the county.
5:34
Speaker 3: We cover a very wide area sort of central Texas
5:39
Speaker 3: that nearly touches Fort Worth and then goes almost down
5:44
Speaker 3: towards the south right, so we have a big area
5:48
Speaker 3: to cover, and it was important that people keep housing
5:52
Speaker 3: and residents foremost in their minds whenever they were having
5:56
Speaker 3: to make decisions. So it became somewhat of a politicking
5:59
Speaker 3: and advocacing advocate advocacy sorry position that I had not
6:05
Speaker 3: anticipated either, but it was important and it was fun
6:09
Speaker 3: to pass that on to the residents and have them
6:12
Speaker 3: or the participants in my program and have them realize
6:14
Speaker 3: that they needed to advocate for themselves. They needed to
6:17
Speaker 3: be able to articulate what goals they wanted and what
6:21
Speaker 3: they felt they could achieve, and then what were the
6:23
Speaker 3: obstacles that were going to get in their way and
6:25
Speaker 3: how do we work around those. So it was worth
6:29
Speaker 3: every second of time, I think. And then after that
6:34
Speaker 3: the position of COO was created. I was asked to
6:37
Speaker 3: step in and do that, and so that was a
6:41
Speaker 3: rude awakening too, because I missed I missed my one
6:46
Speaker 3: on ones with the clients and as a COO. I
6:50
Speaker 3: now became a grievance level person. So what I got
6:54
Speaker 3: was not the sort of let's take a step and
6:59
Speaker 3: let's look at this and where are you going to go?
7:03
Speaker 3: I got grievances that I had to deal with with participants.
7:07
Speaker 3: But in the end we found I found anyway that
7:12
Speaker 3: now I had to get used to Section eight as
7:16
Speaker 3: opposed to public housing, just and manage the two. So
7:21
Speaker 3: those departments were under me, so was Community Services. We
7:25
Speaker 3: wrote a lot of grants at the time because that's
7:27
Speaker 3: how we had to get funded. I will tell you
7:30
Speaker 3: that was nerve wracking. I'm not sure that led to
7:32
Speaker 3: the gray hair I have, but it didn't hurt so
7:38
Speaker 3: because funding is such an issue, right, Funding is an
7:40
Speaker 3: issue no matter who's our president, no matter who's in office.
7:46
Speaker 3: It's very easy to say they somebody else can take
7:49
Speaker 3: care of that, and we can't let people think that way. Right.
7:53
Speaker 3: We're all citizens of this wonderful country and we all
7:57
Speaker 3: have something to give if we ever get seated at
8:00
Speaker 3: the table, and so it's our job to make sure
8:03
Speaker 3: that happens.
8:04
Speaker 2: There's always a fight for funding, no matter what format
8:08
Speaker 2: or forum. So I think the biggest piece is that
8:12
Speaker 2: we get the chance to say before and after of
8:15
Speaker 2: people's lives exactly, this is what it was before stable
8:20
Speaker 2: housing happened.
8:21
Speaker 3: Wow, look what their life was like Afterally, it's such
8:24
Speaker 3: a it's a huge, an easy thing to explain. Housing
8:30
Speaker 3: was embedded in everything. Right, I'm saying housing needs to
8:33
Speaker 3: be embedded in education, It needs to be embedded in
8:38
Speaker 3: as a human right, It needs to be embedded in business.
8:42
Speaker 3: It needs to be embedded in normal or community organizational
8:47
Speaker 3: things for instance like vah Wah family abuse centers, advocacy centers,
8:53
Speaker 3: human trafficking. If there was a human if there was
8:56
Speaker 3: a human need, it needs to be embedded. Right, Homeless
9:00
Speaker 3: would not exist if there was housing that was appropriate
9:05
Speaker 3: with wrap around services. And so we become the change maker. Actually,
9:11
Speaker 3: we become what impacts the community to become something more.
9:17
Speaker 3: And it's always been my dream that Waco would be
9:20
Speaker 3: one of those places where if you came here lost,
9:23
Speaker 3: if you came here not knowing what you wanted to do,
9:26
Speaker 3: that we would have a place for you. We would
9:29
Speaker 3: have the counseling and the work to do together to
9:34
Speaker 3: get you where you wanted to be. And we've worked
9:37
Speaker 3: very hard to get there. I've been here thirty one
9:39
Speaker 3: years and so I see a huge difference from when
9:43
Speaker 3: I started to now. And it starts with development. Of course.
9:48
Speaker 3: You know, my oldest properties was built nineteen thirty eight. Yeah,
9:52
Speaker 3: so Kate Ross is a beautiful, wonderful solution at the
9:58
Speaker 3: time to widows and or finds and during World Wars
10:03
Speaker 3: and they needed a place to be and so Weaco
10:08
Speaker 3: took care of that and we managed it. But over
10:12
Speaker 3: time it became something else, and now we're behind in
10:18
Speaker 3: what modern amenities are for apartment complexes. We struggle to
10:25
Speaker 3: have space. Those those units were built at a time
10:29
Speaker 3: when people had less things and maybe they lived a
10:33
Speaker 3: much simpler life, but even even appliances. So to get
10:37
Speaker 3: an appliance in, or get AC units in, or those
10:41
Speaker 3: sort of amenities that that everybody sort of expects, especially
10:44
Speaker 3: if you live in Texas, right, an AC is sort
10:48
Speaker 3: of a lifeline. An AC unit has to work. But anyway,
10:52
Speaker 3: so I say all that just to say that, you know,
10:54
Speaker 3: we we sort of evolved behind the times as an industry,
10:59
Speaker 3: I feel, and nan Hud gave us some tools that
11:03
Speaker 3: allowed us to start doing redevelopment, not just in our properties,
11:08
Speaker 3: but also to create public private partnerships that allowed us
11:13
Speaker 3: to become part of brand new properties and that we
11:18
Speaker 3: would have set aside units for voucher holders, and certain
11:22
Speaker 3: things would be not included that might be included in
11:27
Speaker 3: fair market side of units, which would be three times
11:30
Speaker 3: the rent, right that's always the problem, and those three
11:33
Speaker 3: times the rent deposits. So by creating those partnerships, we
11:39
Speaker 3: were able to craft what doesn't work for our people,
11:43
Speaker 3: our people who who work so hard already at jobs
11:49
Speaker 3: and they needed to have that step up, not a handout,
11:54
Speaker 3: just to step up. And we've done three already. We're
11:59
Speaker 3: working on two more. The first one the first one
12:03
Speaker 3: of those will be a senior property. That'll be the
12:06
Speaker 3: first one I've done, but I'm looking forward to that.
12:09
Speaker 3: We have benefited from that, so we able to buy
12:13
Speaker 3: some land. We're starting another project there, and our hope
12:18
Speaker 3: is that eventually there'll be those places for everybody who
12:24
Speaker 3: comes here.
12:25
Speaker 2: We're even seeing places like hospitals and schools who say
12:31
Speaker 2: i can't hire my nurses and my teachers, or I'm
12:36
Speaker 2: having such higher turnover because they don't want to commute
12:39
Speaker 2: an hour. There's not affordable housing and so you see
12:44
Speaker 2: change in policy from you know, widows and orphans of
12:47
Speaker 2: the war, right, the ones who needed housing, where now
12:51
Speaker 2: you have working people, which there are high numbers with
12:56
Speaker 2: working people who still need affordable housing. But it's it's
13:00
Speaker 2: also now impacting the labor market. It's impacting the ability
13:04
Speaker 2: to staff schools and hospitals, and so this need for
13:08
Speaker 2: affordable housing isn't going away. But now HUD has slowly
13:14
Speaker 2: given you guys tools to develop better. So but I
13:19
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, we can talk about how it's
13:20
Speaker 2: like a decade's too late, but we're there now.
13:26
Speaker 3: It's started, right, it's the same. You know, you can
13:28
Speaker 3: look back on your life at any point in time
13:30
Speaker 3: and look at it with with rose colored glasses or
13:32
Speaker 3: look at it in reality and realize, okay, that's who
13:35
Speaker 3: I was then, right, those were the goals that made
13:38
Speaker 3: me happy then. So as time evolved, this is what
13:41
Speaker 3: we need to be. I will tell you the biggest
13:43
Speaker 3: part about doing these developments for me is that we
13:47
Speaker 3: have a tool here in Texas that allows us to
13:53
Speaker 3: tax exempt the land. But then again, like I said,
13:57
Speaker 3: we craft that partnership because obviously every developer wud love
14:00
Speaker 3: to not pay property taxes for however long it is
14:03
Speaker 3: that we do it. But we always ask for fifty
14:06
Speaker 3: percent of the units to be fair market, and then
14:10
Speaker 3: I have a set number about ten percent to fifteen
14:14
Speaker 3: percent that I want for voucher holders. That are the
14:18
Speaker 3: other under the other fifty percent. But the other little
14:21
Speaker 3: gap that's in there is for workforce development. I don't
14:26
Speaker 3: benefit from that. I don't have, you know, I don't
14:29
Speaker 3: have a voucher that's for people who make over a
14:32
Speaker 3: certain amount of money. That's not how our program works.
14:35
Speaker 3: But what I can see and I think it helps
14:37
Speaker 3: the community in the long term, is those businesses that
14:41
Speaker 3: we keep bringing to Waco who've got starting wages at
14:44
Speaker 3: fifteen dollars an hour, sixteen dollars an hour, it's very
14:47
Speaker 3: difficult for their entry level workers who do the bulk
14:50
Speaker 3: of the work right to afford an apartment complex. It's
14:55
Speaker 3: going to ask you to make a first and last
14:58
Speaker 3: month's deposit as well as security deposit, plus all your
15:01
Speaker 3: utility deposits, and then they're going to ask you to
15:06
Speaker 3: kind of pay this huge frand which you cannot afford.
15:11
Speaker 3: So without being on our program, without any benefit to us,
15:15
Speaker 3: we're setting aside a certain percentage that has to be met,
15:20
Speaker 3: and for the tax exemption to continue to be approved.
15:26
Speaker 3: The balance of that has to right now be about
15:30
Speaker 3: ten percent of sixty percent of the units, right that
15:34
Speaker 3: are not the first fifty fear market's done. And that's
15:39
Speaker 3: so I could explain it maybe better. One hundred units
15:41
Speaker 3: are being built, fifty will be fair market. Fifty then
15:44
Speaker 3: become what I call affordable housing. I'm taking ten percent
15:48
Speaker 3: of that of fifty, so five to six units and
15:52
Speaker 3: therefore voucher holders. The rest of those units are for
15:56
Speaker 3: those people who make forty to eighty percent of income
16:00
Speaker 3: of air average median income here average media and income
16:04
Speaker 3: differs everywhere in the country. But so we do that,
16:08
Speaker 3: and so those people are already working. But then what
16:10
Speaker 3: we're asking is anybody that is on my fifty side
16:13
Speaker 3: of the units don't have to work. Don't have to
16:17
Speaker 3: try to be considered for three times the deposit for
16:22
Speaker 3: each rent, because most people will say, okay, So if
16:24
Speaker 3: fifteen hundred dollars is the rent for a two bedroom unit,
16:28
Speaker 3: I have to make at least forty five hundred dollars
16:31
Speaker 3: a month, Well, try telling me how you do that.
16:33
Speaker 3: On fifteen dollars an hour. It's it's impossible. So by
16:37
Speaker 3: doing that, they offer them discounted rents. The developer does that,
16:43
Speaker 3: but for my set of units, then I also craft
16:47
Speaker 3: what I want them to have. I don't want them
16:50
Speaker 3: to pay more than one month's deposit. You cannot qualify
16:54
Speaker 3: them based on three times the rent because I'm paying
16:56
Speaker 3: seventy percent of the rent, So you will never get
17:00
Speaker 3: to do that. And you know, they weigh that, They
17:03
Speaker 3: weigh that against the tax exemption and the property and
17:08
Speaker 3: is it still worth doing And most of the time
17:11
Speaker 3: they do. So we have several, like I said, several
17:14
Speaker 3: in place, several that we've done in that kind of space,
17:18
Speaker 3: and our hope is to, you know, also create spaces
17:24
Speaker 3: where we can go up to eighty percent of average
17:27
Speaker 3: meet and income at anything we build. So I think
17:31
Speaker 3: I think we're evolving the right way. I wish it
17:34
Speaker 3: had happened ten years ago, Katie, I really do, But
17:37
Speaker 3: the reality is we we were so focused on I
17:42
Speaker 3: have to make sure that people get their rent paid,
17:44
Speaker 3: you know, we want to make sure the boards will
17:47
Speaker 3: still have available units that meet certain standards of inspection.
17:54
Speaker 3: We try where we tried very hard not to house
17:57
Speaker 3: people in particular neighborhoods, We wanted them everywhere. So that's
18:02
Speaker 3: a consideration for me when I want to partner with
18:05
Speaker 3: a developer I'm looking at. I don't want you to
18:08
Speaker 3: be all clustered around downtown. I want you to be everywhere,
18:13
Speaker 3: because people should have options of where they want their
18:15
Speaker 3: kids to go to school, the same sort of decisions
18:19
Speaker 3: I make right when I was either buying a home
18:23
Speaker 3: or renting my husband and I would look and say, Okay,
18:26
Speaker 3: how far is it to drive? Is a school worth moving? Here?
18:30
Speaker 3: Is the town itself, you know, developed enough for us
18:34
Speaker 3: and the way we want to live. So I those
18:37
Speaker 3: choices every human has and they should have. But for
18:42
Speaker 3: a lot of people, they need to live close to
18:45
Speaker 3: work because they don't have transportation the way I do
18:48
Speaker 3: to get in a car and just go. So a
18:51
Speaker 3: lot of consideration is about place right. So a lot
18:55
Speaker 3: of times I place partnerships in positions where they're close
18:59
Speaker 3: to the hospitals so people can work there. They're close
19:02
Speaker 3: to them all They're close to whatever manufacturing plant is
19:06
Speaker 3: nearby so that they can get there and work.
19:11
Speaker 2: You mentioned the increase of jobs that's coming to Waco,
19:14
Speaker 2: and that's great because now you're going to have diversity
19:18
Speaker 2: of your income and all of the things that development
19:22
Speaker 2: and economic development brings to a community, enhancing so many
19:25
Speaker 2: different things. I also have seen the change in rent structures,
19:30
Speaker 2: So give us an idea of what's happened with affordability
19:34
Speaker 2: there in Waco.
19:36
Speaker 3: So I think for the last oh, I think in
19:40
Speaker 3: twenty twenty two, the City of Waco did a study
19:44
Speaker 3: on housing right, just a separate, independent study to see
19:50
Speaker 3: where they were. Were they meeting the requirements that were
19:53
Speaker 3: needed in order to have a thriving community to be
19:56
Speaker 3: able to meet the needs of businesses and also you know,
20:02
Speaker 3: existing businesses like schools and firefighters and policemen. And it
20:07
Speaker 3: came up, no, we were five thousand that was then
20:10
Speaker 3: five thousand units in the whole and so and of
20:14
Speaker 3: those that included people above one hundred and ten percent.
20:19
Speaker 3: It wasn't just our vulnerable population, but it was everybody
20:25
Speaker 3: from there all the way above. Now that's a pretty
20:29
Speaker 3: eye opening study. So we we partnered with the city
20:34
Speaker 3: and other collaborative partners to try to make sure that
20:38
Speaker 3: we started talking about the fact that we needed to
20:42
Speaker 3: do something. So I was already undergoing a RAD conversion
20:49
Speaker 3: at one of my public housing properties. We were in
20:52
Speaker 3: the middle of trying to secure funding for my second
20:56
Speaker 3: public housing property, which we're doing in phases, and I
21:00
Speaker 3: left my oldest gem to figure out what we could
21:05
Speaker 3: do because there were so many other problems with there
21:08
Speaker 3: with that site infrastructure wise. So we started that process
21:15
Speaker 3: and could see what would happen. But then we started
21:17
Speaker 3: doing the partnerships that we do right now. But I
21:20
Speaker 3: will tell you that the rents here have probably increased
21:24
Speaker 3: over thirty five forty five percent in the last five years.
21:29
Speaker 3: So there was a time five years ago when I
21:32
Speaker 3: was started with the RAD that the rents were about
21:34
Speaker 3: seven hundred dollars a month, eight hundred dollars a month
21:37
Speaker 3: for one apartment. But now now it's twelve hundred dollars.
21:43
Speaker 3: That's a one get and it just keeps keeps climbing
21:47
Speaker 3: every year. It is not going back down, and so
21:52
Speaker 3: the hope that it will is sort of unrealistic. We
21:57
Speaker 3: need to be really looking at things and saying, oh, okay,
22:00
Speaker 3: we need to embed some kind of automatic increase, and
22:05
Speaker 3: there probably isn't a perfect formula, but we're looking at
22:09
Speaker 3: five to ten percent to keep that growth happening, or
22:13
Speaker 3: we try to build with products and systems that allow
22:19
Speaker 3: us to keep the rent fairly steady. So it's a
22:23
Speaker 3: combination of a lot of things in order to address
22:26
Speaker 3: climbing rents. I think that probably there are lots more
22:31
Speaker 3: smart people around that would probably tell me that they
22:35
Speaker 3: have at least ten other ideas I could do. But
22:38
Speaker 3: for us, this is how we did it, and we
22:40
Speaker 3: did it as a collaborative community. I think we've worked
22:44
Speaker 3: very hard, and I'll give you an example of that.
22:46
Speaker 3: I had a developer who wanted to build three hundred units.
22:51
Speaker 3: He was willing to do the fifty to fifty model,
22:55
Speaker 3: but he wanted to build by a school I knew
22:57
Speaker 3: had just finished doing some.
23:00
Speaker 4: Work to.
23:03
Speaker 3: Take in a school that was closing the kids from
23:05
Speaker 3: a school that was closing. And so I called, you know,
23:10
Speaker 3: and because of our relationships, talk to the superintendent and
23:15
Speaker 3: her staff and they said, yes, we can only absorb that.
23:19
Speaker 3: So obviously I'm not going to build three hundred units.
23:23
Speaker 3: Where do you make the most money between two and
23:25
Speaker 3: three bedrooms, which means there's children right next to a
23:30
Speaker 3: school that can't doesn't have that capacity. So it is
23:35
Speaker 3: housing that has to be able to say I love
23:40
Speaker 3: what you do, I love your product, but this is
23:42
Speaker 3: not the right location. I will not, you know, put
23:45
Speaker 3: this school at risk for that, because we all need
23:49
Speaker 3: to work together to live together happily if we want
23:53
Speaker 3: a throat. So it goes back to that whole embedding
23:57
Speaker 3: housing and everything, everything has to have when.
24:01
Speaker 2: The tension of affordability used to back in the day
24:05
Speaker 2: be you know a problem of Dallas.
24:07
Speaker 3: And Houston and Austin.
24:09
Speaker 2: But now you're seeing cities all acrastination, not just Waco,
24:15
Speaker 2: that are now confronted with the new affordability challenges. There
24:19
Speaker 2: may have been not as much supply, but you could
24:22
Speaker 2: still find some affordability. But now what I'm hearing you say,
24:25
Speaker 2: and I'm seeing its crustination, is that cities are like,
24:29
Speaker 2: you know, we're almost double what it was in rent.
24:32
Speaker 2: So not only are we lacking in the supply, but
24:35
Speaker 2: now we have the affordability pinch that wasn't necessarily there
24:41
Speaker 2: five and ten years ago. And so what you're doing
24:46
Speaker 2: is developing and increasing that supply, but making sure that
24:49
Speaker 2: it's developed in such a right location.
24:52
Speaker 3: Right it is, And I think I don't know that
24:54
Speaker 3: that's the exact formula for all solutions. But to be
24:57
Speaker 3: honest with you, I think that we have to be
24:59
Speaker 3: realists about where you are and what is needed in
25:03
Speaker 3: your particular community. So I have noticed that our seniors
25:10
Speaker 3: don't really have the most up to date kind of
25:13
Speaker 3: amenities to live in, you know, bars everywhere. We want
25:18
Speaker 3: wider hallways, we want the type of knobs that make
25:23
Speaker 3: it easier for somebody with arthritis to to get in
25:26
Speaker 3: and out of a unit. But also we need to
25:30
Speaker 3: be considering that socialization helps mental health, and seniors don't
25:34
Speaker 3: quit learning things they want to learn. They like their jazz,
25:39
Speaker 3: exercise and all those other components that that we have
25:44
Speaker 3: always just sort of siloed ourselves into housing. So we
25:48
Speaker 3: need to be building what I would consider a community hub, right,
25:53
Speaker 3: A hub that has technology available to everyone, and the
26:00
Speaker 3: digital divide is probably something that you, of all people,
26:03
Speaker 3: could probably do an entire sermon about. So I'm not
26:07
Speaker 3: going to touch that one. But it's an issue, right,
26:10
Speaker 3: It's not something we can just ignore that. I think
26:13
Speaker 3: that we have an opportunity in this sort of growth
26:17
Speaker 3: period to say we need those community hubs and they
26:22
Speaker 3: should be inside these sort of these housing units that
26:30
Speaker 3: we bring into the twenty first century that we say
26:35
Speaker 3: when you drive by, so where's your public housing? You
26:39
Speaker 3: know that's where's where's the Section eight housing? So you
26:42
Speaker 3: want to do that, but you cannot do that. Everything
26:47
Speaker 3: everything ends up being how important your staff can support
26:53
Speaker 3: the residents, right, but also how important it is for
26:56
Speaker 3: the residents to support themselves. So the need to be
27:01
Speaker 3: some sort of a hub where childcare is because that's
27:04
Speaker 3: always a problem. Where you can have these technology classes
27:11
Speaker 3: where people who you know, they're eighty years old and
27:15
Speaker 3: perfectly healthy, but they don't know how to operate a computer.
27:20
Speaker 3: And everything gets sent to you by that. Now your
27:23
Speaker 3: social security statements, your banking, all your medical appointments, everything's
27:28
Speaker 3: one to a portal. Yeah, exactly, And they're like portal,
27:33
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. So we need those hubs
27:36
Speaker 3: to be there, but they shouldn't be limited to just
27:41
Speaker 3: an apartment complex. They really need to be a community hub.
27:45
Speaker 2: Tell me about this go to college tour. Yes, I
27:49
Speaker 2: think this is what we're talking about. But I'm very impressed.
27:54
Speaker 2: I want to share that. Have you shared that?
27:56
Speaker 3: Okay, So first let me tell you that as hausers,
27:59
Speaker 3: we've done a job of creating future leaders. Right, We've
28:02
Speaker 3: been so busy manning regulations and you know, funding that
28:09
Speaker 3: we have not paid attention to who comes after us.
28:12
Speaker 3: So one of the things that we wanted to do,
28:16
Speaker 3: and it's been in existence now twenty six years. I
28:19
Speaker 3: think it's twenty five years. Two years we couldn't go
28:22
Speaker 3: because of COVID, but this is our twenty fifth year
28:25
Speaker 3: of an actual trip. But it's actually twenty six person existence.
28:30
Speaker 3: So what we do is we take kids from both
28:32
Speaker 3: public housing and Section eight not a ton. They have
28:35
Speaker 3: to be chosen, they have to be good grades, they
28:38
Speaker 3: have to be having problems in school and so forth,
28:41
Speaker 3: obviously with parent approval, and we we choose either in state,
28:46
Speaker 3: in the state of Texas or out of the state
28:48
Speaker 3: of Texas, and we fundraise, We do all kinds of
28:52
Speaker 3: things which I'm in the middle of doing right now.
28:54
Speaker 3: So if anybody wants to give me some money, I
28:56
Speaker 3: would take it for the kids for the go to
28:58
Speaker 3: college strip. So one year we went to Little Rock
29:02
Speaker 3: and they learned everything about you know, black history and
29:08
Speaker 3: what happened there. They went to Oklahoma City and visited
29:11
Speaker 3: all these colleges, but also it's it's a trip that
29:16
Speaker 3: expands knowledge through cultural events and museums and as well
29:23
Speaker 3: as college. The colleges have been fantastic, right They're willing
29:27
Speaker 3: to have the kids come hang out all day, They
29:30
Speaker 3: give them swag, they talk about how college is funded,
29:34
Speaker 3: what they need to be doing now to get ready
29:37
Speaker 3: to be accepted. Some states, like around Texas, have a
29:43
Speaker 3: mutual it's considered in state as opposed to out of
29:46
Speaker 3: state tuition and expenses. But I will tell you that
29:50
Speaker 3: I think they for a lot of kids, they've never
29:54
Speaker 3: left Artiville. This is the first time they're really going
29:57
Speaker 3: somewhere now. Maybe when they're in high school, they they're
30:00
Speaker 3: on the football team, they go over there, but they're
30:02
Speaker 3: not going somewhere like this where they don't know the
30:06
Speaker 3: other kids on the trip. We have volunteers from the
30:11
Speaker 3: city of Waco. We have my own staff that goes,
30:14
Speaker 3: parents that go. We have one parent for two kids,
30:19
Speaker 3: so there is no no losing them. That was my
30:22
Speaker 3: biggest fear when we were dreaming the first right, wait,
30:26
Speaker 3: don't let me lose the kids. And I will tell
30:29
Speaker 3: you that for the first couple of years, I would
30:31
Speaker 3: sleep with the company credit card underneath my pillow in
30:34
Speaker 3: the event that they called me at some emergency. It happens,
30:37
Speaker 3: you know, But anyway, glad to say nothing has ever happened.
30:43
Speaker 3: But churches have helped us fun things as well. We
30:47
Speaker 3: just really it's about a ten thousand dollars trip every year.
30:52
Speaker 3: A shout out to Post Investments. Last year they funded
30:55
Speaker 3: the entire year, and the kids were phenomenal. I will
30:59
Speaker 3: tell you that we did do a trip by plane
31:06
Speaker 3: and a lot of kids did not want to go
31:10
Speaker 3: on a plane to your side. Their parents were dropping
31:14
Speaker 3: them off at the airport and they were very scared.
31:19
Speaker 3: But their parents I love that parents who've never been
31:22
Speaker 3: on a plane too, said no, I've always wanted to travel.
31:25
Speaker 3: This is something you need to do. The benefit of
31:28
Speaker 3: that is that eventually, right after these experiences, we try
31:33
Speaker 3: to include those kids in other types of events for
31:36
Speaker 3: other youth so that we can share those experiences with them.
31:41
Speaker 3: The knowledge is not the same as when you get
31:44
Speaker 3: to experience it yourself, but it is worth doing. I
31:49
Speaker 3: think there is no way that I could tell you
31:54
Speaker 3: that these kids have not been absolutely phenomenal as they
31:59
Speaker 3: grew up. I have a girl who works in Houston
32:03
Speaker 3: who was top of her class at University of Houston.
32:08
Speaker 3: She did the three and three education for her law
32:12
Speaker 3: degree and so she now works in Houston full time.
32:17
Speaker 3: We have business owners in several other states that they
32:20
Speaker 3: had eventually visited and liked and moved there. So we
32:25
Speaker 3: have several of independent business owners. And so I will
32:31
Speaker 3: tell you that it's been one of the most successful
32:33
Speaker 3: things we have ever done here. And we've created leaders, right,
32:37
Speaker 3: We've created leaders who understood that things could be different
32:42
Speaker 3: if the right energy was put into them. And and
32:46
Speaker 3: you know, they're the they're the example of the success
32:49
Speaker 3: that that program has always brought about. So we've been
32:54
Speaker 3: very blessed, I will say, with wonderful people who've acted
32:59
Speaker 3: as our chaperones. A lot of kids who who who
33:07
Speaker 3: weren't sure what they were going to do, but I
33:10
Speaker 3: will tell you it was a leap of faith from
33:12
Speaker 3: the parents that kicked their butts on the bus and
33:15
Speaker 3: we're going right. So I really do think, you know,
33:20
Speaker 3: they they will look back on it now and tell
33:24
Speaker 3: me all the time if I run into them that
33:27
Speaker 3: this was the best thing they ever did as a kid,
33:30
Speaker 3: you know, And so they don't have to be the
33:33
Speaker 3: president of the United States. I just want to know
33:35
Speaker 3: they're happy and that they can take care of themselves.
33:37
Speaker 3: And now they're positive community members wherever they live and
33:43
Speaker 3: they give back in their own way. So I think
33:46
Speaker 3: they did the right thing. I just take every kid.
33:49
Speaker 2: You definitely did the right thing. And I think what
33:52
Speaker 2: you're explaining is that these the kids are getting clarity
33:57
Speaker 2: of mind when they go.
33:58
Speaker 3: Out of their comfort for it. And they're also challenging
34:02
Speaker 3: their assumptions about staying put and you can't do that,
34:07
Speaker 3: you know, just down on your same old, same old street,
34:10
Speaker 3: and so you have. You know, if you've never ventured out,
34:13
Speaker 3: then you don't see what opportunities are. And I think
34:16
Speaker 3: that's you know, there's only so much as school classrooms
34:19
Speaker 3: can do.
34:20
Speaker 2: About talking about life. But then you're providing a forum
34:25
Speaker 2: by which they can go out and see, experience, feel vision, brainstorm,
34:30
Speaker 2: maybe even dream about options for them. And that is
34:34
Speaker 2: crucial when we talk about the person's life before and after.
34:39
Speaker 2: You know, when you're just struggling to pay the bills
34:43
Speaker 2: and just trying to get basic needs of education and
34:47
Speaker 2: housing met, you don't think about, hey, there's a whole
34:50
Speaker 2: other realm of opportunities that all don't have.
34:54
Speaker 3: To be excluded for me.
34:56
Speaker 2: And I think you're providing a great form by which
35:00
Speaker 2: it reminds them that there are some options on the table.
35:03
Speaker 3: They we have some amazing numbers. I don't know them
35:07
Speaker 3: off the top of my head, so I'm sorry for that.
35:10
Speaker 3: I should have prepared for that. But I do know
35:14
Speaker 3: that when we've had discussions with kids. There's a business
35:17
Speaker 3: owner who now runs his own home health organization in
35:23
Speaker 3: another state, and his comments were that you could never
35:30
Speaker 3: get from somebody standing behind the podium, no matter how famous,
35:35
Speaker 3: no matter how wonderful they are. What they got when
35:38
Speaker 3: they got to go to those schools and they met
35:41
Speaker 3: people who look like them, who understood the music they
35:47
Speaker 3: liked and all those kinds of things. So they connected easily,
35:51
Speaker 3: and then they gave them so much knowledge, you know,
35:54
Speaker 3: they told them, look, this is what the form looks like,
35:57
Speaker 3: this is what you're going to apply for. And while
36:01
Speaker 3: nothing against schools, I think there's a lot about life
36:05
Speaker 3: learning you can't do in a school, you know, other
36:09
Speaker 3: than I really did benefit from my typing class back
36:13
Speaker 3: in the day, and I did me personal finance class
36:17
Speaker 3: because I can't budget my checking account, although I'm always
36:21
Speaker 3: off by a couple of cents. So those two things,
36:24
Speaker 3: you know, were really helpful life experiences. But what school
36:30
Speaker 3: does for you, and what we tried to do with
36:32
Speaker 3: those trips is to explain, Look, you're meeting people who
36:37
Speaker 3: do all kinds of things with an education or not.
36:42
Speaker 3: You know, the museum curator has a degree, right, this
36:47
Speaker 3: is what they do. How do they choose the art
36:49
Speaker 3: they want to show on the walls? They're discussing that
36:53
Speaker 3: those are conversations they might never have had, and we
36:56
Speaker 3: don't know how each kid is individually impacted by those things. Right,
37:03
Speaker 3: I will tell you that we took the plane trip
37:06
Speaker 3: to Washington, d C. I didn't lose we didn't lose
37:09
Speaker 3: any kiss. So that I'm going to say that up front.
37:13
Speaker 3: They went to several colleges around their costs was really scary,
37:18
Speaker 3: right for going to college for a lot of the kids.
37:21
Speaker 3: And they explained about scholarships and all kinds of things.
37:24
Speaker 3: But one of the nicest things was that Senator Cornyn
37:28
Speaker 3: from Texas had come to the steps of the Lincoln
37:32
Speaker 3: Memorial and talk to the kids about how Congress works,
37:36
Speaker 3: how how they are represented, that they do have a
37:42
Speaker 3: voice when they vote, and I think it really made
37:47
Speaker 3: it an understanding or a connection with the kids that
37:52
Speaker 3: our government does work for us. It's supposed to work
37:54
Speaker 3: for us. And I know there were several at the
37:58
Speaker 3: time who wanted to be politicians. I'm not sure they
38:02
Speaker 3: as they age they still want to do that. I'm
38:06
Speaker 3: not going to discourage them. But anyway, I do think
38:10
Speaker 3: that he did that just before they took the tour
38:14
Speaker 3: of you know, Congress and how people vote and whatever,
38:18
Speaker 3: and one of the commentaries from one of the kids
38:21
Speaker 3: was why aren't there more seat more people in their seats,
38:24
Speaker 3: like you know? That was you know what, that's a
38:27
Speaker 3: good question. I don't have an answer. Great question. Yeah,
38:30
Speaker 3: but I really, I really did appreciate that FIRSUS Senator came.
38:35
Speaker 3: We invited everybody, but he's the one who came. And
38:39
Speaker 3: and then all the people that helped us, all those
38:42
Speaker 3: colleges from Florida to Washington, d c. And all the
38:47
Speaker 3: way over to Oklahoma and Arkansas. Our kids have learned
38:55
Speaker 3: so much from those trips. I I don't know anything
39:00
Speaker 3: I could probably say that would ever be able to
39:04
Speaker 3: put that into the richness that it added to theirs
39:09
Speaker 3: and so, but what I did see from it was
39:13
Speaker 3: those kids who've participated over all these years have done
39:17
Speaker 3: something with their lives, their independent business owners, they've gone
39:21
Speaker 3: into military service.
39:23
Speaker 2: Uh.
39:23
Speaker 3: Some kids are not ready for don't believe in college right,
39:28
Speaker 3: they want to go right to work. But they chose
39:31
Speaker 3: paths based on something they had learned from those trips.
39:37
Speaker 3: And and really that's how my community will be richer
39:40
Speaker 3: in the long run. So if I could replicate it,
39:44
Speaker 3: you know, two or three times a year, I would.
39:46
Speaker 3: I just can't. Funding is always questionable. So but we do.
39:52
Speaker 3: We do believe in our youth. We cannot ignore them.
39:57
Speaker 3: When we think about leadership, we should be creating commune
40:00
Speaker 3: unity leaders we turn around.
40:03
Speaker 2: I agree. I'm hoping that our listeners here are saying
40:07
Speaker 2: doing an introspective and saying, well, we don't have anything
40:10
Speaker 2: like that, and so hopefully they can replicate hearing what
40:14
Speaker 2: you've done and the end the results that you're creating.
40:18
Speaker 2: So which leads me to my next point. You won
40:21
Speaker 2: Narro's Outstanding Professional of the Year.
40:25
Speaker 4: We can all see why.
40:28
Speaker 2: Now tell us what that meant for you or how
40:34
Speaker 2: that came about.
40:36
Speaker 3: So apparently I was nominated. I would never have nominated
40:41
Speaker 3: myself for anything. However, I was so floored when I
40:48
Speaker 3: was told I had won that because I didn't understand
40:51
Speaker 3: how it came about. Very thankful to be recognized. I guess,
40:55
Speaker 3: up until Dan, I always thought the work was the
41:00
Speaker 3: recognition right the housed people, the lower numbers of homeless people,
41:08
Speaker 3: or whatever was was my recognition. Until then, I didn't
41:14
Speaker 3: realize how much I really appreciated it that somebody saw
41:18
Speaker 3: what we were doing, what I was doing, But never
41:21
Speaker 3: once have I ever felt like it was something I
41:24
Speaker 3: did by myself. This. I have an incredible team here
41:28
Speaker 3: at Wago Housing Authority, but I was lucky enough to
41:32
Speaker 3: be elected Southwest or a president. And I think housers
41:38
Speaker 3: are just special people who think beyond a square box, right,
41:46
Speaker 3: And because that's how I am, I think they we
41:51
Speaker 3: connected in a way I had anticipated. Their support also
41:55
Speaker 3: was very crucial to me getting that award, but also
41:58
Speaker 3: even in my community, I didn't realize how many people
42:02
Speaker 3: had really been watching, so to speak. But I will
42:06
Speaker 3: tell you that it was not something I was anticipating
42:09
Speaker 3: and would have never worked just to be recognized. But
42:16
Speaker 3: I was so pleased and we had done so many
42:20
Speaker 3: amazing things, not just here but as a group with Southwest,
42:25
Speaker 3: and irow that I really felt I was getting recognized
42:30
Speaker 3: because we had promoted things, we had worked outside of
42:34
Speaker 3: the box, and we really felt strong in our belief
42:37
Speaker 3: that we can change.
42:39
Speaker 4: The world one community of time, one community at a time.
42:44
Speaker 2: And I want to brag on two of your projects
42:46
Speaker 2: that I read about while I was preparing for this,
42:49
Speaker 2: which are examples of exactly what you're mentioning when you
42:53
Speaker 2: say thinking outside the box. And I want to touch
42:56
Speaker 2: on Shady Acres Cottage and lovely Ville. Will you share
43:03
Speaker 2: exactly what those are because I think those both of
43:05
Speaker 2: When I was reading about those, I was like, Okay,
43:07
Speaker 2: this is an example of doing housing differently and what
43:13
Speaker 2: you were accomplishing is so different.
43:16
Speaker 3: So can you share. Can you share both of those
43:20
Speaker 3: examples for us? Let me start with Shady Acres. Shady
43:24
Speaker 3: Acres is a development that we are creating in a
43:27
Speaker 3: public private partnership with a developer using tax credit funds
43:33
Speaker 3: we are building together. They're going to use our tax exemption,
43:37
Speaker 3: which we're glad to hand out. That same sort of
43:40
Speaker 3: system of the fifty to fifty I was talking about
43:43
Speaker 3: elderly obviously or not. Some are, but not everybody as working,
43:48
Speaker 3: so that forty to eighty percent are still going to
43:52
Speaker 3: be getting the discounted rent because people when they retire
43:55
Speaker 3: sometimes have some income coming in. It's just not going
44:00
Speaker 3: to be enough to be able to afford, you know,
44:02
Speaker 3: what present costs are. But what we wanted was a
44:08
Speaker 3: location where seniors could be outdoors, that they could have
44:12
Speaker 3: a small putting green, that they could have pets, a
44:17
Speaker 3: place to park their cars, and also a place that
44:21
Speaker 3: had that hub I was talking about, so that they
44:24
Speaker 3: could have chaer aerobics and they could have other types
44:28
Speaker 3: of activities, crafts and art. But one of the best
44:31
Speaker 3: things about the location is it's across from Fuzzy Friends,
44:35
Speaker 3: which is a no kill shelter, and they are ecstatic
44:41
Speaker 3: about having this partnership with us because we know that
44:46
Speaker 3: pets make a big difference to seniors and even if
44:49
Speaker 3: the seniors don't want to keep them, they want to
44:51
Speaker 3: be able to walk the dogs around and have the
44:54
Speaker 3: seniors volunteer to help all those kinds of things, and
44:57
Speaker 3: who knows what that will lead to, but Shady Acres
45:02
Speaker 3: is going to be our first senior partnership. We have
45:06
Speaker 3: not done a senior partnership before, but I already have
45:10
Speaker 3: people asking about it, like when can we move in?
45:13
Speaker 3: What is it going to be like? And again, it's
45:16
Speaker 3: it's a situation where we've been very, very very consistent
45:22
Speaker 3: about saying we need to make sure that people at
45:25
Speaker 3: this level of income can live here, and then this
45:29
Speaker 3: level can live here, and then the ones who make
45:31
Speaker 3: plenty more can live here. You know, I've always looked
45:35
Speaker 3: at at housing as a community issue. Right, we all
45:39
Speaker 3: live together, I mean we do, right, we all have
45:43
Speaker 3: a say and who gets elected for leadership and so forth,
45:48
Speaker 3: and so we're just going to keep that model going.
45:51
Speaker 3: But our community is to first, our community is talented
45:55
Speaker 3: and creative, and we need that talent and creative and everything.
46:01
Speaker 3: And so when we thought about seniors and how to
46:03
Speaker 3: make retirement life more interesting but still independent, this was
46:09
Speaker 3: what we came up with, and so we're pretty excited
46:12
Speaker 3: about it. We're hoping to add a partnership for some
46:16
Speaker 3: occupational and physical therapy if needed, we'll see that's still
46:21
Speaker 3: in development. But then we're going to talk about Lovely Village.
46:25
Speaker 3: So Lovely Village Waco for whatever reason, seems to be
46:30
Speaker 3: a trading spot for human trafficking, so people drive from
46:35
Speaker 3: the south here, stop exchange individuals, and then divide them
46:44
Speaker 3: up to go north, northwest, south east, however it goes.
46:48
Speaker 3: And so we were very lucky to be having talked
46:54
Speaker 3: to the City of Waco. They had a building they
46:57
Speaker 3: wanted to donate, so a group that believes strongly in
47:03
Speaker 3: stopping human trafficking or at least helping women rehab, women
47:07
Speaker 3: and men because not just women rehab, wanted to turn
47:12
Speaker 3: this this small building into four units, which we're going
47:16
Speaker 3: to to help them do with project based vultures and
47:22
Speaker 3: and then they're they will have wrap around services as well.
47:27
Speaker 3: And so part of what's happening is we're housing them
47:30
Speaker 3: regardless of any present problems, whether that's connections, whether that's
47:37
Speaker 3: just you know, physical needs or whatever. Lovely Village is
47:42
Speaker 3: just going to be this wonderful, dedicated space, even though
47:46
Speaker 3: it's not a lot. But I think it's a partnership
47:50
Speaker 3: that's both public and private, not just about money, but
47:54
Speaker 3: also that the city felt there was such a need
47:56
Speaker 3: to do this. They're they're doing this process with them,
48:03
Speaker 3: so we're all helping create this safe haven and I'm
48:09
Speaker 3: sure that they have volunteers who will help with those
48:13
Speaker 3: wrap around services. We have community organizations already in place
48:17
Speaker 3: to do that, so I think it will be a
48:20
Speaker 3: place where we actually help people grow. And we have
48:25
Speaker 3: to start with nurturer, nurturing them, getting them to a
48:31
Speaker 3: point where they believe in themselves again, so it's extremely
48:35
Speaker 3: important if I can mention one more project, of course,
48:40
Speaker 3: again a public private partnership with a developer to build
48:46
Speaker 3: on our VA campus here Doris Miller Veterans Administration. They
48:52
Speaker 3: have a hospital here and so they deal with everything
48:55
Speaker 3: from mental health to physical ailments and whatever of veterans.
48:59
Speaker 3: We agreed in this partnership to provide eight VASH vouchers,
49:05
Speaker 3: and so there will be eight vouchers actually project based
49:11
Speaker 3: vouchers VASH project based vouchers assigned to the property. We're
49:16
Speaker 3: going to manage the property, collect rents and make sure
49:19
Speaker 3: people are getting the wrap around services they need, as
49:24
Speaker 3: well as make sure things are ready for compliance for
49:29
Speaker 3: the developer and the investor. And then they're converting three
49:32
Speaker 3: buildings on their site into efficiency units that we are
49:37
Speaker 3: also going to project base, but with a veteran's preference.
49:40
Speaker 3: So we get to go inspect out the first VASH
49:45
Speaker 3: voucher units here next week I think is the twelfth
49:49
Speaker 3: through the fifteenth. That will pick a date to go
49:51
Speaker 3: and inspect so we can start moving some veterans in
49:55
Speaker 3: the buildings. The buildings that were they're converted, have a
50:01
Speaker 3: lot of asbsis and other things that got it pretty much,
50:05
Speaker 3: so that may take a little bit longer, but there'll
50:07
Speaker 3: be thirty four units that we're going to be especially
50:10
Speaker 3: proud to have participated in and taking on a role
50:14
Speaker 3: that we wouldn't have normally done, like an outside manager
50:19
Speaker 3: of something, you know, unless I owned it. We really
50:23
Speaker 3: didn't want to do that, but it was the only
50:26
Speaker 3: way to keep the costs down so it could happen,
50:29
Speaker 3: and so you know, it's the way it worked. So
50:32
Speaker 3: we felt the project was worth going for and it's
50:37
Speaker 3: important I think that again what I said before about
50:41
Speaker 3: embedding housing and everything. So those veterans, those thirty four
50:45
Speaker 3: veterans will get to live on the campus, be able
50:48
Speaker 3: to walk to their therapy appointments, to their physical therapy
50:53
Speaker 3: or occupational therapy appointments on a regular basis. They'll have
50:57
Speaker 3: assistance from via social workers, but also they will also
51:02
Speaker 3: be able to use our transportation, our events, join our
51:07
Speaker 3: FSS programs, and I think they'll be in a place
51:13
Speaker 3: where they can also become healthier and enjoy life a
51:18
Speaker 3: little bit more since since the service to their country
51:21
Speaker 3: cannot be yeah replicated. I mean, they've done things for
51:26
Speaker 3: us that nobody wants to think about.
51:28
Speaker 2: So it's been really good m hm. And for them
51:31
Speaker 2: to be able to have stable housing, to be able
51:35
Speaker 2: to be part of that next phase of life for them.
51:40
Speaker 2: So these are excellent examples of what you guys are
51:45
Speaker 2: not just doing. You know, you're not just providing a voucher,
51:49
Speaker 2: you're not just in the regulations, but you're actually building community,
51:53
Speaker 2: you're building stability. So we appreciate you sharing all of
51:57
Speaker 2: these things.
51:58
Speaker 3: I think.
52:00
Speaker 2: In closing, I want to ask you one last question here,
52:04
Speaker 2: but feel free to share anything else. But you know,
52:06
Speaker 2: if you could tell your team one or two things
52:12
Speaker 2: that says, you know, we're in the mix. We're in
52:15
Speaker 2: the mix of building, We're in the mix of you know,
52:18
Speaker 2: having to fight for funds or you know, we're in
52:20
Speaker 2: the mix of all of these current day challenges. If
52:23
Speaker 2: you could tell your team one or two things, though,
52:27
Speaker 2: what where would you focus them and how would you
52:31
Speaker 2: I encourage them, for lack of a word.
52:34
Speaker 3: Sure, so two things. I would encourage them to not
52:39
Speaker 3: be comfortable in their singular positions. I mean, it's important
52:43
Speaker 3: to know your job, but we have to think out
52:46
Speaker 3: of the box, and I want to give them avenues
52:49
Speaker 3: to do that. As a leadership academy, they just started.
52:53
Speaker 3: We have one personality attending. So this year what we
52:57
Speaker 3: did was we asked staff who were interested in becoming
53:02
Speaker 3: future leaders of our agency to fill out an application
53:06
Speaker 3: and we would nominate one of them once chosen to
53:09
Speaker 3: be the ones to attend because it costs money and
53:13
Speaker 3: they're required to attend at least two real site national
53:20
Speaker 3: conferences and the rest they do on computers and with
53:25
Speaker 3: each other on a regular basis. But so we've had
53:29
Speaker 3: applicants command we're in the middle of choosing, and so
53:32
Speaker 3: I would want the ones who want more more in
53:36
Speaker 3: their low lives. They want to push themselves a little
53:39
Speaker 3: bit further to do it and understand this is a
53:42
Speaker 3: safe place to make mistakes. So that's the first thing.
53:45
Speaker 3: The second thing I would tell them is that we
53:47
Speaker 3: need to think in terms of future housing. So it's
53:52
Speaker 3: easy to think five years, you know, that's a strategic
53:55
Speaker 3: plan sort of model, but we need to be thinking
53:57
Speaker 3: in terms of ten and twenty years. For me, you know,
54:02
Speaker 3: at some point I'll be retired, but it would it
54:06
Speaker 3: would be important that we start thinking about the most
54:10
Speaker 3: environmentally healthy kind of building that we could do that
54:15
Speaker 3: would also have some added benefit to the residents. So
54:20
Speaker 3: I'm thinking utilities, so solar panels, water systems that are
54:28
Speaker 3: you know, recyclable and healthy, just a lot of other
54:33
Speaker 3: types of building. Maybe the future looks like it's maybe
54:39
Speaker 3: smaller housing, not as big as we've been all grown
54:44
Speaker 3: up to believe in the magins, you know. But I
54:49
Speaker 3: think that I think that if if you give staff
54:53
Speaker 3: the opportunity to work outside of regulation, because it's so
55:00
Speaker 3: black and white, right our entire industry is so black
55:03
Speaker 3: and white, and they're going to have to learn to
55:07
Speaker 3: advocate it. As time has gone on, for me personally,
55:12
Speaker 3: I have realized that advocacy is probably one of the
55:15
Speaker 3: biggest skills we all need to have. We need to
55:17
Speaker 3: be able to articulate our needs to people who make
55:20
Speaker 3: decisions about our funding. We also need to be able
55:24
Speaker 3: to articulate in exact numbers, how that implements or how
55:30
Speaker 3: that affects people for the people who represent us in Congress.
55:37
Speaker 3: But I will tell you that we have very much
55:41
Speaker 3: wanted staff to buy into lots of those things. And
55:47
Speaker 3: it's new. I remember being referred to as the chaos
55:51
Speaker 3: Queen because we were in the middle of going paperless.
55:55
Speaker 3: We're in the middle of learning all these news things
55:58
Speaker 3: to do, things from red to private development and everything
56:02
Speaker 3: in between. But I think that they can come to
56:08
Speaker 3: the table with their particular knowledge and feel free to
56:13
Speaker 3: share it. And so I think I think we we
56:18
Speaker 3: need to look at the fact that you have to
56:20
Speaker 3: pass that on. It's not just knowledge, right because rules
56:23
Speaker 3: change so much. You might need to get retrained every
56:26
Speaker 3: other year, you know, and every and that goes for
56:28
Speaker 3: the computers too. But they need to know a they
56:33
Speaker 3: can do it. And I believe every one of my
56:35
Speaker 3: staff could do do it if they could get past
56:39
Speaker 3: their fear. So even if you're afraid, do it anyway,
56:43
Speaker 3: take the leap of faith and go forward.
56:48
Speaker 2: Excellent words. I mean, we're as an industry talking about
56:53
Speaker 2: tiny homes and eighty US and you know, hotel conversions
56:58
Speaker 2: and corporate office conversions. None of those techniques and models
57:04
Speaker 2: were the regular conversation just ten years ago. And now
57:10
Speaker 2: we're like, you know, we have entire companies who are
57:14
Speaker 2: creating this kind of affordable housing stock with these parameters.
57:18
Speaker 2: And so I think your challenge to us as saying, okay,
57:22
Speaker 2: so what do we need to be in the next
57:24
Speaker 2: ten years thinking about for the industry to meet the
57:29
Speaker 2: needs and to look ahead?
57:31
Speaker 3: You know, even.
57:34
Speaker 2: Even people who are doing the shipping container.
57:37
Speaker 4: Hall you know, I mean all of these things, yes, yes, so,
57:43
Speaker 4: and I think I think the other thing I would
57:46
Speaker 4: say is consider a tiered model.
57:49
Speaker 3: So I was going to need housing that's affordable for
57:53
Speaker 3: elderly and disabled the matter, it has built particular requirements, right,
58:00
Speaker 3: But beyond that, yes, people will want to rent, and
58:04
Speaker 3: there will may be people who never want to become homeowners.
58:07
Speaker 3: But then how do you bridge the tier that goes
58:11
Speaker 3: from renting to an affordable place that somebody could live
58:18
Speaker 3: in ten to fifteen years, really develop equity and then
58:23
Speaker 3: move up, right, So that's what people do with real estate.
58:27
Speaker 3: So my thought process with that is a community land
58:30
Speaker 3: trust where we could own the land like I do
58:33
Speaker 3: with the developers. They would be exempt from property taxes.
58:38
Speaker 3: They would have to pay taxes on their building their house,
58:44
Speaker 3: which is much lower. I'm sure, I don't taxes are
58:47
Speaker 3: like where you are, probably, but here they're a little scary,
58:51
Speaker 3: and they would still pay taxes on that which bridges
58:55
Speaker 3: starts to bridge a gap, they would live in it
58:59
Speaker 3: for an amount of time, has to be on or occupied.
59:02
Speaker 3: We would we would then at the point of the
59:07
Speaker 3: sale ask or require two percent or three percent back
59:11
Speaker 3: of the sale to reinvest in the property. But then
59:16
Speaker 3: they would take that equity and go somewhere else because
59:20
Speaker 3: now the house, you know, housing goes up, and so
59:23
Speaker 3: something that that is smaller and starts off as a
59:26
Speaker 3: two bedroom, three bedroom doesn't have to be a mac mansion.
59:32
Speaker 3: It has to be considerate of how close you are
59:36
Speaker 3: to schools, how close you are to work, how close
59:41
Speaker 3: you are to your family. So we we need to
59:45
Speaker 3: do all those things to promote a bridge that goes
59:51
Speaker 3: from renting to this sort of a model, so that
59:55
Speaker 3: so that there's a gap, right, there's a huge gap
59:58
Speaker 3: between renting and just buying house. Even with special programs
1:00:02
Speaker 3: from the city, you know who's helped many people with
1:00:07
Speaker 3: homeownership through closing costs and down payment assistance, and then
1:00:11
Speaker 3: of course our community housing development groups like neighbor Works,
1:00:15
Speaker 3: Habitat Grassroots who buy houses that are owned by the
1:00:22
Speaker 3: city now and build new and so sell them. But
1:00:27
Speaker 3: I think that in the end we still have that
1:00:29
Speaker 3: gap and we need we need to be able to
1:00:31
Speaker 3: function level. So I think people need to be thinking
1:00:36
Speaker 3: long term in terms of home ownership.
1:00:40
Speaker 2: Also, I just had Kevin Campbell from the Raleigh Area
1:00:46
Speaker 2: Land Trust on a podcast just a couple of weeks ago,
1:00:49
Speaker 2: and he talked about incorporating you know this whole land
1:00:53
Speaker 2: bank land trust concept into housing development as opposed to
1:00:58
Speaker 2: you know it being sort of like the people over
1:00:59
Speaker 2: there are doing this over there.
1:01:01
Speaker 3: So yeah, very timely, it is. It's a it's the
1:01:05
Speaker 3: only way I think that we can bring everyone up
1:01:09
Speaker 3: when they're ready, right. We have to have a house
1:01:12
Speaker 3: instead of being waiting until we need it and then
1:01:14
Speaker 3: people going, oh, I can move to another city, I
1:01:19
Speaker 3: can move somewhere else with my company now that I'm working, right,
1:01:22
Speaker 3: I can move somewhere else. We want them to stay here,
1:01:25
Speaker 3: We want them to continue to impact our community. We
1:01:28
Speaker 3: need to be thinking in terms of what the gaps
1:01:31
Speaker 3: are going to be like in the future, and I
1:01:33
Speaker 3: think that's a big one. I think I think you know,
1:01:36
Speaker 3: like minded people you'll meet all over the place probably
1:01:39
Speaker 3: all have some way of looking at it. But I agree.
1:01:42
Speaker 3: I think land trusts are important. I think land banks
1:01:46
Speaker 3: are important. And it also signifies a complete complete cooperation
1:01:56
Speaker 3: between several different entities because you're looking at you know,
1:02:00
Speaker 3: government entities, cities, counties, and you're looking at educational institutions.
1:02:06
Speaker 3: So when you're when you're looking at that, and everybody understands,
1:02:09
Speaker 3: you know, my teacher is only going to make thirty
1:02:11
Speaker 3: eight thousand dollars a year where she will live, so
1:02:17
Speaker 3: you have to be creating those things. She might want
1:02:19
Speaker 3: to rente for a while, but maybe now she wants,
1:02:21
Speaker 3: you know, a homeowner. Shit, she can't afford you know,
1:02:24
Speaker 3: the three hundred thousand dollars minimum here or whatever I
1:02:29
Speaker 3: have to provide. We have to look at something in between,
1:02:31
Speaker 3: and I I think that we can do that.
1:02:35
Speaker 2: Well, Millet, it has been amazing to talk to you.
1:02:38
Speaker 2: I'm glad that we met many moons ago on that panel,
1:02:43
Speaker 2: so I appreciate your leadership and what you're doing for
1:02:46
Speaker 2: Waco and We look forward to seeing you on the
1:02:50
Speaker 2: next panel at the next event. So thank you so
1:02:55
Speaker 2: much for your time.
1:02:56
Speaker 3: And thank you for sharing the way you share with everybody.
1:02:59
Speaker 3: I really do think it helps our housing industry in
1:03:02
Speaker 3: the long run, So thank you, Katie. Well you're welcome
1:03:04
Speaker 3: for that, y'all. Take care.
1:03:07
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to change Makers with Katie Gore. To
1:03:10
Speaker 1: find out more about Katie, go to quad L dot com.
1:03:13
Speaker 1: That's qu a d e l dot com. This has
1:03:18
Speaker 1: been a production of Forbes Books Radio