several nephews and nieces that are looking to do the same so well that's fantastic I mean it's really an inspiring story too a record of a public service not just one generation of a family but two and then potentially more and multiple family members we've got police officers like that as well I know there are other firefighters in the same situation but uh but I just think it's fantastic a chief having that kind of institutional history so working backwards your dad started in the 70s correct he started in 1973 and actually I'll even go back a little bit further there because both my grandfathers work for the City of Phoenix one works in the park works in the parks department and one worked in what they call sanitation back then in public works so yeah so it's actually I'd be the third generation in the city of Phoenix here wow that's well that's fantastic uh so so you came on in the early 90s dad starting in the early 70s I mean there must have been it must be like a completely different job at this point I know the responsibilities but with the technology the GPS you want to talk a little bit about some of the changes that you've seen certainly uh yes and you know the Phoenix fire department's always been Innovative and with leadership at the time when I came on was fire chief Alan brunacini our labor president was Pat can tell me and really um you know the Phoenix fire department was known for being Innovative looking at you know operational uh fire tactics and strategy uh response times customer service was was what we talked about all the time and how we could provide better service to the community and really expanding on our scope of you know Fire EMS transportation for the community operating in Special Operations which was technical rescue operations that we see more and more of hazardous materials response we started in the mid 90s working on a program called the community response well now is today the community response program going out and assisting folks that may need assistance of grief support or after a fire they having they needed some supportive help with getting connected to Social Services as far as the technology what I've seen and what I think has been most significant for us is the ability to address the health and wellness of our members when I came on we had a health center that was already pretty established but that is continuing to grow and so we are seeing more and more direct efforts at the the wellness and health of our members from the equipment that we use today the type of turnouts our scbas even how we build our fire stations even some of our most recent fire stations is where you have different layers as you walk in to not bring those contaminants into a fire station same thing with our fire trucks you wouldn't think about that but the contaminants that are inside the fire trucks from us carrying our equipment in there we try to reduce that and have the ability to clean those those surfaces very well keep our turnouts outside of the in outside of the truck after a fire not bringing those in so we've really evolved in the fire certain not just in the Phoenix fire department but the fire service across the country and we are definitely looking at all those best practices here so just in my 28 years we've definitely seen a lot and we advanced in in Emergency Medical Services with our heart monitors have changed over time uh and and being able to have better technology to provide that type of care to the patients we've expanded our transportation services with our ambulances over the years so and we know that's continuing to grow obviously we have a our call volume is continuing to grow and just you know in the last 10 to 12 years of what I've seen and being in a manager position is the growth of the city and how that's having definite impacts on us and the fire service here to meet that demand but you know you have a city that's what we see we look at it from 2014 to now 300 000 residents have come to the city of Phoenix which I think is is tremendous for us to to grow and bring the industry here and we want to make sure that are meeting the services of the community yeah we've been the fastest growing city and the fastest growing County for a while obviously when you have that kind of growth and we're spread out you know we're not a concentrated City we're a big Geographic entity and so you can have enough firefighters but if you don't have a place to Stage them that's an issue that became an issue in my district a few years ago we built at station 55 built I think the turnaround on that might have been I talked to your predecessor about it I think it took about a year and a half but I think you guys were staging out of an old hotel if memory serves within a few weeks of of issues being brought to my attention and so I really appreciated that the new fire station I know exactly what you're talking about in terms of the the layers and how it's set up and and that's a great thing because I think everybody everybody watching at home is going to understand firefighting is a dangerous business but there were a lot of unseen dangers that maybe weren't thought about back in the 70s or 80s that kind of came to the fore and and we're trying to help you you know with your guidance we've tried to provide the resources to address those certainly we truly appreciate the the support of the mayor council City of Phoenix our residents and understanding and knowing and taking interest in the health and wellness of our members making sure that we have the right equipment and I think for us as a fire service as a fire department um you know with the funding that we have we really do leverage that very well and do very well with being able to acquire the equipment what I like to see for us is a lot of the planning for the future and trying to anticipate those needs for us and looking at best practice and doing the research out there and so for me in my role my position I truly promote that with all of our sections and and looking at that and addressing that well I've appreciated the briefings that that we've had that you've shared with me both public and in my office and private I um you know I appreciate the fact that we're not trying to look at just like what do we need right this second but what could be helpful for residents and firefighters for the next 20 years and that goes also to expanding the Staffing you know I think you used to have more applicants than you do now but we're still not in a deficit situation like we are with police that's a different discussion so I think fire is one of the few areas in the city where we're getting enough applicants to fill the spots it's just getting them you know it's not for everybody so you can apply but if you're afraid of heights or don't like fire you know maybe it's not the game for you so you want to talk a little bit about how many people apply what kind of process people watching at home might be interested in trying to become a phoenix firefighter what do you have to go through how long does it take to go from sending in that first application to actually getting on a truck and going to a fire certainly and thank you for that question and that is one of our initiatives right now is to really get out to the community and reach out not just here locally but across the country and do recruitment for the Phoenix fire department and bringing in the Next Generation nation of firefighters so that's been a focus for us our human resources section has a recruitment officer that puts together plans on how we go out and promote and reach out to the community and bring in those recruits and educate them on the process one of the things that I think is unique about our system is that we have what we call the Affinity groups and they're they're different makeups within our organization with Hispanic firefighters black firefighters we have irish-american firefighters and Valley women's groups so several of these groups all work together in helping us with our recruitment efforts out in the community not just again here locally but but across the state and Nationwide for someone that's interested that would like to look into a career with the Phoenix fire departments can certainly go to our website that's on the City of Phoenix website backslash fire and look at what the requirements are for us right now we had our last testing process just before the fall into the summer here the numbers were a little bit less than what we normally are used to so what we used to see is maybe three to four thousand applicants we're seeing about 1100 applicants and about 900 plus people taking the actual written test so we know that we definitely have to have probably more tests here in the future and look at how we continue to plan ahead so that we can make sure we're meeting that demand yep and police and other Industries big employers around the country are having trouble you know getting people to apply and getting the right folks to apply sure uh you know that's definitely a challenge obviously we don't let just anybody become a phoenix firefighter it's a pretty rigorous both physical and mental uh job and the tests are commensurate with that so if you get 900 people taking the test how many would you expect to eventually work for Phoenix fire the way we look at that is based on our attrition rate obviously in numbers if we're adding new positions into the system there you have to have spots they'll have to have the spots correct so we look at all those numbers there normally I would say within this process here we're probably looking at about uh you know anywhere between 100 to 150 positions with this next process within this next process here so but yes you are right it's definitely demands on this job here it's not for everybody you are what we look at is we call ourselves an all Hazard system right so firefighter shows up you know they're problem solvers they're they're folks that are going to show up with with the training and the resources to help that person at whatever crisis that that might be at that moment in time a lot of our firefighters come with much experience just you know from somewhere else that they bring into our organization obviously firefighting is is what we do a lot of the time most of our calls evolve around Medical Services right 85 percent of what we do today in the fire service Fire EMS service is based around EMS uh and then you have your special operations which is your Hazmat technical rescue and other areas where for folks can gain training and knowledge and and be become more expanded their rules here in fire service so also some of our folks will work on an ambulance for a period of time as you first come on to the Phoenix fire department we have our own transportation system we have about 36 ambulances in our system and we transport very regularly and so part of the firefighter recruitment upon completion of their probation will be sitting on an ambulance and responding on transporting people to the hospital there's still firefighters in our system but that is part of the the role here in the Phoenix fire department what always strikes me is you know the fires are the thing that you're going to see on the Evening News you know the big fire warehouse fire and those are dangerous and obviously you guys live risk life and limb to put those out but that's not the bulk of the time spent on the job I wouldn't imagine I assume that's probably changed dramatically since your dad's day in the department when I assume you know you had older buildings not nearly as many safety features not nearly as many requirements for Builders and I'm sure there are a lot more fires probably per capita is my guess and a lot more firefighter time was taken up with actual fires rather than what you're talking about now the medical services is that is that fairly accurate yes I would say yes and I for the Phoenix fire department I I believe is because we've evolved more in the medical services you know in the mid 80s the Phoenix fire department excuse me let me go back a little bit but in the early 70s mid 70s uh we trained our first 12 paramedics in our system and the chief at the time so prior to the 70s didn't even have paramedics didn't have paramedics we started fun fact for people at home maybe not fun for the people who are living in the 1960s but uh but that that's just that just shows the change that we're talking about over the last half century yes most definitely and so from there the the uh the vision of the Phoenix fire department from maybe primarily firefighting really moved into the medical services and in the mid 80s the City of Phoenix and the Phoenix fire department moved into transportation services for the community so then again that added another resource and layer into our system and then from there on we've continued to expand training paramedics within our system working with community colleges uh we have continued to look at you know the different types of equipment that's coming in now we have a very robust Medical Services the section uh we're training right now we have about 36 paramedics and our system we'll be training another 36 here in the near future and our goal is over the next several years to probably train about 400 medics in our system in the next five years and I was thinking about this question this morning when I was at the gym a fellow was wearing a uh I think it was paramedic training course or something from Paradise Valley Community College he's wearing a t-shirt that talked about the program he had clearly been in um do you have to take those classes to sign up or or is that something that it helps and if you're interested in this line of work that's a good place to start but do we do all the training that you need so part of uh part of the process is the is if someone is applying for our position as a phoenix firefighter is you have to be EMT certified and a lot of and that is done through the community college so that's pretty pretty known that the first step is to obtain that and that's that again is obtaining your EMT certification is definitely a commitment uh you know at the community college level but that's one of our requirements there from there becoming a paramedic if the person would let you know if they're looking to to go down that pathway uh we certainly here in the city of Phoenix with the you know with the approval of Mr Barton the city manager we've been able to now offer incentives for those folks that are paramedics uh of up to 7 500 right now so if you are a trained paramedic in the system and you test with us and you are hired and then upon successful completion of your probationary period you will have that incentive yeah much the same way that teachers get extra pay for getting master's degree and so forth well it's a good thing to know and again for for folks watching at home who might be interested in this line of work we're certainly interested in having you so uh we've given you I think enough information to know like what you're facing it's not easy and it's not for everybody but uh as I think your family is living proof it it can certainly be very rewarding and a different note you talked about the medical services obviously well for example I live on the Scottsdale border so my understanding with the call centers and the GPS locators and everything if if I'm having a heart attack and there's a Scottsdale truck that happens to be kind of driving down the street that's the truck that gets sent you want to talk a little bit about how the resources get divvied up between the cities if you happen to live on a border and how do we sort all that out at the end of the year sure thank you yes uh what makes us that is something that's very unique here for the valley we call our region and we call it it's what we call the automatic Aid System really that's a makeup of about 24 agencies right now that respond continuously uh within that within that boundary there City boundaries is not something that we necessarily look at this about having the right resource the closest resource available to that call of that incident will be sent so all of us as Fire Chiefs all agreed to to supporting one another and supporting our communities for one it provides safer communities as well as firefighter safety and really that has been the premise of why this the automatic Aid System was created many years ago and so we have been operating now for uh four decades in this system and it has continued to evolve as more cities where we're coming on board with this so yes you could be driving along the border of of Phoenix and Scottsdale and the truck that may show up will may say Scottsdale on there but you are getting the same service we train regionally we train with even with even with our our medical services and paramedic and EMT trainings that's consistent across the board so we when we talk about Regional consistency that is what being a part of this automatic Aid System is is that we are consistent across the board whether it's firefighting EMS Special Operations that is all consistent and probably provide service to the community and but the goal being to get the person Aid as soon as as possible you know I the more I heard about the system you know frankly the happier I was just just as a resident uh you know I people always forget my family lives here too and so uh you know we all have a lot of interest in how we're giving up resources so for people at home I mean I wouldn't be so focused on there's a phoenix Fire Department station right up the street from me it's like where's the nearest station even if it's across the street and when Scottsdale and Phoenix and Glendale and Tempe and all the cities that are adjacent when they go to build stations you guys Talk Amongst each other correct to make sure that you know you're not building them like right across the street from each other or something that would be silly getting given what you just said about the shared resources so you want to talk about a little bit about how you interact with your peers in the surrounding cities certainly so what we have is we have what we call as a central Arizona Life Safety Council and that's made up of all the fire chiefs here across the valley again 24 agencies that are automatic Aid agencies and then we have up we have another five agencies that are added in as as part of that system with mutual Aid so what we do is we meet regularly to talk about issues concerns in regards to the region and the consistency there what we do is we develop subcommittees within that Life Safety Council to address issues such as resource management and Logistics to look at operations response and training to look at planning and for the future of fire stations and placement of resources so one of the subcommittees that that uh that we have within that structure there does look at region wide as far as placement of fire stations and future placement of fire stations is we are moving into a bond here we look at where we're placing those next fire stations the same for other cities is they're looking at their Capital Improvement projects as their building stations what's the proximity to the next fire station so a lot of that takes a lot of planning and coordination I think for the residents that's placing these resources in the right place and also for those cities and that City leadership is letting them know that hey we are looking at this holistically to make sure that we're we're placing these resources the most advantageous to the community there yeah and obviously you touched on it earlier with Phoenix growing as rapidly as it is we are talking about the placement of new fire stations uh for some we already have properties purchased correct um and this is going to be a fire station in the future maybe not tomorrow but at some point there's going to be development and we're going to make sure that this fire station is up and ready to go when that time comes what do you do when you don't have a property and you do have some growth what then that is a great question um you know for us what we look at is well right now we do have a plan for a 20-year fire station plan and where we'd like to see our resources placed in the future obviously working through either a bond or reoccurring bonds is what our our goal in anticipation is to be able to accomplish that if the land is not available in that location we'll usually we'll look at response times to that area there and we'll take that data from our CAD system to determine where the best location would be and if it's not that direct location we'll try to find something within the proximity obviously the Atlanta the availability of land has its challenges right now in the system one of our stations that we're proposing in the bond in the East Valley Station 13. there's really not much available land within that location there so we do work with our community and economic development Partners our Planning and Development Partners to identify locations for land or maybe businesses that may be vacating those areas there to try to place a fire station yeah well so I guess what I take away from that is given that land can be either we already own it so that's already a cost that's sort of sunk cost but if we have to go you know compete it can be pretty expensive so the cost of a fire station can vary pretty widely depending on how much you have to pay for the property that you're going to be using is that a fair assessment it is it is it all depends upon the location and the uh the availability of that lands correct yes yeah and then the price of materials of course is also skyrocketed for developers everywhere but really for our purposes here the city is a developer trying to build a building but let's just say uh you know based on prices right now how much is it to actually build a fire station assuming you already have the property well right now some of our fire stations could be uh you know right now a four Bay Fire Station could be anywhere between 15 to 18 million dollars right now and that's pretty standard for us with a pretty basic fire station with the amenities that we talked about earlier is having those different layers for the contamination and so forth and the living amenities for our members to run yeah they got to have a kitchen beds they're living there so yeah yeah no it's uh it's it's not a cheap undertaking for anybody who's been in one it's sort of like a smaller hotel with a parking for a lot of RVs so I was just in a fire station doing some training for a couple days uh last week and it is it's a big production and you know what the the needs of uh uh your your force is you know you got to have people living there they're staging out of there they got to maintain all the equipment um it's not easy and it's not something they can be you know they've got to have shower facilities it's just just uh it's just something that until you really start to sit down and think about it it's not easy to just throw up a fire station it's not there's a lot of planning that goes into this and you know we've building fire station 55 there off of I-17 you know we try to build a station that um and you had that property already we had that I made it a little bit easier correct Dennis which was we were able to really move that fire station pretty quickly and that a lot also was the help of our partners from the streets department and other other City departments there but we try to we try to adopt a piece of property that that fits within the neighborhood so the architecture design of that fire station fits within uh that neighborhood so that we want to again want to be a community partner we want to be a part of the neighborhood and so that's usually the the consideration that our our design team takes with these new fire stations you know for us today what we're looking at is for when we build the fire station is we're building something for the future we hope to have a fire station for the next 30 40 50 years uh so when we build a station um you may it may seem large at the time but we anticipate in the future that there may be more resources and more Personnel in those fire stations so we don't want to shortcut ourselves today for something that we may need in the future unfortunately you know we have stations that are 60 years old that were built for that time in that era uh two Bay Fire Station which you've seen you know some of the smaller fire stations that may be 2 000 square feet and that sounds like a lot but in in our system you know that's that's pretty small for us so there's no ability to expand and put more resources in those fire stations yeah if it's surrounded by neighborhood there's only so much you can do and something built in the 60s and we touched on it earlier you know a lot of kind of the job that you're doing has changed pretty dramatically in those 50 or 60 years too so you know that the facility that was built well-intentioned facility facility may be held up for for 40 or 50 of those years now it's just it's got to be wired up for GPS and bigger trucks and it's just crazy how much different things are now for those stations and the fact that they're even serviceable at this point are pretty amazing although I know you're also talking about having to rebuild some of them because they're just they're just older buildings um yeah that's correct you know some of our busier fire stations are those are those older buildings red brick fire stations and although you know someone who grew up in the fire department I love the history the tradition of those fire stations but obviously for us the ability for us to expand and put more resources in those areas where we know we're very busy we have to look at building new stations in those areas you know what we're proposing in this bond is to keep those those older fire stations and repurpose them for other uh resources like our community Assistance Program and you know it just probably stands to read reason that older fire stations are surrounded by older buildings that are less likely or probably more likely to have a fire potentially anyway so it is sort of something that needs to be addressed in pretty short order like what's the busiest fire station right now the busiest fire station is fire station 7 off of uh Third Street and Hatcher there I myself have worked there in my early in my career it's been one of our busiest stations uh pretty consistently they run about uh they're going to run about six thousand calls in a one-year time frame which is very high in the activity level for a fire company a and I say a paramedic fire company so right now what we do what we're looking at is is that would be our number one priority in our our bond is rebuilding fire station Seven to add more resources to that repurpose that fire station for the community Assistance Program and one of the things that we we learned in me as fire chief are looking at is is when that unit is out is on a call the amount of units and resources that are coming in to cover that area and what we found out is about 26 percent of the time of those calls are being covered by other resources because that that unit Engine 7 is already on another call yeah so pretty significant for us and how it has impact on our system well Chief you got a huge responsibility I wish we had more time I hope our viewers were as fascinated as I was but but I really appreciate you being on the show thank you and if you have any questions or comments please call my office at 602-262-7445 or visit my website phoenix.gov District Two we look forward to seeing you next time on the issues [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] good afternoon and welcome to the March 22nd formal meeting of the Phoenix City Council we'll begin with an invocation from police chaplain John Taylor foreign heavenly father thank you for all who are gathered here today and we're grateful for the opportunity to be here we thank you for the freedom that we enjoy in this great nation we ask for your hand of blessing on this meeting and we ask that you would guide and direct this Council so that it is full of wisdom productivity and respect for one another I pray for the agenda set before them today please give them wisdom as to what would benefit those who live and work in around our city thank you for helping them to accomplish their work and their goals here this day in your most holy name I pray amen thank you chaplain Taylor please remain standing if you are able to do so councilwoman O'Brien would you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance I will call this meeting to order will the clerk please call the roll councilman decisio here council member Garcia here councilwoman guardado here councilwoman O'Brien here councilwoman pastor here councilwoman Stark here councilman Waring here vice mayor I'm sorry here mayor Gallego here Elsie Duarte and Carmen Kota are here to provide interpretation Elsie would you please introduce yourself thank you mayor hello my name is Elsie Duarte and together with my colleague Carmen Kota we will be serving as Spanish interpreters for today's city council formal meeting I will now take a moment to introduce ourselves to our Spanish speaking audience and review some guidelines is thank you mayor thank you will the city clerk please read the 24-hour paragraph the titles of the following ordinance and resolution numbers on the agenda were available to the public at least 24 hours prior to this council meeting and therefore may be read by title or agenda item only ordinances number g7087-7088-s-49485-49528 and resolutions 22104-22107 thank you I'll turn to the City attorney to explain the role of public comment thank you mayor members of the public may speak for up to two minutes to comment on agenda items comments must be related to the agenda item and the action being considered by the council General comments that go beyond the scope of the agenda item must be made in the citizen comment session at the end of the agenda the city council and staff cannot discuss or comment on matters related to pending investigations claims or litigation city code requires speakers to present their comments in a respectful and courteous manner profane language threats or personal attacks on members of the public council members or staff are not allowed a person who violates these rules will lose the opportunity to continue to speak thank you thank you we'll next go to the liquor license portion of our agenda the city provides an advisory role to the State of Arizona vice mayor do we have a motion motion to approve items one through fifteen second we have a motion in a second any comments all those in favor please say aye aye aye aye any opposed nay passes unanimously city clerk are we ready for ordinances resolutions new business planning and zoning yes mayor vice mayor do we have a motion motion to approve item 16 through 93 except the following items 25 26 27 92 93 noting that item 67 is continued to April 5th 2023 and excluding these items for virtual public comment item 93 and can the clerk confirm if there are any other items that should be excluded for in-person public comment vice mayor mayor there are no other items to exclude at this time thank you second any corrections roll call decisio yes Garcia yes cuardado yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Stark yes Waring yes I'm sorry yes Gallego yes passes 9-0 we next go to item 25 which is a public Hearing in district one I will open the public hearing we do not have any comments for the public hearing so I will close the public hearing there's no vote required at this time we will next go to item 26 which is a another public hearing for the new Annex Station in district one we'll open the public hearing we don't have any members of the public to comment so we will close the public hearing there's no vote required on this and next we will go to item 27 which is a proposed 35th Avenue and Elliott Road annexation we will open that public hearing we do not have any members of the public to comment so we will close that public hearing all right next we will go to item 92. which is an appeal of a hearing officer decision with an abandonment of right-of-way on Camelback Heights way we will begin with a brief staff report and I'll introduce our planning director Josh bedner oh and mayor um councilman decisio we will turn to councilman decisio to introduce this item oh just a quick thing we may not if it's brief that's fine we've reached an agreement we've been at this for several months we finally struck a deal it was extremely complicated but if you want to do a presentation we can if not it looks like I've got all parties on board there wonderful then why don't you go ahead and make your motion for this item sure let me get I've got it written down here the motion is going to be to deny the appeal and approve the hearing officer's decision with the additional stipulation outlined in the March 22 2023 Memo from the Planning Development director Pioneer development director second wonderful we have a motion and a second all right we have the applicant and appellant here to speak if necessary but it sounds like that is not necessary so we will have another very brief public hearing the public area close the public hearing all right um does anyone have any additional comments before we vote on councilman decisio's motion uh and mayor I just want to make just a quick comment if you don't mind um I want to say Josh in particular for oh sorry bear I should have waited but I do want to thank Josh for all the work he put into this uh I know it's an abandonment but it got to be extremely complicated and I gotta tell you he went out of his way to try to find a way to make this happen he took a can-do approach on this it wasn't like Hey we're not going to do it you know and every time I talk to you because let me see what we can do so if you did call me Sal a couple times I know I know it pushed it pretty hard he always started off with councilman I said you can't do that you got to call himself but either way he did an amazing job on there and I really want to thank him uh we went back and forth on this I think we probably had I know hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent on this that I can tell you for sure on this case from attorney's fees and it was extremely complicated very difficult uh and it dealt with quite a few multiple issues and neighborhood issues and with this motion here it resolves everything and it was extremely difficult to get everybody on board but we did we actually got everybody on board and we stuck a deal and we're good to go so I'm good mayor thank you I want to thank Charles and Ben Bose uh and Lauren where if Lauren should be in the audience there she was incredible she was an incredible Attorney and did an amazing job on there and I want to give her a special thanks because I know how difficult it was thanks mayor thank you and thanks to everyone who got involved to get a better outcome was able to review correspondence from people who originally opposed and who worked through the process and at least one submitted a letter I think from Catherine Ivey with a new support so appreciate everyone who worked hard to get to this point any additional comments roll call decisio yes Garcia yes cordado yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Stark yes Waring yes I'm sorry yes Gallego yes passes 9-0 all right next we go to item 93. where we have significant members of the public to provide comments so we begin with public comment or what council members like to speak first mayor this is councilwoman Pastor go ahead councilwoman Pastor um there are a lot of members still trying to get in to hear this item so I don't know how we speed up the process so that they can get in and to hear the item and speak we start with public comments so that I think they're public comments well they can still continue to add into that correct as they come in so if we start with who we have then as those folks come in they can still register and would be added to the list correct or if we call them people that might have registered early that are still outside that we just go back to those people once we're done because I'm assuming that some of those folks already register that are outside and I just want to make sure that if we call on some folks and they're still not in the room that we go back to those names if that makes sense of course of course that makes sense yeah sorry I thought you meant they weren't registered so long as we can do that then I would I don't know who we look to all right so it sounds like we'll begin with public comment we have a very extensive people registered so it could be allow time for people to clear security oh why don't we begin with Hannah Heyman mayor she is not on the line all right uh why don't let's see um but Rebecca Denise followed by Dana Kennedy hi can you hear me yes oh hi thank you uh my name is Rebecca Denise um I live in District Seven but I actually grew up and my family currently still lives in District Five um where the Periwinkle mobile home is right behind GCU um as someone who has grown up in that community and um continue my family still continues to live in that community and I spend a lot of time in that Community I have seen the profound impact that GCU has had in its growth on the community and I wouldn't say that it is um beneficial or has been um an impact that has actually benefited the community members if anything it has benefited GCU and their bottom line um they have grown immensely and it's obvious that they are profiting from that growth but it doesn't seem to be affecting the community in the way that they have said that it is going to I have seen the way that they have bought up numerous Lots different neighborhoods most people I know know that have grown up in that neighborhood continuously make comments about how disheartening it is to see their community be gentrified it's extremely disheartening to know that right now GCU would be putting people out on the streets in the middle of a housing crisis here in Arizona and specifically in the city of Phoenix this Council has the opportunity to protect people to protect their homes to set an example that the city does value people over profits that they will not Pander to corporate profits that they will put the well-being of the community um in front of whatever type of benefits this gives politicians or whatever type of benefits GCU would have I find it so hard to believe that we would displace people in order to build housing for a university where the majority of those students coming in will be from out of state they will not be from this community they more than likely will not stay in this community and they will not benefit that community that has residents that have lived there and contributed to it for many many years so please I am into thank you Dana Kennedy will be next followed by Robin Reed Dana can you hear us hello I can hear you guys can you hear me yes please proceed okay um Dana Kennedy I represent AARP um we have 900 000 members in Arizona I'm really concerned about um about these seniors being displaced this is their home this is their neighborhood um I know that you guys have been working really diligently to try and find a solution but I really just want you to all be very mindful that when you change your zoning rules that sometimes it does displace these scenes many of them have health conditions and you know they may not be able to drive so you know just saying that you need to get another place to live um you know we know that there's a shortage of affordable housing we know that there's waiting lists um so I just really want you to be mindful of that so we are really concerned about about this project and these changes and I'm happy to answer any questions thank you Dana Robin Reed is next followed by Laura best good afternoon mayor Gallego city manager Barton and members of the city council thank you for this opportunity I've read through the information Associated uh with this item number and I have a deep concern number one um certainly my heart goes out to anyone who is displaced for any reason and I think most people feel exactly the same way however my deep concern is this is a private real estate transaction that does not involve city land and I think it is a dangerous precedent to get a municipality involved in a private real estate transaction I think this particular issue were to move forward would create a great deal of Financial and legal liability for the City of Phoenix and I don't think that in the long term it creates a viable solution in fact I think what this does is sets a standard that we would see many many more of these types of issues come before city council that could lead to great exposure for the City of Phoenix so I'm not in favor of it and I appreciate the opportunity to speak thank you so much Lauren best is next hi thank you for allowing me to speak today um I'm a member of a family that locally owns a mobile home park in the Phoenix Metro area and I really appreciate the previous gentleman um comments so I don't want to take up more of your time but we are in full support of the mobile home excuse me the manufactured housing communities of Arizona's position and completely oppose any government intervention over changing of zoning on private landowners rights thank you for your time thank you Diane Barker is next followed by Gracia beltron good afternoon mayor and city council Diane Barker and I'm a resident of downtown I came with this issue because my friend Veronica has been working on it and I've read a little bit of it when I see I agree with the last speaker getting into property rights little iffy but what I came to say the city council has in the bond program monies 63 million right here for affordable housing and in Innovation one this issue here low-income housing and this displacement and we have homelessness there's a great need for affordable Innovative housing and I'm really looking forward to do that you'll look at properties the city of Phoenix 10 years ago when I looked at the list had 8 000 properties that they were holding and some of them are scraps next to you know what gas stations and so forth but others could be looked at to see where the city could start making some Innovation and making modular into existing where we would have already the setup for utilities thank you Gracia is next followed by Annette Musa hola Buenas my name is okay um Beltran Gracias my name is Gracia Beltran and I am from the Periwinkle Park area as you all know we will be living on the 28th of this month foreign thank you help as you know and the situation is very difficult is and I invite you to my home and all my neighbors do the same so that you can see this is our only home Universidad Universidad Christiana and I also invite the members of GCU to come and see I don't understand how they declare to be a Christian University Ninos there's families we're talking about um seniors and children please tell them to take us out in that way we are not ready don't allow for our children to be continue to be worried about this situation preparado and I've talked to my neighbors and nobody is ready [Music] preparations to give us more time to give us a way or another alternative to find a home in in a safe area don't allow us to go through this in such a short notice that the presentations GCU has not demonstrated any empathy or sensitivity towards us they have sent people over but they don't understand and they don't know they don't really know even though they say they do gracias thank you [Applause] Annette is next followed by Brianna Castro good good afternoon my name is Annette Musa and I speak today on behalf of the Arizona Hispanic chamber of commerce we oppose the multiple recommendations listed on 93 of item 93 on today's agenda we are specifically opposed to the proposed zoning overlay and development moratorium on the listed properties as a member of the business Community I believe that the recommendations you are considering would set a precedence whereby the city would negatively impact individual private property rights resulting in the expedition of valuable taxpayer resources to reimburse landowners for City actions that diminish their land value these resources would be better spent assisting these residents to find new opportunities for adequate housing and to help encourage the development of new and affordable housing stock in our city we are also concerned that should the council act to affirm these these items the action would not prevent the residents from being evicted but would instead invite needless costly litigation And Delay the process of finding solutions to decrease housing affordability We Believe instead that the city should focus on policies that address these underlying issues to provide more affordable housing using units assistance and the pathway to Future home ownership for these residents and all residents in the region the Arizona Hispanic chamber is committed to being an active partner with the city on these efforts and we will dedicate available resources to better identify and remedy the underlying issues that the council seeks to address thank you for the opportunity to be heard may I have a question ma'am can I ask you a question councilmember Garcia thank you so you're you're proposing that we don't do this on behalf of the business Community what would you say to the families that are going to be evicted in the next month or what you what would you suggest that we do I'm sorry I couldn't hear what the what would you suggest that we do with the families that are going to be evicted in a month I believe that we should be able to find some solutions for some affordable housing and if the situation needs to be extended for a period of time then that's something that certainly could be considered but I think that we have to weigh the rights of both and I think the the city and the community should most fully address in finding Solutions exactly what those Solutions are we as the Hispanic chamber I have not researched as much but would be happy to partner with others in the community to help find these resources and available projects for affordable housing well you opposed the measures one of the measures is to allocate money to support these folks another one of the measures is to study this further another one of the measures is to actually give these folks time it's a temporary moratorium and then the last one is to actually give to assure that the only affordability which we have in trailer parks maintains that way which part what do you disagree with because it sounds like you're you're agreeing with the majority of the emotions that are gonna that were put forth um I think she was pretty clear she was opposing the overlays and moratorium in particular and not wanting us to pay legal fines for violating a constitutional provision I think she proposed taking the money or she should be able to answer for herself [Applause] standing of what I was saying is correct so we specifically opposed the zoning overlay and the development moratorium on the listed property we believe that there's a balance because you don't want to set a negative impact on individual property rights and then we could be looking at the expenditure of property taxes to reimburse landowners on the on diminishing their their land values which doesn't necessarily solve to the issue which could possibly delay it in the fact that what we're looking at there in the process of delaying finding Solutions but it doesn't necessarily mean that somewhere down the line that there isn't going to be some type of eviction or an elimination of some property rights for landowners so I think the solution will be from a humanitarian point of view to find Solutions of where we could relocate these individuals I don't see that it is um necessarily Humane to you toss them out with nowhere to go but I also don't think that the land owners should be penalized by an over extension of time for them to be able to then develop their properties I hope that clarifies it so it's not necessarily an all-no or or an all yes but we do believe that when we look at certain things that would affect the property owners per se those would be some of the things that that we think would not we we would be opposed to the next thing I'll say is I would invite you to understand the circumstances of these private property owners and what's happened in the different ones particularly La Casitas and Periwinkle that I have more knowledge with that it's not as you're describing it and reminding you that there's a reason we got to this place because there was another options there wasn't a possibility even with resources and nonprofits helping and so just uh would appreciate you learning a little bit more about this as a community I filled in not to interrupt we need to dig deeper to find options there it isn't as though options don't exist maybe we haven't worked together to find and figure out what those options are but there there is enough support within the community land ways that we can find to be able to create some sort of alternative living options for the people that would necessarily um not be able to stay within that particular residence I don't think that we can just close our mind and say no there's no options and and I agree with you 100 that's why we suggested a moratorium which sounds like you're saying the same thing that we should buy some time for these folks so we can figure out Solutions thank you so much you're welcome Brianna Castro is next followed by Claudio Serio good afternoon my name is Brianna Castro and I have seen the impact of gcu's growth as a GCU Alum as a current GCU employee and as someone who lives in the neighboring community of GCU I graduated just this last year with my degree in English for secondary education and that was made possible thanks to the students inspiring students which is a full tuition scholarship awarded by GCU to local students in the community today I work as an admissions counselor and I work with seniors from those same neighboring high schools counseling families as to how to make the wisest College decision every day I receive gratitude from these parents and and from GCU and I see their eyes light up when they realize that their meetings will be conducted in their native tongue and a sigh of relief from students knowing that they are working with someone from their community I'm proud to say that for many of these parents I am a reflection of what their students can someday be and I have been able to show them that it is possible to reach higher education regardless of socioeconomic backgrounds that ripple effect has been seen because GCU was able to provide me not only with that scholarship but with that support to receive that job I can now see that in my family as well as I am able to support my three younger sisters reach higher education and that is all because of the jobs and the endless number of support from GCU in addition to the hundreds of employment opportunities within GCU the university has also launched eight additional businesses a hotel golf course two public restaurants a merchandise company coffee and pizza and companies and our Canyon Ventures incubator space that houses over 30 other companies all of these startups have brought the opportunities for students alumni and for residents to be able to raise the economic stimulus for the west Phoenix Valley I am extremely grateful for GCU for the opportunity to speak thank you thank you Claudio is next followed by Leonard Clark thank you my name is Claudio Sergio I'm once again speaking as a concerned resident of the Phoenix area on March 6 several City Council Members heard the pleas of those eminent risk of displacement and homelessness and were urged to combat these imminent threats with Concrete Solutions today the rest of you hold in your hands the power to acknowledge the will of the people and put these Solutions into effect I urge you to vote Yes on the 18th month moratorium and the mobile home zoning overlay now more than ever it's important to demonstrate that you are more than your words that you truly care about addressing homelessness and the rising cost of living in the valley do not allow the organization efforts of so many residents the fabric of this city to be reduced to yet another sad footnote in the history that affirms a pattern of neglect from the city of Phoenix towards its constituents I'm already hearing talk of this measure setting a bad precedent specifically for land owners last time I checked land isn't a human being land doesn't take care of their families and enrich the community that's the people that live in these homes personally I think setting the precedent that private Capital can't just bully people out of their home is good vote to prioritize people instead of property vote Yes on the moratorium and Zoning overlay thank you [Applause] Leonard Clark is next followed by Alyssa Clift hello city council members I was born here in Phoenix right now I'm not a resident but Phoenix is still close to my heart housing is a human right um our state does have a tradition of being Progressive in its state constitution I know that a lot of the responsibility for the things that go on are at the state legislature but you have a chance to use the the moral status of your elected positions to stand up for something yes there will probably be those who will you know say that you're infringing on their rights but what about the rights of human beings who've been living in their their homes for decades and decades you know the children uh the veterans the people who are hard-working people what about them why should they just be kicked out by uh Grand Canyon University okay um I know Grand Canyon University is very important I know that a lot of our family members have gone to school there but this is not a Christian thing that they're doing it was too too little too late and uh I just want the young people out there that are that are listening to all of our testimony to understand that you need to continue non-violently standing up no matter what the so-called traditional people tell you about private property private property is a right but the human right of having your own home and to be protected is just as important as if if not more important and it's very hard in this state because the Judiciary the legislature the political parties are all working against you because the people with the money are the ones that with the property scaring other people into thinking oh it's all right that we can just kick people out of their homes after 30 years things are going to change because right now our state government our city governments our constitution needs to change despite what Governors do stacking the Supreme Court of Arizona thank you housing is a human right do not evict these people I plead with you thank you [Applause] Alyssa is next followed by Solomon Alegria um hello my name is Alyssa I am a student at Grand Canyon University I came here to speak today to express to you all that I strongly condemn what my University is doing to the residents of periwinkle mobile home park displacement under the words development is still displacement every single apartment building house and mobile home park that has been displaced by GCU now and in the past and uh and by other developers across the city cause irreputable financial and emotional harm and Trauma to the people that live there as GCU and other developers continue to buy up hundreds of Acres of their Community it has displaced hundreds if not thousands of families and it will continue to do so without the city's intervention the for-profit university wants more student housing or parking garages so that they can accept more students and that desire cannot come before the needs of the community who have been there for decades before us the community that we live in need to be the utmost priority over develop or financial gain these displacements have a direct impact on the affordable housing and homeless crisis that's already rampant in our City Arizona saw a 23 percent jump in the homeless population from 2020 to 2022 and as private developers continue to buy up all of the affordable housing where are you expecting low-income residents to go we must protect these residents from homelessness and we must protect affordable housing for the Safety and Security of our city you will hear the stories of the residents many of them are legitimately facing homelessness the city needs a long-term solution to keep people in their homes and away from homelessness I fully support the residence demand for a mobile home zoning 18th month moratorium and reallocation of funds to help these families and urge you all to do the same to protect the families of this community I also urge ucu and all GCU students to meet these residents go down to the mobile home park and see who you are displacing thank you [Applause] Solomon is next followed by Susan Brenton good afternoon to all my name is Solomon Alegria I'm the senior pastor of Lynnhaven Community Church and chairman of Hidden Treasures Christian preschool I've seen firsthand the impact that GCU has has had in our neighborhoods in the surrounding areas as well speaking from a pastor's heart I will share with you guys that our entire Community has been blessed by their support and continuous support there's a big difference I want to emphasize and there's a big difference between a neighborhood and a community a community is a place where you find friends and family and you love to gather and it is more like a feeling of a home than it is a building but our church had been firmly be praying for help to reach our neighborhoods and it was almost um impossible for me as a pastor to send people to do some um evangelizing in the areas of Maryville and the Alhambra District because of the Cielito Park uh condition when we would send people to do some Outreach work there would be uh syringes drugs and different kinds of things like that and so uh we partnered with GCU and Canyon kids and now we have uh students on our campus at our church that are safe uh serving the community we have children from different parts of the neighborhoods in our church that are safe they're being fed they're being taught and they have a good safe environment what I'm trying to get at is that they we could see there's a lot of good that they're that they're doing and our heart does go out to the people um of these parks and I as far as I'm concerned they're doing everything that they can to help and so um I would plead that we would be a little bit more open um to listen and to encourage one another to do the right thing on both sides I want to end with this uh Bible verse First Corinthians Chapter 13 Verse 13. faith hope and love will persist and I believe every person in our community needs all three of them faith hope love thank you thank you Susan Brenton is next followed by Michelle Cruz good afternoon good afternoon I'm Susan Brenton I'm the executive director of manufactured housing communities of Arizona although I I feel sorry for the residents of these three Parks especially those who have not done much by this point to look for another place to live this issue comes down to property rights Arizona is one of the states that values both both personal and real property rights the residents of the parks were all given the proper 180 day notice of their park closing and notice of the mobile home the state mobile home relocation fund which would presently pay up to 7 500 to move their home single white home or if they sign or free and clear title to their landlord 1875 dollars in cash to the resident if they qualify we realize our organization realized that the 7 500 is just not enough to move a home so we're now working on House Bill 2381 to increase this amount retroactive to April 15th of 2022 so it would apply to all three of these parks and increase it up to 12 500 to move a single white home up to that amount or five thousand dollars cash if they sign over a free and clear title to the landlord I believe that this is an area where both the help of the residents and the par and the city would be beneficial from what I understand they are working on the amendment to the bill right now of 20 of House Bill 2381 it's over in the Senate and we hope to get it passed by both uh both Chambers by the end of next week if you decide to go forward with one of the recommendations from the community and cultural investment subcommittee I hope that you're going to consider the possible costs if you put a moratorium on the zoning of the three parks for 180 days look closely at the costs such as legal fees Property Owners lost Revenue and a reduction in value of the property I hope you'll consider those and um thank you I'd be happy to answer any questions yeah I have some questions councilwoman so you represent the association right I'm I'm speaking to you I'm sorry and what do you represent the manufacturing association am I correct manufactured housing communities the the owners of the parks throughout the state thank you when you move when a trailer park is purchased and uh people are given 30 60 180 days what have you encountered uh with the trailer park that has in in a situation where they have to move immediately first of all by law they have to be given at least 180 days notice of any closure of the park okay and what happens at that point for most of the parks is that we'll step in as our organization we will go out and meet with the residents we'll hold a meeting we will explain the whole relocation fund and how it works lately there's actually been a person from the state that comes with us and then if the residents are interested we'll hold a second meeting with the residents where I will get in touch with hundreds of parks throughout the state and say if you have any empty spaces for rent or if you have homes for sale please contact me and uh we'll hold like a I call it a housing Fair because I don't know what else to call it they're near the park or out the park where the residents of the park can come in and talk to owners and managers of other Parks find out what else is available things like that in the community and a lot of times these will start with one Park offering you know six months free rent and go on up from there okay how many of those trailers are uh movable or operable to be moved I gotta tell you that from my years of experience with this because I've been in this industry now for 37 years I found that every home is movable there some of them have to be loaded onto a flatbed truck and moved but they are all movable um the problem is is that a lot of the community a lot of them have just outlived their usefulness and a lot of the communities don't want those older homes in them in the community a lot of communities are working one difference between us and apartments is you build an apartment building in 50 years old later it's an older apartment building with the manufactured housing communities um a lot of the communities now are taking out the older homes as soon as they're sold by the owner and putting in new homes so we're constantly upgrading the homes and upgrading a lot of the parks and what's the cost to move it today the cost of moving um from talking with several of the movers that we offer we work with a lot when these parks close it came to somewhere close to about twenty thousand dollars for a single y or excuse me twelve thousand for a single wide twenty thousand for a multi-width of double wide or triple wide okay because uh the experience I'm having is very different from yours and so right now I'm in the middle of Weldon Park and helping the Weldon Park residents along with my Council colleagues and uh it's completely different from what I'm hearing I agree that something is movable inoperable but the problem is is that it doesn't last and it falls apart and so majority of them are not able to be moved thank you thank you mayor councilmember Garcia thank you um you said they're all movable but isn't there a year limitation about certain trailers before a certain year Can't Be Moved not by law however many of the communities don't allow anything older than such and such a year maybe anything older than 20 years A lot of them in 1976 HUD the Housing and Urban Development started putting together statutes and all to which the homes must be built prior to 1976 there were no no rules or anything as to how a mobile home was built so a lot of the communities just won't take anything prior to 76 and in fact if you own a 1976 home now and you want to move it from one park to another Park in Arizona it must be brought up to a state code which is much like the Federal code a lot of the same and then the programs you said existed and the ones you're working at at the legislature you said for those who qualify what does that mean and who qualifies for those okay um in order to qualify to have a house moved from one from one park to another um anyone can qualify because the money is then paid directly to the transporter who the person who's the company that licensed contractor who is moving the home now if instead you decide that you want to give up title to the home to the landlord and just take the money from the fund you must have either a social security number or TIN number okay thank you thank you Michelle Cruz is next followed by Ramon Aquino sure Michelle are you in the audience Michelle Cruz can we pan to lower okay sorry Mary I was just going to say can we just check lower council chambers real quick we have a packed house please okay thank you Mira that person's not here all right we'll go next to Ramon followed by Sophia Carrillo doll are you Michelle 's here mayor all right Michelle the floor is yours you'll be followed by remote Michelle [Music] I'm being displaced I'm very sad and worried good question the only thing I know is that okay GCU news is that GCU does not wish to support us foreign I do not want to leave no me oh no I don't want another change [Music] I want the neighbors that I have now miss Amigos I want my friends are you the maps poor favor please help us thank you [Applause] Ramon is next followed by Sophia Ramon Aquino are you here we will check lower council chambers mayor one moment mayor that person's not here at this time thank you Sophia is next followed by Joel caster foreign and I am here as a constituent of District 8 but also as a colleague as I am the governing board president for the crane school district 15 of our families in her school district are directly impacted by this and it's kind of ironic that we just heard a voice of a child because I am here to tell you about the experience of these children's these children have built the communities in their mobile homes and with testing literally coming up within the next two weeks I can't even get some of these children to focus on what they're doing because they are every single day worrying about where their next meal is going to be given to them where their next bed is going to be at it is devastating to see what is happening to these families and I am in full support as a colleague and as a constituent that these families remain in their homes at least for until we can figure something out it is important and imperative that you guys realize that a lot of our children especially in the latinx community that I serve family and Community is everything if not the only thing that keeps them surviving not even thriving yet so for you guys to come up here and if you vote no on this it's literally making a traumatic emotional impact on these children that we're supposed to be supporting because they are our leaders for tomorrow so I hope that you take these kids into consideration not any private property not any profit that this can bring but the children who we really are going to impact which is 15 of my district alone thank you [Applause] Joel is next followed by Brianna Castro Buenas good afternoon members of the city council my name is my name is Joel and I live at Walden Park eight years ago I had the opportunity to purchase my trailer it was destroyed and I needed a lot of rebuilding but I knew that with a lot of effort I could fix it I was working in construction during the day is and in the evening I would work on my dream home the stuff that I wanted in my home OS Paredes we knocked on walls we changed windows we changed the plumbing we changed fluorine we painted my brother and my nephews my brother after his work and my nephews after school would come to help me so that my little home would look nice my trailer represents the love the so much love that my family has for me Casita remembering my family working on my little home is what makes it value valuable to me I deposited all my savings and all my dreams into it days of work and effort days and night savings so and working on it so now it would look pretty if we leave it's like starting over but where where can I go if rent is so high where can we go there we're like a big huge family where we all know each other and look out for each other and living there we're not only losing our homes we're losing this great family that we had we have formed that's why we're asking you to please approve the extension for us to stay in our homes and protect the small communities and stop the um displacement and approve the concerning our sunning our language Sunny overly zoning overlay I'm sorry gracias thank you [Applause] Brianna Castro is next followed by Amaya De La Cruz and Roy Lanes Linus mayor I believe Brianna Castro spoke thank you um we will have Amaya De La Cruz followed by Roy followed by Camden marasco hello and thank you Phoenix City for allowing me to speak today my name is Amaya De La Cruz I'm a first generation student and Junior at Grand Canyon University I was recently elected to be the student body vice president where I am positioned to be a voice for all of my peers I'm here today to speak on behalf of Grand Canyon University the place I've become to love and take pride in upon moving in during the fall of 2020 to this current spring semester I've been fascinated at the University's ability to cultivate Community both on and off campus just over the past 10 years GCU has grown exponentially and is now the largest private Christian University in the country from this growth we have been able to serve and help the community of Central Phoenix by creating job opportunities providing household goods through City serve renovating homes and schools with Habitat for Humanity and much more regarding neighborhood safety free tutoring services and tuition assistance GCU has helped and served thousands of people and are well equipped to do so with the Periwinkle mobile home Community GSU has proved its capability to ensure families in our community are taken care of and not to be left in the streets GCU helps people has been doing it for years and will continue to do so for the Periwinkle community since GCU has purchased the property seven years ago and publicly stated it would be used for future expansion the university has not raised rent in order to help the transition be as smooth as possible the University is also providing half a million dollars to the Periwinkle Community for financial assistance Contracting a third company party to help find alternate housing helping furnish their future homes and arranging any other resources needed for each residence's circumstances the growth of GCU has benefited and helped the City of Phoenix for years and I'm confident that my school will continue to do so thank you [Applause] Roy is next followed by Camden marasco and then Michelle Estrada foreign I believe that all of us that have driven in the area of where Grand Canyon is located we've seen a transformation of the community and especially us that are in the church we've been working for a year and a half very closely with Grand Canyon um especially in an organization called City serve series around 800 families have been blessed they've been able to provide expensive things like expensive Furniture beds for people that did not have them and things that are very small but are very necessary for children like wipes and diapers [Music] it has been a great blessing to work with them I believe the grand Canyon's vision is to transform the community I believe they could have purchased properties in any other area or maybe even where it's more comfortable but they're in an area where there's a large needs and we've seen the transformation that they have made little by littlementes and so they not only work with our church City serves organizations but with different organizations where they've been able to help around 9 500 families in the valley and more than five million that have been able to donate yes and that has been able to be reached because of jcu's growth so I believe that the decision should be balanced so you can make the best decision thank you before we go to Camden let me turn to councilwoman pestor thank you um I'm going to ask a question to the city manager uh what I thought was going to happen is happening and there are people outside wanting to come into this meeting according to the fire marshal we are at capacity so I would like to ask if staff could be uh not necessarily remove but go on Zoom so we can allow the public the people to come listen to this uh important meeting mayor members of the council the we are at capacity you're correct the fire marshal has confirmed that we have sent all staff that are not essential home we are still allowing people to come in and out as people exit and we're still allowing people to sign up okay so there's several seats can like 10 people get through quickly and come sit does the back know that they can allow people in yes they do and as they come in I'm gonna announce the next three speakers uh Camden marasco Michelle Estrada and Petra Falcone good afternoon before I begin I would like to thank the city council for having all of us here today my name is Camden marasco and I serve as the student body president at Grand Canyon University before I begin my comments I'm here to read a statement from the former police chief of the City of Phoenix and the former Chief of Police for GCU Public Safety for nearly four years Joe yaner his statement reads as follows I can tell you from personal experience that gcu's neighborhood safety initiative a 2.2 million dollar partnership with the city of Phoenix has had a significant impact on safety in the neighborhoods surrounding GCU that benefits families it benefits local businesses it benefits children walking to and from K-12 schools it's yet another example of the impact gcu's continued growth and its ongoing commitment to the surrounding Community has end quote I represent approximately 25 000 students from across the country and I was elected by thousands of my peers to act as their voice and represent their interests when I campaigned in 2021 I ran to advance amplify and advocate for students which in short my agenda is to advance student resources amplify student safety and advocate for all student demographics I meet with gcu's Chief of Police on a monthly basis and we meet more frequently as needed and my Administration exists to prioritize student safety and identify areas of improvement Grand Canyon attracted me and so many others because it has a proven record of listening to student feedback and serving the community when I first arrived on campus in 2019 much of East Campus was underdeveloped but I believe that development since 2008 and future expansions in upcoming months is good for the community GCU works as a Force for good to reduce crime and strives to create a safe environment for children in Maryville thank you mayor let me ask a question go ahead councilmember Garcia so as a student body president you're representing the students how does it make you feel hearing the testimony here today and knowing the impacts that the university is going to have on the community yeah I think historically GCU has always tried to help people with expanded growth and obviously we have a lot of different student demographics on campus but I think the majority of them do support the University the majority of who of the students okay but I'm asking how does it make you feel hearing those stories and the folks behind you that are going to be left without a home yeah it's definitely an unfortunate situation but we've done the best that we can to support the residents of periwinkle okay and and as as a student body or is it as the university the university has done a lot of efforts to help the residents okay and so some of the requests that the residents have made is for the University go see and talk to them how they live and where they live I think it would be good as a student body president for you to show face and and meet some of these families some of us have been fortunate enough to to be there and and I think uh trying to find a solution and delaying the evictions is something that you might join us in asking for so that's just a suggestion for you I appreciate you coming out here and I know you have a big responsibility and the university is asking a lot of you but I think you know as a Christian University and as a human being it'd be important for you to meet some of these families thank you thank you Michelle is next Michelle Estrada followed by Petra followed by Christopher Fernandez hi I'm Michelle Estrada and I would like to apologize for not being able to speak clearly right now for having to be so emotional at this time but I would like to be able to say as much as I can while I'm up here and I'd like to make it clear that those who come up here to oppose this hold all their motivation in private interest in their titles and in things that hold within them their reputation their motivations are not provided by their lives the lives of their children they will not suffer and so they speak freely about this I will have to speak differently on it because even though I don't live in any of these homes both my parents work for the city I know what they put in every day to ensure that the public is served and I hope that you all will hear the public in this and you will hear the actual suffering that's going on that most of them are refusing to acknowledge and they're refusing to acknowledge that the majority of the money that they say they have offered is actually inaccessible and not useful at all to any of the people who are currently living here that is it thank you Petra is next followed by Christopher Fernandez followed by prudencia Fuentes good afternoon mayor and Council I'm Pedro Falcon I live at 30 East Saint and South Phoenix and I love my community I love my neighborhood just like these families do and I think on May 28th we are going to be asking them to move away and most likely they will end up homeless and so this morning as I got up and ran out of the house I always pick up a button to where I am wearing a button that says if you want peace fight for justice well guess what I think we all adults need to come together and figure out how we're going to work this out and make sure that we have a solution rather than just temporary Band-Aids and that's I'm not saying that today's proposal is a Band-Aid but I do think it's a start but we can do better we can do better as a city our city is powerful our country is powerful and we have the tools and the brains to make sure that we can come through Solutions so that means that all of us need to get together and talk about what the solutions are I've been hearing lots and lots of suggestions here today and I think we need to be brave enough encourage enough and compassionate enough to address the problems that we have in our community and that begins with these 120 families that on May 28th will be told that they're not good enough to live in that Community because it is their Community we make where we live our communities I know I do and I lived in South Phoenix all my life and it's my neighborhood it's my community and I know I've worked with many of you on many many issues in the city and we have come to some solutions so today I just want us to have a good good conversation together let's be adults and let's work for justice thank you [Applause] thank you Christopher Fernandez is next followed by prudencia followed by John Peltz hi um I'm Christopher I'm just going to make it really quick because I would rather hear the residents more um I honestly think this this is very upsetting and disheartening um and I would like you to put yourself in their shoes and if what if you were in that situation and I I urge you to allow the residents to have more time to figure out a better solution for like a better like to figure out what to do because this is just like it feels like it's out of the blue and it's not it's just sorry it's it's it's um it's very like I'm sorry it's very upsetting okay like uh I just urge you to please think about what you're doing and if you go for if you're if we're gonna end up agreeing with GCU you're going to be tearing apart community so thank you [Applause] Proxima prudencia and then John Peltz followed by Luis Pena good afternoon to everybody present I'm here humbly and and being respectful um to ask for a little bit more time to live where we are living they're going to displace Us by May 1st and there is not enough time there is no more time I'm asking for time so the children can finish their school year schools very close to where we live foreign that's why we're asking for a little more time so they can finish schoolas so that way we can find somewhere to move and find another school to get the kids adjusted to their new schools it's going to be very sad they have friends at the trailer park now in la Escuela in school foreign and that's why we're asking for a little bit more time so we can get the children adjusted in another new school if if possible we would be grateful with our whole soul thank you very much if you help us thank you [Applause] John Peltz is next followed by Luis Pena and Blanca pulido council members my name is John Peltz and I live in the GCU Corridor what they call the corridor and it what they have done for the neighborhood is really remarkable just to see the homes that were dilapulated or run down I should say to see paint jobs and new windows and many other things that GCU and habitat have done for the neighborhood thank you Luis Pena is next followed by Blanca pulido followed by Stephanie Gonzalez good afternoon my name is Luis Pena Espinoza I am a dreamer a first generation graduate and an alumni from Grand Canyon University I live in the community surrounding GCU and have seen firsthand the impact that gcu's growth has had on the community growing up it was always my dream to go into University but as a dreamer I had very few opportunities at a higher education since DACA recipients are unable to receive financial aid and are ineligible for many scholarships I almost gave up on my dream of going to school but GCU gave me the students inspiring students full tuition scholarship a scholarship given to local students was financial difficulties because of this scholarship I was able to become the first in my family to graduate college get a full-time job and be in a position to help my parents with the financial burdens we've had our whole lives I was not only able to receive a college education but leave an impact on my community as well I became a resident assistant and I was able to Aid many residents who lived in the dorms many of which who are also first generation students I became a learning advocate for the learning Lounge where we helped K-12 students with studying homework applying to college and also scholarships I was also part of the students aspiring students Department specifically made to help current and incoming students with the sis scholarship process and I was able to give other students the same life-changing opportunity GCU gave me there are many more initiatives and efforts that GCU has that impact the community and please know that this impact does range and go far and wide there are over 650 other students in the Phoenix area who have also received the same sis full tuition scholarship in the last eight years some of which are here in attendance today and this not only impacts these students but also their families and there are also over 5 500 other K-12 students who have received free tutoring at GCU and that is only possible because of the funding and resources that are available due to gcu's continued growth thank you Lanka is next followed by Stephanie Gonzalez and Richard Gonzalez good afternoon my name is Blanca and I'm here to represent my dad Juan Carlos pulido who is a resident currently at Periwinkle um he is not here today because he's tired he's stressed out and I'm here to stand in his name we he was living at prayer he is living at Periwinkle with my stepmom Sylvia who just passed away Super Bowl weekend she was also the voice in the meetings of getting to this day and I'm just here to ask you guys to really listen um to not be in in pity of us but really see how much it's affecting the community um what will happen really after this this is a start of something that it's something that um will harm us it's really hard to be up here and speaking from the heart seeing you guys I just ask that you guys listen it's really hard to be out in the community and not be able to afford a living if you guys see how much rent is right now an apartment can be nearly 1 500 for one bedroom for one person unless it's a family that has one two three kids maybe six and that's kind of the community and what's out there in my my dad's neighbors and I just feel I feel real hurt by this and I just really want you guys to listen and to actually see that it's not right and I know that the City of Phoenix is here to help the community the City of Phoenix has grown to an image of the United States and I know that a lot can happen from here I just ask you guys to really listen to us um what will happen if if you guys disagree you know what what will their mobile homes happen what corporations do if this is a target if we're a Target it's not fair thank you for letting me speak [Applause] Stephanie Gonzalez is next followed by Richard Gonzalez and Juan Gonzalez thank you my name is Stephanie I'm a community organizer with budget we have worked tirelessly to create a budget that centers bypoc immigrant lgbtq lgbtq plus disabled and working class folks the folks who usually get left out when a lot of these services and support are provided to them time and time again after talking to our community members housing has been the biggest issue and that includes keeping folks in their homes are so you need to stop protecting graded developers and start protecting the people from losing their homes today we stand in solidarity here with the Periwinkle mobile home community and we urge city council to vote Yes on mobile home zoning and to pass an 18-month moratorium on Youth Development you need to protect the people you represent and today you have the opportunity to show that you really care and stop putting profits over people if GCU has been trying to help like they they're here preaching they are then our folks wouldn't be here today begging to not be displaced from their homes thank you [Applause] Richard Gonzalez is next followed by Juan Gonzalez and then Julie gunnigal do we have Richard Gonzalez in the audience may we check in lower council chambers please for Richard Gonzalez I apologize I wasn't able to hear that Richard Gonzalez is he down there being up there now thank you very much come on gracias [Applause] Juan Gonzalez followed by Julie gunago followed by Dr Sylvia Herrera one moment mayor do we have Juan Gonzalez thank you thank you very much hello my name is Juan I am here today because so I can stay longer because my parents can't afford a house it makes me feel sad this is happening to us me and my commute no me and my community I want the city council to listen to me because I am I want to be with my friends longer I am and I don't want to become homeless thank you [Applause] Julie is next followed by Dr Herrera followed by Finn Howe good afternoon members of Phoenix City Council my name is Julie gunnigal I've been working as the legal director for the Arizona Poor People's campaign over the last three years I want to tell you a little bit about my clients folks who couldn't make it here today people who have children who just want to finish out the school year a mom who just delivered triplets and is being released from the NICU a senior citizen who's been living in his park for 40 years this these are the faces of eviction in these three Parks right now and yes I deeply understand that Arizona law allows 180 days notice and I deeply understand that these folks are also going to be made homeless in a matter of months you know every election season we hear people say we need to do something about houselessness in the city of Phoenix and you have an opportunity today to make sure that folks are not made houseless at the hands of Phoenix City Council the time is now it is a matter of months when these folks are going to be evicted this is not the time to bring great solutions to Phoenix City Council this is not the time to study it even further this is not to time to form additional committees and add bureaucracy the time is to act because that sweet little girl that you saw in front of you today is not going to be able to finish her darn school year with her community if we don't act today thank you so very much [Applause] Sylvia Herrera followed by Finn followed by Hector harmeo good afternoon mayor and city council members uh you have heard what how the community how the residents are being affected but I want to tell you how you're going to be affected How the City of Phoenix is going to be affected by the displacement of these residents by displacing these families you're affecting the base and foundation of the City of Phoenix by displacing these hard-working families you're losing and affecting the economy of Phoenix these families have contributed to the very fabric of this community we're talking about the Greater Community of Phoenix this displacement is going to mean that these families are going to be forced out of the city of Phoenix into surrounding communities what else is going to happen who else is going to be affected the school districts are losing children from their Community from their neighborhoods they're going to have to close schools and have done so already in the GCU community the neighborhoods are being affected because of this the small businesses are being affected I can go on and on and on but you're destroying affordable housing that exists right now that is the solution to keep these mobile home parks open because it's the only affordable housing that we have right now so we can look for alternative Solutions but the solution is right in front of you in front of us and it's to keep these mobile home parks in place thank you [Applause] um the cost of living is so high and many of these families who have been living here in these mobile home parks have bought their places and they've been living there for decades so if they lose um their right to live in these places then they will not be able to afford rent um many of them might have never even had to have faced that before and it's going to be a very challenging time um and a very violent time for uh these families um you know if uh GCU doesn't get to um you know use this land their families will still be safe they won't have to go on the streets but the same cannot be said for if the mobile home parks cannot continue um existing as they are so I strongly urge the body to uh support the resolutions have been put forward I think that is imperative this gets done and really it's not even a a question this is really the only solution that's in front of us at the moment and um yeah thank you [Applause] Hector is next followed by Luis Jimenez followed by Emilio habla Solis hello my name is Luis it stresses me out how GCU is leaving my family homeless what wrong I could I have done to deserve so much quality what do I have to do to not lose my dreams let me tell you GCU is killing my dreams thank you foreign s followed by Emilio Follow by San Juana Flores hi I'm Hector Jaramillo and I'm a governing School Board member of the Glen Elementary School District I'm here speaking in favor of the mobile home community and against their impending displacement at a time when we are facing Rising rents unaffordable health care and a growing crisis with people becoming unhoused we must protect the housing of these folks we're talking about Working Families children and elderly folks that cannot afford anywhere else to live this institution proclaims themselves as Christian yet what they are doing isn't Christian like we should be doing everything in our power to protect their homes and livelihoods so I'm echoing the demands of the mobile home residents to designate their homes as mobile home zoning and pass on the 18-month moratorium on new development please stop the legal theft at their homes and tell the children adults and elderly of this community that they are worthy of their homes and keeping their neighbors intact housing is a human right human rights should always be held above property rights our people here are pleading for their Humanity before you GCU will be fine if their plans don't go forward our neighbors there will not so please make the right decision thank you [Applause] Emilio is next followed by San Juana Flores followed by Anna Maria Maldonado oh cool it's on uh good morning uh good morning good afternoon council members uh residents my name is Emilio Avila Solis with the league of United Latin American citizens lulac here in solidarity with the park residents being affected by the actions of GCU why I personally believe it's only a Band-Aid to a far larger problem I am requesting the council to support the extension uh of the moratorium for these residents we are in the midst of a housing crisis we see the rising unsheltered folks in our in our city and we cannot allow GCU or any other Developers displace these families our city should prioritize the well-being of working in poor people not the institutions that profit from their suffrage thank you [Applause] San Juana Proxima Anna Maria Maldonado and then Thomas labato is San Juana Flores in the audience is necessities [Music] uh I I think I can translate good afternoon I live on well then I come came here to defend my trailer my husband has been living there for more than 20 years we're older in age 73 I'm 67. we're e pause rents are very high right now and we're tired hoping that they let us stay there a little bit longer please I hope that you give us more time there gracias thank you [Applause] Anna Maria Maldonado followed by Thomas labato followed by Bailey Maddox good afternoon mayor council city manager Barton staff and of course residents who have worked closely with I I'm Ana Maria Maldonado I'm part of the navigation team that the city has supported financially to support many of the families at Las Casitas and Weldon Court and I'm coming to you today I've had the opportunity to speak at a subcommittee meeting to give a little more um depth to the lay of the land and I wanted to do that to the rest of the council as well so we're talking about and again I'm I'm only representing really or in the weeds at Weldon Court in Las Casitas Periwinkle I I have some knowledge but I'm not navigating um in that sense so but I do know um that there's you know 345 people about roundabout that are impacted by what the discussion is here today at Casitas we have had the opportunity to support the relocation of nine families five of those nine families have had the opportunity to go through affordable housing navigation and all of the Human Services assistance that comes along with that supporting their relocation we started our work in November and we are just finishing up those five relocations now many of the um benefits that we're working with for those that do qualify for benefits of course we have a subset of people um maybe a handful of 20 that don't even qualify for those benefits but they do the the folks that do qualify for those benefits it comes with a huge bureaucratic burden understandably so it's Public Funding and there's safeguards and screenings and all of the above that needs to occur and as part of that team along with staff we are moving as quickly as possible to support families to get the assistance that they need I'm asking you with your influence to please ensure that we have enough time and I'm happy to have deeper conversation on what that time looks like so that as we understand each individual Park we have the time that we need and please use your influence outside of this Forum we I understand there's legalities and I understand and I'm not an attorney legalities that we have to go through but just with your influence that you have in leading the city to be able to bring landowners together so that we actually can look at the time that we need per family per Park thank you mayor councilmember Garcia thank you can you expand a little bit on the barriers that you've come in front of as you're trying to support these families and what that more time why would you need more time and what would that accomplish 90 days is a little bit more the the Gathering of the information and the paperwork that's required for each specific step is one so we've gone through initial intake in both parks we know the lay of the land we understand and have relationship with each individual unit and families some units have multiple families living in those units so we have that we have now proceeded on the affordable housing vouchers for those that have the ability to qualify for those um there is bureaucrat bureaucratic process behind the scenes again rightfully so because we're talking about public money and funding um screening through and background checks and understanding who those folks are that then these funds are going to go through so that takes time on on the back end so wading through that 10 to 15 days for that to occur to get a voucher in hand once you get a voucher in hand you need at least 15 to 20 days to be able to shop and that's quickly so if we think back to the last time we all moved without having to go to the through the bureaucracy of that public assistance it takes a good 120 days if not six months to just get through the process so you know each of those assistants so even if it's moving assistance it's cash assistance that then goes to the new landlord in terms of deposits and all of the need for that move-in that also takes another handful of day days and again staff and and I are streamlining and pushing through as quick as possible but of course the variables are the landlord on the other end folks that are working in real time and having to do things in the evening right and then us supporting them as well because it's a pretty heavy caseload also just thank you in the subcommittee I want to thank you again in the Phoenix Ida for all the work that you all have done um I guess the final question is so of the ones that qualify it it's going to take a long time right and we had a whole conversation about um the voucher system and how some folks even sit on those vouchers for over a year we accomplished something I think a couple weeks ago where we were able to hopefully remove some of those barriers but then what's your experience or recommendation or what's going to happen to the folks that don't qualify what's what options do they have thank you so much for asking that question because I think that's also very important I I would ask mayor and Council that we begin to fundraise we begin to call out our Community Partners on the philanthropy and Community Development side to come together to support those that don't qualify for anything to see how we can come together with private funding to be able to support those families and I know it's hard to put percentages on it but at least from what I've gathered and some of the meetings I've been to those that don't qualify majority where would you put the I don't know how to ask this question without you giving us numbers because I know folks have privacy but um how many folks would you say are not going to be able to qualify I know about 20 20 units what the what the back end number is in terms of in terms of individuals I don't have that off the top of my head um but I also know that a few of those subset are are seniors um you know we have we have one um example in community brother and sister well into their 80s um that in addition when we talk about the timeline those folks that don't have the mobility or the capability to actually pack up a home that's they've lived in for 30 years because they're of age that it's very difficult to have the resources to be able to move everything or to store everything so all of that all of those factors take time and we're willing to do that of course we just need to make sure that we have the time thank you there go ahead councilman pastor and then I have a question okay um I can't how many have we lost through this process we've we've had one death um to date um you know the the community is very vulnerable so you know I I know that we have quite a bit of chronic illness and chronic condition um as well as you know from a behavioral Point Behavioral Health standpoint uh there's there's a lot of factors there's a lot of elements um but we we lost one resident um in uh December January I think we're on the verge of losing another one my understanding um I think that as you spoke about the the families the two that have lived there and are 80 are having health issues and capacity issues um there are mental health issues that are now going on within this process um and I guess my question is really it's not that easy as it was stated as to I can qualify if I own the trailer I can qualify for benefits however to go through the state to qualify it requires amount a lot amount of paperwork and tedious time in order to get through the system and then you do when you apply for that and then find out the possibility that you don't qualify so how much time is that emotional time and actual uh allotted time but we've spent many many hours many many hours since November um and of course you see the fruit of our labor you know and staff is is respectful and and says you know you all are doing a great job five that's wow because the process is so burdensome we have a lot uh more time that we need because it is burdensome in terms of time um you know the last resident that we're helping through the voucher process is still team is out with her today making deposits and and workarounds there's workarounds to the bureaucracy um so it it's an immense amount of time it depends on each individual family and the factors within the family and the size of that family I know working with the seniors takes a whole lot more time and also families with children also take a whole lot more time the individuals are a little are a little quicker but again there's only one set of paperwork one person that you would have to necessarily track down so it just is an immense amount of time that's required and can you find housing I'm sorry can you find housing if they're receiving emergency vouchers can you find housing for them can we right now there is some stock it's been a minute since we've delayed in the search from the last tranche that we had so today um I I'm not necessarily sure about where we're at in terms of um you know what's in the environment what's in the market but I can I can definitely do a little bit of homework and find out we're starting to get the first couple vouchers through and working through another trancha process so very quickly here in the next five days we'll have a better sense of what that looks like how many vouchers are you working what's that how many vouchers do you have or working right now how many families are you working with right now that have vouchers that are looking for housing none so we have them through the new process and they don't have vouchers in hand but they're in process through the new process so of the um 200 and something Las Casitas in Weldon have been through the initial process and their paperwork their voucher paperwork is is in process of being submitted today but you talk about a new process what new process um so with each individual affordable housing voucher there's a different perspective or different process the initial process that we went through was an emergency voucher those then were spent down and now we're starting on a new process where there's some availability of vouchers okay thank you I I we had a meeting today speaking about vouchers and uh the stock in the market and not having enough housing in the market and more vouchers and housing so that's why I'm asking okay thank you thank you uh one question from me so the city seeing that there was a need for more landlords to take the vouchers created a landlord incentive program a few years ago and we've now placed about 2400 voucher holders through that brought on several hundred new first-time landlords is that a program you think we should continue I think anything that can help is proven helpful I'm not familiar necessarily with the program I've heard just high level but I'm not familiar but of course anything that's helpful of course the more we can throw at it the better we're but the better off we are thank you any additional questions mayor I have a few questions vice mayor thank you I was just wondering from the residents that you did move was the housing that you moved them to similarly priced can you ask that again I didn't hear you the the nine or so residents that you were able to successfully successfully move was the housing that you moved them to similarly priced was it permanent Supportive Housing or was it did some of them move in with family members well it depends on the size of the unit right and the family size but those of the nine that have moved five had vouchers so the nine went independently before you have found their own solution we will continue to help them on the back end with any Human Service needs that they have and of course any needs that they have on their title and benefits from the state from a navigational perspective but of the five they're affordable permanent housing and they're all varied in size those families so the rents vary quite a bit the largest is a family of seven and and to a single okay got it and then in my correct and understanding that um your recommendation is that no matter what happens today and if we were even to pass all of the policies additional funds would be necessary to be able to support the families my my ask is we need time whether it's a formal time or out of the influence that you all have that Mary Gallegos has with Community to bring landlords together so that they understand how much time we have and we can give them an estimate of how much time we need per per Park per family and work towards that common goal but we we need that help from them whether it's done formally here today or if it's done out of the influence that you all have as well as then the ask for um you know philanthropy as a community together to ask philanthropy for those that don't benefit have the benefits we need some fundraising for those to have some sort of assistance and I think even that given that there are long-term goals and there are short somewhat long-term goals as we're here today and I know this is taking a lot of your time as well as residence time so thank you but I think we need an immediate as well we can't forget the immediate because as we have this debate and the discussion with each other on the statistics and the and the estimates the families are still um worried and need the time to be able to exit and and as Navigators we can give each individual family that estimate of time in their own case to say this is what we estimate it's going to take from you we need your assistance to move quickly through this here's what we're going to ask to in in sense of time and this is the timeline we'll get through together thank you so much you're welcome mayor councilmember Garcia thank you one of the things that led me to vote in the decision we made at the subcommittee was that where folks live now they're self-sustaining and so what your suggests or not you're suggestion but obviously you're having to work here obviously I'm sure you wouldn't want to be doing this either but because you have to do it we have to try to figure out a place for them to go but there's a difference between you know fundraising and figuring out how we can help them but they're already in a self-sustaining place and so I guess where my question is going is does this become something that we're we just don't see an end to where we're gonna have to fundraise and figure this out um or is part of the suggestion I guess finding places at a similar price point which I think that's where I was stuck by all by all means council member by all means these families are self-sustaining they've never stood in line for entitled benefits they've figured it out that ability and that opportunity in this city is becoming further and further far between of course we have an obligation to fix that along with all of the wonderful things that we have done in the city in terms of having it be a destination for business for tourism for travel we have to figure out that balance and if we have neighbors residents that are willing to put up the sacrifice to own and to have a place that's their own of course by all means I'm coming from the perspective books I'm part of that street team and that navigation team that's looking at a deadline and a couple of times we've mentioned months we're not at months anymore Las Casitas is May 1st it's the end of March and I understand the bureaucracy and what we have to do to be stewards to the money that comes through from the feds and the regulations and streamlining but we're getting to a point today that now that's um 20 some families that haven't gone through this process that I'm looking at really just a month and so in the very short short of all the debate and discussion asking to please let's have a discussion on how much time we need and be able to ask for that specific time as a public sector to the private sector thank you so much thank you Fair councilwoman O'Brien sorry ma'am ma'am all right that's okay I I I have questions for staff and then I have for sure sorry if you just hold on a second Steph so I just want to confirm that for the for the mobile home units these developers have to give at least six months or the owners have six months have to give them six months notice to move out is that correct um mayor councilwoman O'Brien it's a yes it's 180 days notice that's required by state law okay so state law requires 180 days what I hear you telling us today ma'am is that that's not enough time yeah yes but the 180 days of notice versus the time that a family needs to take that in to understand what that means and to look up and say I need help is a different timeline so 180 days you know I I don't even know when casita's got notification but we mobilized thankful to your assistance and and your all's ability to throw in some funding to help mobilize in November and in November we've only gotten five people through so in that November start date I'm not sure if anybody can help me with a staff or anybody knowing the one that when the notification went out to Las Casitas but there's that sort of um the reality of that time to look up to say we need help and thank you I unders I I appreciate those comments what I'd like to know from you though because this is a state statute right that that 180 day notice is State Statute that is not a city a phoenix driven timeline what is the timeline given your experience with this that you would be asking there's a there's a house bill right now and um being looked at or going through the system to award more Monies to folks who are going through this what it does not address is this timeline that I hear you saying is very critical so what would you recommend so I guess my recommendation um and I I'd have to you know just on the fly look at I think 180 days maybe if not more than that let's double that a year to be able to say that these families can get the assistance and actually move and be moved and and out of out of the property fully okay thank you very much you're welcome mayor is anyone wanting to speak who hasn't spoken yet before we go back first all right we'll go to councilman pastor and then councilmember Garcia so you mentioned that people will be homeless come May 1st and I believe there's another one at the 28th correct what's that number how many people will be homeless of May 1st that is 90. and then the May 28th 155. okay wow I'm just processing the number um okay so what you're saying is we need more time you're saying these families need more time in order to move through this system that was created and is is uh it is intended to help but it's really having a lot of barriers in the sense of paperwork and trying to find titles and going to get titles and the cost of all that and so I hear your I hear you saying we need time we need time in order to completely go through the process and be able to move them the kids also in schools get them through this whole I would say anxiety mental peace and then settle them so that they can start new okay thank you councilmember Garcia thank you mayor um so earlier when I think someone from the Hispanic chamber spoke I asked them to do more research on to the owners and you know obviously GCU is a different story they're all different so I want to ask I don't know to staff or to you Las Casitas in particular it's in District 8 um there's a background of how they they bought it and why they bought it that's a whole story that I think is important as well because they oppose their zoning but I also I think what I would want to highlight either from Stafford from you is the period of time where they were caught out of uh compliance because they didn't have contracts and then and correct me if I'm wrong and then they offered people contracts which was an illusion that they were going to be there longer and then because they signed those contracts they are now able to be evicted in this period of time is that correct or can I don't know who um mayor council member councilmember Garcia we as City staff were not directly involved with a lot of the intricacies of the contracts but we did get feedback from the Ida on some of those machinations and I don't know if um if you have specifics on that but I don't actually have direct knowledge of um other than kind of what I heard at the time about what what went on with the leases that were given and then terminated there are some details to that that I apologize yeah I wouldn't be able I'm not a part of that specific side of the team that's working um so I don't I can't speak to that but I can definitely come back to you with more specifics appreciate it I'm good all right thank you for providing your expertise and just we will probably take a break around 5 15. thank you and we'll continue testimony until then uh appreciate your patience those who are called and not yet spoken uh Tomas or Thomas libato is next followed by Bailey Maddox followed by J Man uh hi Council people um I'll keep it brief today I've sat here and I've heard Defenders of GCU Defenders of southwest auto auctions the landlord affecting families at Las Casitas in order to build a parking lot uh and what I've heard is that this is a private matter this is a matter between two private landlords and nothing more but uh councilman Garcia councilwoman guadalado I know you've both had the opportunity to visit those communities and I think anyone who does uh has the opportunity to see that nothing about this is private nothing about this is just between two landowners these are families uh these are children um elderly veterans um nothing about this situation is private um and so neither so the solution be um and then I guess uh just as an aside um to those who can only listen to dollar signs without the Working Families in Las Casitas in Periwinkle mobile homes in welding Court GCU makes no money well our uh southwest auto auctions makes no money without people like those living in Las Casitas living in Periwinkle mobile homes living in Walden Court uh and for that reason um I implore you to uh vote in favor of uh the people of these communities rather than the private interests of GCU and southwest auto auctions thank you [Applause] Bailey is next followed by Jay followed by Christopher Martinez sorry I think it took the long way around um so I wanted to kind of speak directly to the odd distinction that the pastor made back there between communities and neighborhoods um it sounds like community on that end is kind of more built around the parking lots and the restaurants and the malls or whatever um and classrooms and stuff like that but the neighborhoods the houses that these people already live in are the material foundations of these communities and those communities don't exist without these people who are the community being able to live in their houses um and the community is broken up constantly when people are being evicted so like kind of talking about like okay well we're gonna have this deadline or that deadline or we're going to do these vouchers we're going to do this whatever like this is just prolonging the inevitable of continuing to break up these communities of people who are working who are living going to school whatever um so I just wanted to kind of I don't want to say too much that everybody else has already said but I kind of wanted to pick up that weird distinction between communities and neighborhoods like these it's these people have to stay in their homes they have to live in their homes and they can't have that taken away from them [Applause] Jay is next followed by Christopher followed by America Martinez hello members of the council mayor my name is Jay Mann I'm chief of business operations and development for the Creighton School District had the great pleasure of meeting several of you on School tours so thank you for coming out and supporting our schools we as a community a weld in court is within our district but we have a number of these types of parks in our district and they are in many ways the heart of our district as our district has gentrified over the course of the last decade we're seeing more and more of our families displaced and so one of the things we've heard this afternoon is that well we need to find solutions to find new homes for these individuals well when you take them to new homes you take them away from their Community you take students from their schools you take students from their friends you take the entire family from its support infrastructure our district supports a Family Resource Center that helps our families where they move to those types of resources may not be there we work with the Community Foundation that helps to ensure that there are meals and that there's fresh food and produce available to our families once they're relocated that type of support may not be there you've heard from other family members how apologize how forcing families to leave their school prior to the end of the school year has massive disruption for those children the new start of the next school year has massive disruption but one of the other things that happens is that family becomes a displaced family very often the solution to maintain those supports for that student are to bus them to their old school now that child may be spending we have students who come to us from Apache Junction from the Far West Valley they're spending all that time on a bus to get to the school that supports them I believe that is incumbent upon us as a society to find a way to keep these neighborhood intact these neighborhoods intact and to maintain the fabric of our community as well as those workers who work in our schools that now have to move further and further from their place of employment and then we have a difficult time even having the support staff we need to support those families thank you so much [Applause] Christopher Martinez is next followed by America followed by William Meester Christopher is I'm here because I'm fighting for our neighbors this morning I should have gone to school but I find myself here in this fight and what I want to do and what my mother wants me to do is to continue my studies right now I feel a lot of pressure because I don't know what to do I don't know if I should get a job or continue studying oh so I can help them out or if I should continue with my studies foreign I have a lot of fear of ending up on the street we're renters so it's not our property cristianos we also attend the Christian congregation so and the truth is I've never been taught that they you know to not have a heart and to displace from a property their own property thank you very much [Applause] America Proxima William and then Stephen Montoya Buenas good afternoon I'm America I'm from Periwinkle is here I'm struggling to keep my place to live where I should be studying and I missed a day of school instead of having to worry about not having a place to live and worry about ended up on the street at one time I took into consideration going to GSU to study foreign due to the fact that it's a Christian University but with them forcing families out of their homes I believe that's not Christian like uh that confuses me I don't want to go to a university that is Christian but yet displaces families from their homes on the contrary because they're Christian they should give the example and support the families my family and I go to a Christian congregation that has taught us to support one another without thinking about what you're going to get in exchange of that families they've never taught us to displace families and not to support them Tiempo does GCU think about the families that are in these homes and it's been so hard for them to build these homes and now this kind of thing um worries me because my family and I were renters so we don't qualify for a lot of this different help that the other families will get I familias personas there's a family's single mothers older family older people families were children that don't want to be displaced from their homes I don't want to be displaced from a home where I can count on my school being close by and my extra activities that are close by yes we know that our University of this type has a lot of money and can support us but they choose not to one more thing I'm asking them how would you feel if you were being forced to leave your home gracias thank you [Applause] William is next followed by Stephen Montoya and then after Stephen we will do hilgar hildardo Navarro and then break all right hey I'm will so uh first I just wanted to highlight like how strange it is to see GCU bring out a bunch of their employees some walking pairs of khakis and some others to tell what they've done for the community why would any of that give them the excuse to lie about meeting with residents at periwinkle why is that given an excuse to pretend that they're a non-profit so they don't have to pay taxes on the huge tracts of land that they've swallowed what makes a few people's GCU degree more important than kids who've been growing up together and just might be pursuing education too why does it permit them to evict families and Elders who know that they and have been saying that they know that they have nowhere to go we know what Mass eviction does to people's education and to their health as mentioned someone at Periwinkle her name is Sylvia died from heart problems GCU is fully complicit no amount of community service or housing businesses or whatever will fix that in my opinion that costs a lot more than the lawsuits that people like Deputy city manager Gina Montes who has served on gcu's political Advisory Board as well as on trellis's board of directors have threatened uh so enough catering to landlords and Developers don't tear these sweeties apart just pass the moratorium and mobile home zoning all-powered events just let them stay [Applause] Stephen is next followed by Mr Navarro thank you mayor and thank you members of the city council I've been thinking about this problem a lot and I've been listening very attentively attentively to everyone who spoke and I think some things are clear first of all I would like to say this Grand Canyon University does deserve a lot of credit they have done a lot to improve the City of Phoenix and they will continue to and I don't think there can be any disputing that I don't think it can also be disputed that Grand Canyon University is a Christian University and that's very important because I think you should take people at their word if people say they're a Christian or say they're um a philanthropist you they should walk the talk and I don't know if Grand Canyon University is doing that in the case of periwinkle I have been trying to speak to representatives of Grand Canyon University for a few months now and they refused to speak with me and I speak with people who disagree with me for a living in fact some of my best friends were people I met uh as adverse counsel in cases I've litigated so I talk to people who disagree with me all the time they won't talk to me I think we should take Grand Canyon University at its word that they are a Christian University it says in Matthew 25 everyone knows this verse when I was hungry you gave me something to eat the people at Grand Canyon University Proclaim their Christianity we all know if Jesus Christ were standing here right now what he would be urging you to do and that's to help these poor people and I beg you and I'll shut up really quickly I beg you to help them there are a lot of things that you can do you can help them find substitute housing you can help them with vouchers but I you can't help them at all unless you get them more time and I I know that we're very blessed in the city of Phoenix to have a super articulate city council a soup articulate mayor a super articulate vice mayor people listen to you these the owners of these properties they will listen to you I don't believe in forcing people to do something until you first ask them and I I am 100 confident that if our mayor our vice our vice mayor our city manager were to ask these folks to give these people more time and to explain to them all the information that you've learned today they would give us more time I also have confidence that if we work together the City of Phoenix has developed affordable housing for decades now and and their entities within the city that help the city to do that we can all solve this problem by working together one one last thing I did send you all a memo that my office wrote and I helped write regarding the legality of thank you Mr Navarro and then it looks like we will have time for lead when see thank you um I'm Mr Navarro um I've been living at Periwinkle for 23 years see he um it's very stressful for us to see how we're running out of time is and it's we we see and it's frustrating that there's no laws that will protect us but we believe that you are the people that are able to help us we trust you casa or um just like when we leave our homes to go to work or do whatever thing we're going to do um we put ourselves in God's hands now we are in your hands came we hope that you will act under God's Direction because we know that you are capable of it and we trust you is and we know and we we know that you guys have um a good feelings about doing something about it we hope that in on this occasion like in many others God has been merciful towards us and we hope that what you guys do will be under God's Direction too opportunity thank you for giving us the opportunity the opportunity that we really need we appreciate it for the help that we get from you due to the fact that we do not have any help from the University thank you very much [Applause] and Lou when will be the final speaker before we break if you do exit the building you will go through security again do we have Lou nugen in the audience Liu nujin if we could check in lower council chambers as well there is anyone down here okay thank you very much oh one moment mayor okay one moment mayor we do prepare as we might have her we do have new here thank you hey everyone sorry I'll keep it short because I know we're all hungry and want to take a break and whatever um but honestly I should take as much time as I need um I just want to say that it's really really frustrating that we all have to be here and it is really like anxiety inducing to see like my friends and from Las Casitas Walden Court and Periwinkle have to relay your stories over relay their stories over and over again only for you to question like the actual like non-profits for like five minutes longer than actually like listening to what the residents have to to say because they've been saying it you know they need more time they want to stay and so that's just really frustrating and outside of this too I don't know if you've seen the articles that GCU has posted and it's they're kind of raging this like war against the residents um and just like flat out lying about all the stuff they've been doing to support the residents but the residents have not been able to speak to GCU directly as they've demanded um and so I'm here just in support because I'm also a tenant in Phoenix um also always at risk of displacement and eviction as is you know living in Phoenix is um and so yeah I support and I want them to stay in their homes have a good break everyone [Applause] we will now take a 15-minute break foreign welcome back to the March 22nd formal meeting of the Phoenix City Council we will continue our discussion of agenda item 93 with public comment we will begin with Daniel Ochoa followed by David Ochoa followed by Don penich Thacker hold on one second young man so we can make sure the microphone gets turned on for you hi my name is Daniel and I should have gone to school today and I didn't because I came here to fight for all our homes and my family has been struggling with money after my mom got in a car crash and lost her job due to injuries we're asking CD Hall to stop GCU from this place in us and making us have to beg for money on the street and make us sleep on the dirty sidewalk in tents thank you [Applause] David is next followed by Don followed by Carmen pieto hello my name is David and I should be at school right now but I'm here right now fighting for my family and my home and fighting for my neighbors we need your help to get more time to find a house and to get my money do you Shield doesn't think about situations happening at home like my mom got into a car incident and lost her job my mom is a single mother of six children and today one vote can change everything you decide if your vote is good or is it for bad God bless you [Applause] Don is next followed by Carmen followed by Josefina Ramirez thank you mayor and members of council I'm a Tempe resident but I am speaking here today as an educator here in Phoenix for the last 14 years at two different colleges neither of them GCU I have students now and in the past whose families are being directly impacted by these attacks on their homes as you have heard from many people many of us many organizations are doing our part doing everything we can on campus we are providing food we are providing hot spots technology internet access health care one thing that we cannot provide that none of us in this room can provide except for you is the Assurance of a roof over their heads and a safe and affordable place to live you have that power and what an awesome opportunity and responsibility do you know how hard it is for my students to work full-time care for their families go to college and have the fear of homelessness in front of them do we as a community want college graduates I think we do reliable members in the workforce Economic Development how does displacing these families achieve any of that it does not GCU has many options and means I have been in higher ed a long time I assure you of that these families do not I urge you to take the moral and responsible step to extend the moratorium and rezoning and I'll end on the quote that I as an educator look at every single day when I walk onto campus by Lucille Clifton the quote is every day some of these children are bearing something you could not bear every day something has tried to kill them and has failed I hope with today's vote you will make the moral choice to be part of improving their reality thank you [Applause] Carmen is next then Josefina then Salvador Reza Carmen Prieto sorry I have my two babies right here with me struggling with me hi my name is Carmen Prieto uh it's hard to see everybody like that and I understand the extending time because I'm going through I asked for assistance for my light bill and I was just telling uh Anna Maria that ago two months a month ago I asked for an ex and you know help for my life because I had a 400 billion 300 getting up to 700 bills I only get a thousand three hundred dollars of mine now pay five hundred dollars why it came out that high in the winter I don't know and it's crazy I couldn't make that so I asked for help I didn't get it I didn't I still didn't get an answer she got on it right now eventually just right now I got a phone call really I had to go again by her to get this help it's taken a lot of time why are they doing this we I've had my my other kids I raised them on the never have I asked for assistance from the government and never have I ever asked for Section Eight I've never had I've always put shelter food and everything and I worked my butt before I made three four thousand dollars and I lived in the home but when I stopped and I was living I had to move into a trailer neighbor to live there and afford myself I never did need an assistance I never did live in nobody's back now I have my two grandchildren that I have to raise on my own my four-month-old baby and my one-year-old baby and I have to disrespect my own so definitely they need time if they're gonna give me something they just better damn give me a house sorry about my language but I'm pissed I'm pissed I'm pissed because we need time I don't want to Section 8 how I want them to help my daughter get her home I want there to get a home for me and my kids because I don't want to live off the government I don't I mean I want them to help the people I've never ever ever in my life lived on Section 8 and I had three kids four kids of my own and now never been qualified never never even though when I started working in a Jack In The Box and Taco Bell never did apply I applied and I never qualified and then when I started working the city of Wells Fargo Chase and Bank of America and the state with Chase I made good benefits that he needed I didn't need it I made it on my own but now that I'm disabled I hell don't want him anymore I want them to help my my daughter and I want them to help these people but they need time it if they can't pay a damn bill of mine and it's taken them that long to help me pay a bill imagine how long it's going to take them to help them get them at home and this is a one-time bill that I asked for them to pay my debt Josefina Proxima Sal Reza Alejandro Rodriguez good afternoon I want to let you know that I'm very sad because they want to displace us from there I'm so nervous about it that I haven't been able to sleep I'm 87 years old I'm older now we all know each other we've all been living there for a long time and we all support each other we'd like to know if you guys can help us understand help us stay there a little bit longer because we really don't have anywhere to go yeah I asked God to help you so you guys in turn can help us and that the owners of the land have a good heart thank you very much [Applause] next cell then Alejandro then gisetti Romero well uh good afternoon to everybody uh when I was at the University one time they wanted to take away our our offices for the students paper and I went to the Provost and you told me it's all about square footage and I told him well that's the same thing that happened when they took away uh most of the Indian Territory and also they took away the the Southwest from the from from Mexico so it's all about square footage and that's what we're talking about right now square footage square footage of people that are living a comfortable life now we've heard all of that I'm not going to go through everything everybody has 34 was hurt many times the decision is on you right now everybody told you they don't have enough time even the professionals they tell you there's not enough time if you talk to Trellis to Mr trailer he'll tell you he doesn't have enough time he cannot even get people to move the trailers because nobody wants to move the trailers told us last night so if there's not enough time but you have a deadline imposed by the state of 180 days the the owner themselves can change it if they wanted to I don't think they want to but you guys could because it's an emergency it's a homeless emergency because of that emergency pass at the very least at the very least more time for them uh if you don't want to get into the private private uh property versus the two uh prop 207 all of that you don't want to get into legal problems because even though you can win it you don't have the will at least give it more time that's the least they're asking you if you don't even more time then you're gonna be responsible for massive massive uh displacements which you don't want in your hands thank you very much [Applause] Alejandro Proxima gitzy and then Herman Romero when is Alejandro Rodriguez good afternoon members of the council my name is Alejandro Rodriguez by my side is my family I'm a resident and leader of Wilton Court oh yes unidos today we are you are united here because we want to let you know representative the representatives of the council or estado presentes that they have not voted or have been present now there's not many options left for Usos some of us don't qualify for services relocation services from the cities from part of the city or from other services [Music] because of our status number two the trailers cannot be moved because of the age foreigners also a lot of us don't have much money to pay for the difference if today you don't vote to help us or for an extension you're going to send me my wife and my children to the street and not just our families but also all the friends and families that are here from Weldon Court recursos stop this discrimination against families that are low income I'm asking the mayor today that's an that's head of this Council to vote Yes for the extensiona [Music] representantes and also for the people that have not voted to vote Yes on the zone extension I'm really nervous about this I'm the person that pays for state tax city tax and summer is coming the heat is coming and we're in a desert and so I'm asking you to please vote for our favor gracias thank you [Applause] that getsy Romero Roman Romero and Jorge Rosas in 12 years and I grew up here and I'm aware that unfortunately my home will be gone but I don't know where we'll go my family and I have already been in a situation where we had no place to stay and we went from house to house and we stayed at hotels I thank God that we weren't in the streets and I don't want to go through that again um I don't want to miss school again just to find a place to stay and um I shouldn't be here right now I should be worrying about my studies and not um fighting a multi-millionaire University to um keep my home right what GC was offering us right now is not enough and right now is really expensive and I feel really scared because I'm 16 years old worrying about where I'm gonna sleep at night and um I'm sorry um I'm worried of um that I might have to leave school again and that um and then I'm gonna be just another homeless living in the streets of Phoenix I really hope that you can try to understand us and I really pray to God that you will never have to go through this because it's really hard and seeing all these kids talk to you tonight it's just really um overwhelming and it's amazing that all these things that you see with saying that they have these tutors and this and clubs that we can attend but I know that's gonna matter when I'm homeless and not in school thank you [Applause] Mr Romero followed by Jorge Rosas followed by Alondra Ruiz good afternoon my name is German and I am autistic otcu is doing Essen the money of the way she should not be used to push the poor they have no rights to bring people's hope in neither to push them to to live in misery [Applause] thank you Jorge olandra Sheila Ryan hi my name is Jorge and I am very sad that GCU is taking our home away but I love the people here are supporting and I care what we are going through thank you [Applause] thank you Alondra Sheila and then Liz it's really difficult to follow the this kids it it's really difficult for me to just speak right now after listening to all these children I've been shedding many tears with them and for them so I'll try to say well I had prepared I live at Periwinkle mobile home park and we've been here many many times um probably since June of last year um I a couple days ago there was an op-ed in the newspaper that Grand Canyon University put out um and you know one of the things that they stated under that that they let the public know that they own Periwinkle mobile home parks in seven years ago and they are right on that they let the public know but they didn't let us know they didn't let any of the residents know that they own the land the first time we ever found out that Grand Canyon University owned the property where we lived on was May of last year and then they also said something in regards that they've spoken to us that they've met with us GCU has not met with us I saw people here from GCU I just saw the lawyers of GCU downstairs I've seen them come to our property I've seen the lawyers I'm not a lawyer I don't do lawyer talk that's the only people that GCU has sent to to me and my my community members um and they also hire a third party um called trellis who constantly calls me and my neighbors to say that they're there to help us but I don't trust trellis because guess who's paying their bill Grand Canyon University is paying them and we actually had a meeting with trellis last night in hopes that maybe GCU had a change of heart or something and that there was some something new that was going to come our way we had this meeting and and nothing's new they're still um trying to say that we have to leave their property with five thousand dollars five thousand dollars is nothing and then they also said something about 500 million dollars can you show me that you've given us that because it's not in our property in our pockets anywhere and you're saying that you've given us that money to us that's a lie and there's many more lies that Grand Canyon University university has been said and they've killed my neighbor Sylvia she was under a lot of stress they almost killed my neighbor Jerry and I'm just here to beg they we are don't end up homeless and I think everybody that's going to support us thank you [Applause] Sheila followed by lyth followed by Alex Solis okay hello I'm here today as a central Phoenix neighbor a friend of several of the families who live in the mobile home courts and a co-advocate for justice first I wish to urge all within the sound of my voice to read an entry today in the face in the Facebook page of Salvador Reza r-e-z-a for those of you who don't know him yet which professionally succinctly presents presents the history of this issue which I can only attempt to do I think it is really important for those of us who have not known these mobile home courts for years and years to be fully and accurately educated about the true and real situation the life the life-threatening situation that they are all dealing with I also want to say I I have been I have been writing all day thinking for several weeks writing all day and editing all day and I realized that I I am going to be brief at this at this hour there is an iconic quotation that is have you no decency sir and although my computer is down I am told that this is was directed at MacArthur during those years of history and can be Googled and looked up I wish to say to those of you on the city council who are likely to vote for the deadly life-threatening eviction that is facing these three courts have you no decency or some of you may be turned around by decency and you may vote for decency tonight if you do so thank you you will be channeling lith is next followed by Alex Solis followed by Diego Solis [Applause] hi uh thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak uh I'm here as a tenant here in Phoenix to stand in solidarity with all of the residents of the mobile home parks and call on you guys to pass the resolutions on item 93 of the agenda I just want to point out that all those GCU students you saw come up here and talk about how great their University is and all the great impact none of them are still here they're long gone they don't actually care and we need to frame this discussion as what it is it's about human lives and housing as a human right are you guys going to vote to protect someone's investment over these people's right to have a place to live and shelter these are people who are working class we're out here suffocating as Working Class People in Phoenix the price of housing is skyrocketing I'm looking for an apartment for next year and I don't even know if I can afford anything right now and I I'm just out here you know I'm not forcefully being displaced you guys have the power to make an impact and make a difference so I really hope you do it thank you Alex Solis Diego Solis Christian Solario is Alex Solis in the audience if we could check in lower council chambers as well Alex is not down here I think is Diego Solis here mayor it appears that Diego Solis is not here as well all right Christian will be next followed by Gerald I apologize mayor I'm sorry are you Diego my name's says I'm down on the cube but I have to get to work right now I'm really late already and I don't mayor Jesus is on the list he's asking if he can speak at this time I'm with your permission let me see I do not see him on my list so let's go to Christian now and we'll see if we can find him on the list all right we'll go to Christian and then we'll go to Jesus uh mayor uh council members um I think what's Happening Here is a microcosm of a greater issue and the City of Phoenix is doing a lot of good things to deal with this issue this housing crisis we have a Community Land Trust which is in my opinion one of the best ways to prevent gentrification and displacement and seeing the city invest in that is very um encouraging um seeing uh the 60 plus million dollars going to the voters on the bond also very encouraging but this is um an all hands on deck issue and we need all hands on deck Solutions and what's Happening Here is a result of decades worth of policy which has effectively rendered mobile home parks illegal to build here in the city of Phoenix with a 10-acre requirement so we have folks here have nowhere else to go and we have we're building all of these investing into public infrastructure into parks and stuff like that but we we'd have nowhere for our Working Families to live and that's by Design so I implore not only that we take a yes position on voting for these protections for our residents of these mobile home parks but also look into the long-term systems issues that are causing these moments to happen because they won't stop here it's not just these three Parks it'll keep happening until these systems change and that we're really opening up every Housing Opportunity including manufactured housing and mobile home parks in the future to keep our residents housed and again as was mentioned previously these these are not subsidized so it costs nothing to the city to change these policies and these rules to provide an affordable traditionally unsubsidized housing typology for our community members to reside and to prevent this from happening in the future thank you foreign followed by Gerald Suiter followed by Leah Terry well thank you for your service it can be easy to be a politician in the world today but when has it been easy to to choose long-suffering and persuasion over force and determination my name is Jesus and I'm a welding Court resident I attend Phoenix College I'm 22. um I'm a freshman my career is still undecided but I've declared an interest in writing I'm also interested in political science my soccer my passion though is soccer um seeing my idol recently I know Messi almost not when the World Cup was cause anxiety to say the least but after my mom's death last February there was a huge change in my life from 05 to 2022 my mom battled several surgery inflicted Health complications there's many times I felt helpless as a caregiver nevertheless I was unprepared to lose her my dad was deported when I was seven by the way it's actually his birthday today until January of this year when I found a roommate I was living alone and the trailer where my mom and I have lived since 2014. um when the relocation notice was sent out I was honestly preoccupied with credit card debt loaner debt that had acquired um after my mom's passing as well as uh past due property tax fees that I inherited and mixed emotions about finally starting College I tried in the past but it wasn't possible just because maybe uh being a mama's caregiver took priority and perhaps it was more urgent and then I told my car in November in a pile-up crash and the freeway got fined justly right and paid for defensive driving school at this point though I was taking a self-reliance courses for so for free self-reliance course for financial sufficiency and and I was working a two part-time jobs but now I work part-time so I can go to school full-time and I'm beginning to come out of this dark place I've been in since my mom's death uh God has been my support my neighbors have been that relief and it's a privilege to to be in welding Court who are like family to me who are my family we know each other by name and it's privilege to be here today to to ask and request that you um you allowed our community to start to stay together 18 more months and and approve this uh zoning overlay thank you [Applause] Gerald is next followed by Leah followed by Lucas Beryl one moment mayor we're providing the microphone thank you my name is Gerald Suiter I lived at Prairie Waco for the last 29 years and I don't understand for the life of me why anybody thinks it's okay to evict these people here hard-working people decent people for the sake of building a family-style apartment unit the universe says that they have the right to expect to have a safe comfortable place to live well so do I I did what I was supposed to do in my life I served in a military in Anastasia Air Force I worked all my life I paid all my taxes and everything I have a right to expect to have a safe and comfortable place to live also I I don't know why this the society is like doing what they are but I never thought that my well-being could be sold for 30 pieces of silver now this is not right mobile homes are built to be mobile home parks for people with low income let's keep it that way just don't keep adding to the homeless people we have now and every time these real estates come in to build new buildings they buy these mobile homes up and what happens the residents of these mobile homes become homeless or displaced I don't think that's right so I asked her please let's keep mobile homes as mobile homes and you do it and other cities will follow your example and do the same thing thank you so much [Applause] Leah is next followed by Lucas followed by Manuel Vera Martinez do we have Leah Terry in the audience and if we could check in lower council chambers for Leah Terry there is no leotard thank you very much we will go to Lucas then Manuel then Gabrielle the elmas well my name is Lucas I'm a tenant here in Phoenix and I'm here to support the mobile homes I know some people have already made a decision on what they're going to do there are some council members who've clearly been checked out this entire time um but I think the very least that these tenants are owed is honesty there's been a lot of talk that's been trying to kind of skirt around what I think is a fairly straightforward decision is that there are two sets of competing interests and you're picking one or the other and one of these decisions is going to put people on the street it's going to do a lot of damage to children's lives and the other one keeps them in their houses this decision despite any difficulties regarding like the execution one way or another it's not very hard to understand and it's not very hard to stand by your decision if you care about property rights in general and this is a property rights issue then why are we hearing so little about the fact that these tenants their mobile homes that they already own are going to be forcibly turned over to GCU if they're displaced we're hearing stuff about from a one of the speakers earlier I believe was from they were from a chamber of commerce saying how we need more time for this decision and then in the very same breath saying that the council should vote against the moratorium and not allow for more time if you're going to vote against the mortarium going to vote against the mobile home zoning overlay stand by what you're standing for if you think that property rights are more important than keeping these children housed say so [Applause] Manuel is next followed by Gabrielle followed by Sylvia Yanez is Manuel Vera Martinez in the audience just to double check in lower council chambers Manuel Rivera Martinez Manuel is not down here thank you very much Gabriel followed by Sylvia followed by the oven a buenos Tardes good afternoon my name is good afternoon Mr Council my name is our organization that's campaigned for the poor president I think that we've already heard all the comments and I think the resolution to this is in your hands we know that the families the elderly and the children and adults have lived in these complex in these trailers for a long time but and I believe that the USA is interested in its own interest S I think that with their words they say one thing but with their actions they demonstrate something else foreign they're not actually doing what they say they're going to do is and the decision is in your hands la felicidal the happiness familias of many families and take into consideration that all the people that are here are here because of necessity but primarily foreign we cannot see them go to the street or to displace them and so that the community can benefit from it you being Los Dinos the representatives of all of us I appreciate you take me into consideration and all of you will get a strong hug from me and God bless you thank you Sylvia is followed by Giovanni Yanez followed by Carmen Terrell my name is my name is Sylvia I'm the mom of the six children autism two autistic children and like my children said I had an accident uh me and another neighbor accompanied Sylvia on the day that she lost her life is difficult it's hard days go by and they go by and our only reality is that we have nothing about ideas prepositions suggestions but none of them come close to the need that we have yes that is to find a home that's worthy for our family Grand Canyon University has has us in a very vulnerable Point adults and children we're suffering we have stress fear frustration frustration pressure yes is violating us emotionally that's enough that's sufficient we can't anymore with this situation how is it possible the jcu's plan to construct a Christian dreams can be my families and my neighbor's nightmare the ones that are living this Christian Church good for you because you have the good face that GCU offers in trabajo Faith academically work or any benefits or if you're the person that's receiving this furniture and white bees to clean bottoms good for you that's all the good stuff that you have but we have the worst this is not godly no says God's name should not be uh dirtied to destroy is this is the human beings foreign because they don't care about us we are owners of homes and we have to give up our homes so that we go so that we can go pay rents that we cannot afford to get a debt of thousands of dollars and pay a down payment that we don't have I think it's unfair very unfair is correct to be here makes me believe that we're I'm here with people that are fair and just with the power to make a difference and get a solution to this conflict my question is are you gonna do it thank you Giovanni Jonas followed by Carmen followed by Leticia Venezuelan hello everybody hello hello everyone my name is yovani I am 10 years old I came here to tell you about how GCU is trying to kick my family out our home living in the street with no options I hope you can help me get more time to find a home for me and my five other brothers and my mother I'm asking you honorable people to give you the right to be a normal kid I want to believe that good things can happen that I don't have to worry where I'm going to sleep I want to believe that I can go to university I believe in you my future and others are in your hands one day I'm gonna be sitting in one of those chairs and I'm going to change a lot of things thank you [Applause] Carmen Leticia and then Elena valandia foreign can anybody hear me um good evening mayor members of the council my name is Carmen Terrell and our speaker supported this because um as you can see everybody needs not just only more time but it's also need to improve the Section 8 system of Cordell because they're just overloaded as well as bias but also um I said the other night that I challenged you all to go to the Capitol because I know some things that are involved with this can't be solved on a city level because some of it has to be on a Statewide level so I appreciate uh Christmas Solorio Anna Hernandez and Anneliese Ortiz for being here from this Senate in the house at the state capitol and like everyone is just saying and it's sad shame that I see you know 16 year olds 15 you know all ages or whatever but mostly in high school they have to come here to testify about how they work jobs and everything but yet everybody is still being displaced over corporate greed as well as just the school that one minute claims that Christian and private to the next minute taking public funds to make sure they had everything that they needed to keep their grounds together just to come back and say they private again and still take in financial aid funds this is just a mess and as you can see I'm wearing my red because the day it's real for every public school day and to be consistent I see this is the same way as the voucher system for the schools which is taking public dollars to fund uh private monies that's wrong I don't want to see no more voucher systems at all I feel like the city should buy back properties keep themselves without the voucher system as well as keep these people where they're staying at and not doing any more City sweeps thank you so much [Applause] Leticia followed by Elena followed by Rosa Dominguez my name is Elena Perry welcome mobile home I live at Perry Winkle mobile home yay a season I arrived to this country that has been very good to me Escuela it gave me the opportunity to go to attend a beautiful School muchos Amigos where I study and I have lots of friends this trailer for us is our only home and today we're asking you okay to please help all of us to have a home where to live gracias thank you [Applause] Elena followed by Rosa followed by Sophia Martinez mayor that last speaker was Elena Rosa followed by Sophia followed by Jaylene Castro is Rosa Dominguez in the audience downstairs if we could please check with lower council chambers for Rosa Dominguez hello my hello my name is Rosa I'm here today because they want to kick us out of the trailers it makes me feel sad that this is happening to me and my community I want the city council to let us stay in our homes for 80 more months I'm mad they are kicking us out thank you [Applause] Sophia followed by Jaylene followed by Jagger do you want me to beat up hello my name is Sophia I am here today because they want to kick us out it makes me feel upset that this is happening to me and my community I want the city council to help us so we could not go out I am very upset that they don't want us here and these trailers are homes so they shouldn't kick us out from our homes [Applause] Jaylene followed by Jagger followed by Anna Hernandez hello my name is Jaylene I'm here today because I want to say a few words on behalf of the families and mine being invasive it makes me feel mad sad and upset that this is happening to me and my community I want the city council to help us so we can get more time and get somewhere to live because they're not getting getting us enough time out appreciate it if you guys were on our side and help us win this fight thank you for your time [Applause] Jagger is next followed by Anna followed by annalize good afternoon mayor this is Phoenix City Council my name is Jagger Halverson and I am blessed to be the newly elected student body president at Grand Canyon University for next year I am so honored to be a part of a GCU community and the opportunities that it up that it gives our students to help the Phoenix Community the State of Arizona and ultimately the country I am proud to attend my University very proud GCU is a rich history of helping people from coming to school at GCU I've learned about opportunities such as City serve and numerous outreaches on campus where my friends and I continuously go out into the community and want to benefit our expansion has afforded us with a great opportunity to serve the community GCU has purchased this property nearly seven years ago we have gave notice of a planned development nearly five years ago and have a formal notice of park closure on April 30th 2022 which is almost a year ago by the time the park closes so formal notice of change will be 13 months specifically 393 days when the law only required 180 days which is six months GCU has asked for GCU was asked for extensions and we did provide those extensions we gave the residents an early departure compensation offered free rent for the tenants who did not vacate the park before January 2023 all the way until the park closes in May and have extended our deadline two times now to accommodate the students of the mobile home that way they can continue with their friends and go to school through our resources of the university in a partnership with trellis we have assisted in showing the state assistance and more the Phoenix Ida Industrial Development Authority is supporting residents of other two parks in case management and finding housing because GCU is doing so much with our trellis partnership and we trust trellis everywhere I go in the valley people appreciate the growth and the impact that we've had in the valley GCU has proven that we take care of people we've served our community day in day out notified by over our hundred outreaches into the community GCU cares release families and we have continued to show that our University not only cares for the community but loves the community thank you lied to you young man Anna is next followed by annalize followed by nagalie Martinez mayor I know you're you're not here in Kansas City but that's Senator honor Hernandez [Applause] hey my name is Senate well Senator Anna Hernandez also a resident of Phoenix and Phoenix and Arizona as a whole is in a housing crisis and the fact that these residents have to show up to beg to keep their homes is so infuriating to me when I understand that there are many solutions that are needed here that are not going to happen overnight but you the city council has an opportunity to deliver real solutions to the community members that trusted you enough to vote for you to put you in those seats of power to do the right thing politics isn't easy and the right choice isn't always the easiest choice but today you have the opportunity to make the right choice as tough as that is do not prioritize profits over people do not prioritize profits over people that's what this comes down to we know that zoning is a huge issue that we've been fighting over for the last I don't know year months personally for me it's been over the last few weeks and there's a lot of legislators at the Capitol working on bringing Statewide Housing Solutions and one of the things that I've heard over and over from the city of Phoenix is that let's keep keep zoning as a local matter prove that today by supporting this mobile home zoning overlay for these residents where are they going to go when we have a housing stocks shortage part of that is exclusionary zoning and how things have been zoned and been zoned out of existence today you have the opportunity again to deliver a real solution for these community members when lives are on the line they show up when your election was on the line they showed up today show up for them [Applause] mayor yes I have questions for the senator please go ahead thank you ma'am Senator Hernandez thank you so much for being here today are you supporting representative Russ's House Bill 2381 to increase State funds available for the mobile home residents I did I voted it out of committee you did vote it out of the committee would you be supportive of an amendment to extend the 180 days to absolutely absolutely and will you work towards that effort absolutely many today have asked for um well I'll go with as you know the jurisdiction of mobile homes as a result of state laws what else are you doing as a state senator to help these people we're doing a lot unfortunately the makeup of the legislature is Republican controlled and we have introduced legislation that would help address some of these concerns and those bills haven't been heard so what I can do is support bills that are being presented by Republican senators and representatives and work in a bipartisan manner to try to deliver solutions to the City of Phoenix residents I know that you know specifically you asked earlier about the time limit I would fully support let's look at nine months a year because even that might not be enough time when we have housing shortages right there's a stock shortage that contributes to the overall problem and we're working on it but it's a lot tougher over there when we don't have the votes in our favor to deliver good policy for the people and as a state legislature you're familiar with the legislator's ability to 1487 municipalities when we enact ordinances that are against state law a little bit yes so would you recommend that a City should pass suggestions some of the suggestions which city staff have suggest stated are against state law it work is there a specific ordinance that you are questioning some of the suggestions that are in our packet tonight are our City's legal staff are saying could violate state law yeah I mean there's a lot of laws that the cities have been preempted on to address housing the housing crisis right I'm fully aware of that we are trying to do that the reality is that the makeup of the legislature we can't do that easily it's going to be a tough uphill battle but if that means delivering on solution and bringing more housing options then yes I obviously support that so you would recommend a municipality go against the state law and and risk being challenged by a state representative or state senator with a 1487 and potentially losing our state revenue share of Revenue well the City of Phoenix just passed the source of income ordinance that is not state law so it's that I I commend you on that decision so was that we did do that in a way that did not put us at risk for 1487. so I believe that there's all there's a solution here and yes I mean when there's people's lives on the line why cannot we work to find every Avenue to ensure that we can make that happen if that means going against state law you have a Attorney General that would work in partnership with you I think that there's less risk there and so what other steps will you take to help us fix this problem we've been at it we've been working on it so let's talk and bring me those Solutions and I will be happily support whatever I can all right thank you senator [Applause] [Music] all right I understand that Leticia uh was in the basement and so we will add her to the queue after the next two speakers and so I did another council member want to say something just letting you know the state representative analis Ortiz that's next wonderful we will go to her and then okay can I go forward thank you hello mayor members of the council I am Arizona state representative Analise Ortiz I represent the people of Maryvale in South Glendale in the Arizona House of Representatives you know councilwoman O'Brien I'm happy that you and that you asked some of those questions because when it comes to our job as state legislators uh sometimes I do get very frustrated by the makeup of the legislature and our inability to um easily and well I don't want to say easily because nothing's easy in politics but to more directly impact the lives of residents and what you all can do as city leaders is sometimes so much more powerful and impactful and one of those decisions is on the table tonight to protect the lives of the residents here to save these children who have already put been put through so much the trauma of being displaced and to save these families the trauma and stress of having to find a place another place to live we are in a housing shortage right now it is a crisis it is nearly impossible to find places that will accept this the housing vouchers you all know that because you discussed it at length a couple of meetings ago but even just to find an affordable place to rent is so difficult right now I am a tenant myself and I know the challenges that come with having to find a new place to live I hope that you will listen to the residents request to double or I'm sorry to um put the 18-month moratorium and to designate the mobile home zoning and when you asked about doubling the 180 days in Statue we would absolutely support that Senator Hernandez and I have been working very hard and we would want to work in partnership with the city on zoning reform which we see as a huge barrier to preventing these kinds of situations from happening again and I also want to touch on the 1487 issue that you talked about you know I used to work at the American civil liberties Union and I know that sometimes we would have to force lawsuits in the interest of justice and as leaders and as elected officials you have the power to force a lawsuit to do what the right thing to do the Bold thing to protect the lives of people who are facing homelessness I urge you to do that and I will tell you that you will have someone in the legislature who has your back in that decision and who will be working with you to make sure that we can continue protecting tenants across the city thank you so much [Applause] mayor councilwoman pet store yes I just want to commend the representatives for what they have committed to as we went on break we spoke about it in the back and saying we need more time what's the possibility we we talked about it and so they're committed it's now responsibility of others on this diocese that represent um all parties up here to work with their members to make sure it happens and and make sure that we as a council direct our intergovernment relations to start talking and saying we need more time add this language and start working with those legislators to help us get it through so thank you Miss Martinez followed by Leticia followed by Maria Barbosa hello good evening um I just want to put it out there it is extremely difficult to come up here and speak it is very it's a lot it's very anxiety inducing my hands are sweaty I'm shaking and we have so many families here that have been very very brave very young children coming up here to speak and advocate for themselves I just want to say thank you so much for showing up I know that this isn't easy I wish you were here you're missing out there are so many families with very small children that would have loved to meet you my name is magali Martinez signs I'm here on behalf of Tres Leches Cafe and the Beautiful community that supported us through a pandemic I am both encouraged and disheartened by the number of impacted community members that have presented themselves today to advocate for their future and their children's future some of them missing work missing school from the anxiety of speaking is a threat of a lawsuit from a private private entity worth the cost of displacement why is our government running the cost of a housing crisis at a multi-million dollar company created for these families on top of an existing and ongoing Statewide housing crisis regardless of that the decision is now in your hand city council however you choose to vote please know that you will not be forgotten we will make sure of that we will make sure that you will not be forgotten I voted for Carlos thank you council members Garcia pastor guardado and I'm sorry for doing right by the people you represent I hope every other elected official on the council do the same thank you [Applause] Leticia is next followed by Maria followed by Tammy Nguyen as student s good evening my name is and I am very happy to be here today I am an activist and I've been Seoul since 2005. a foreign she is an individual that helps the poor invited me to come here and speak today is either I wanted to say that all the persons who are here who have immigrated to this country we have done so under the in sole intention of coming here to make a better life for ourselves a happy life one not only for ourselves but that of our families control but enough is Aki buscando images I wanted to say that all of us who have come to this country have done so knowing that we were leaving behind economic and social problems where we came from there was lack of employment and there were no opportunities for us to get a better opportunity to work and to have a dignified employment we had the desire to get ahead and do something with our lives and we were able to do so foreign in accordance with our abilities and possibilities rather foreigneros and restaurant is foreign abilities to work as whether it be whatever capacity as gardeners dishwashers in a restaurant doing construction cleaning houses or hotels or stores wherever we work we did so working for the employer hoping that they would be satisfied with the work that we were doing and we were thinking that we would be able to better ourselves DNS iced okay I would like to say that it's been very difficult for us to get ahead we do not have much but the trailers that we do have we earned the money working very hard to acquire it Maria is next followed by Tammy followed by Karen good afternoon my name is Maria Barbosa um [Music] all I'm here to do is to ask you to give us a little bit more time to help us the gentleman had given us a contract for four years the children the elderly and the adults were happy because we had gotten that contract two weeks later he denied everything he said he was going to throw us out in the street like animals porque song I've been searching for a place to rent it's hard to find something because the rents are 1 800 per month plus 1 800 of a deposit they only want to give us 1 800 for our trailers and with that amount we can't afford anything is thanks to Carlos and Mr Salvador and the gentlemen that have um but we're asking for at least a year and a half so that we can save up and be able to reach our dream oil [Music] so that the gentleman told us that we had to pay the remaining balance in the four years so why doesn't he give us in turn the remaining balance of the four years my neighbor died from the stress of this of all this is my children are very stressed out they have to take medication to sleep because they're so stressed if you could help us out if you could please do us at favor to give us a year and a half to help us out like you had said thank you very much [Applause] yes go ahead okay you can do it for me go ahead um like I explained earlier there was a situation that this this particular trailer park where because some of the legal support that was given to the residents it was found out that none of them had contracts and so these trailer park owners gave folks a contract which in this situation for their family was four years can you explain that situation a little bit more to us so the gentleman offered us a contract either a one-year contract or a four-year contract and because my husband is the only one that works in the home I figured four years is good for me because that way I can save up I believe the rest of the people save theirs too because some signed a one-year contract some signed a four-year contract [Music] so we had a meeting and when I went there I asked him what will happen if I move out during those four years if you move out before the four years you're going to pay the difference of the two years and so I added things up and I noticed that I wouldn't have the amount to pay off the two years it was after we signed the contract two weeks later he sent us a notice stating that he was going to lower the rent which he did not lower the rent so now he said that he's gonna displace all the families except for two families and I believe that it's not fair if he's going to displace everybody it should be everybody he was going to force us to pay what was left on the contract that we signed yes but now he wants to give us 1 800 to leave what are we going to do with 1800. when is it that you sign that contract two or three months ago we signed it in six months see it and yes and that was because Mr Salvador and the attorneys helped us to be able to remain six more months and the people that had small trailers they've already had to have them leave and they've already knocked down their trailers didn't care if we ended up in the street or under a bridge he said that was our problem gracias [Applause] Tammy followed by Karen hi everyone my name is Tammy I'm a born and raised Phoenix resident I'm outside the chambers right now um every time I call in you're gonna have to hear me mention that I worked as a constituent Services liaison in Phoenix City Council from 2021 to 2022 because not many get this Insight perspective I've answered countless calls and emails from people needing emergency rental assistance facing eviction or mistreatment from landlords and we all know that homelessness has continued to worsen every single year I also know that some of these council members don't even have a higher constituent services staff unless don't know half the stuff going on in their area but they're in the chamber I dare you to look at these families in the eyes and tell them that they will be homeless within two months time right into the 120 degree heat and I know we have a whole heat um he uh the program or whatever but then once they're in the streets your constituent services staff member if they exist will have to respond to their calls for housing assistance and vouchers in time depending how swamped they are with other requests and then you will leave City Hall to your nice homes and move on with your life so I beg you to listen to the tenants actually being impacted and consider their voices before every paid actor by GCU and housing staff who noticeably stuttered every time they said they care and feel sorry for the residents they're evicting because they know they're lying to themselves please pass all four motions especially the zoning overlay and moratorium thank you [Applause] Karen Olsen hello can you hear me Council yes we can thank you very much um I just want to uplift so many of the voices that have been here today have been here for multiple hours holding this space I am here in solidarity with all of the folks from the mobile home communities of which apologies I don't know all the names I'm going to read the public comment I left the city council cannot allow this eviction to take place for years our city has struggled with community members falling into homelessness and if GCU is able to go through the forcing forcing these residents out of their homes city council would be contributing directly to this issue small payouts are inadequate Solutions when there is no affordable housing in this city declare mobile home zoning on the existing homes now um I also want to take a moment to acknowledge that I'm a white woman coming into this space with a seat of privilege to be able to not only call in whilst I can do work remotely to acknowledge all of the people that took today off that maybe can't even afford to to come into a city council space of which not all the city council members are actually in nor are they being participatory within that space as well and I also want to acknowledge oh the way we talk about houselessness there are people without homes that deserve that space and we deserve to give them that kindness and just like so many the people before me I feel this within my body and I'm giving myself the space to slow down and take deep breaths we should not have to come here time and time again to witness people's stories for them to be have to be in Mass to be believed one person becoming unhoused is one too many please listen to The Plea please change your perspective do something different [Applause] thank you we'll now go to council member comments mayor go ahead councilwoman thank you I have a few questions of staff um and and you know I I am not a fan of prop 207 never was when I was a professional planner I know our organ our organization fought to try to defeat it unfortunately it passed Han and we are now living with the consequences of it but a question I have is even if today we were to go ahead and put a moratorium on and do an overlay the three Property Owners still have the right to say you're off the property even with a moratorium even with an overlay they can tell the folks that are on the property I'm sorry you got to move they may be stuck with a moratorium and they may be stuck with an overlay in their minds but they can still tell the residents to leave correct mayor and Council we do have Andy Abraham here from Birch and cracchiolo and I'd like to invite him up to the table he is also our Council in the ongoing case we have on the historic preservation overlay case and so he can answer some general questions and also talk about that case thank you I appreciate that mayor members of the council thank you for having me here tonight um council person Stark you're you're exactly correct um notwithstanding a moratorium and notwithstanding an overlay um neither of those would enjoin the owner of the property from exercising their rights as permitted under their contracts with the residents and as permitted under state law so even if we were to say let's do the overlay and let's do the moratorium I think we're giving residents false hopes we could do this and tomorrow or whenever the lease is up they can still move them off correct there's nothing in the state statute that would allow the city to enjoin the landlord from exercising its rights so long as the landlord is complying with state law thank you and unfortunately I think that's the sad truth of it is that we could do something but it's not going to prevent um the residents being told to leave the property and I I feel very bad about the situation I don't know how we can convince the property owners to please give them more time I mean I'd be more than willing to sit down with the three property owners and suggest that I just I'm not sure it's going to be successful I'm I'm just afraid they're going to say no I I but I I you know it's just it's a tough situation we're all in and again I think even if we passed a more tournament overlay which I don't think are legal under prop 207 and under our moratorium laws that were put into legislation gosh maybe 20 years ago or so that dealt with water and sewer we're just in a tough situation um so I don't know I mean there is a possibility uh Ellen they have to get permits for demolition who we at least stay that for like a month or is that even possible legally or maybe I should be asking Mr Abrams the state statute speaks to moratorium and the process for moratorium and um that statute would potentially apply to delays of issuance of permits um depending upon the length of the delay and the pattern of doing that would impact the exposure into the state moratorium statute okay well I appreciate it I know staff has worked very long and hard to try to find solutions for what is going on I know we are in affordable housing crisis we're just in a tough situation I just fear that even if we were to pass this the residents may still not have a place to reside thank you mayor councilmember Garcia thank you um thank you councilwoman Stark it sounds like you're leading towards supporting these families it's really exciting um on on Prop 207 again like we stated earlier by the senator we have a new attorney general where we saw decision be favorable two weeks ago so I think that's something good to look at um in regards to them being evicted I think we heard some of the folks have contracts so then those contracts the reason they correct me if I'm wrong the reason they were able to avoid them was because they were closing down the trailer park and that's when they have to give the 160. now of course any property owner can kick anybody out but these Property Owners especially GCU and and I think all three are motivated because they're developing something else that's the reason that they would take these folks out and so if they were to evict them they would be sitting on empty land is that correct they wouldn't be able to develop what they intend to develop a council member Garcia I have not seen any of the agreements between the residents and the owners of the property um since we're speaking of hypotheticals if there's a four-year contract that's sitting there the reason they're able to avoid that one is because they're tearing down the trailer park that's the rationale that they gave to avoiding the four-year contract does that sound if that's the hypothetical we're speaking hypothetical the terms of the contract would control I just haven't seen the contract to be able to say whether or not that's permissible and that's obviously a private issue between the resident and the owner of the park but if there was there was a contract that said that they were going to be there for four years then that contract would stand is that correct I I'm not privy to the factual background I'm sorry okay okay sounds good um so there is those contracts and and then to I think your last Point councilwoman Stark with um them coming to the table I think that's a very important point because the reason they haven't come to the table is because they don't care about these folks they haven't come up to the table because they're more worried about what they're going to develop and so in your voice I hear the the want to help them and so you may be correct that they still get evicted but what you're giving folks today if you decide to vote with them today is leverage and the ability to have a fight against those greedy folks that are trying to kick them out um we've at the risk of 207 or or the state coming after us we've done this for golf courses we've done this for historic homes and we've taken these risks before so we've done these zoning overlays for [Music] what some would say other you know private folks we've done it to them to literally to a golf course well I don't think that was mentioned today we talked about it at length at our subcommittee that the city's taking this vote before uh with the with the gulf with the golf course um we're talking today about folks that are currently self-sustaining themselves beautiful communities of folks that have lived together that support each other that's driven each other to the hospital um that have created beautiful communities and we have an opportunity to support you all we we have four people that are committed and we need one more person to give you a fighting chance and councilwoman Stark is right there's there's no guarantees but I think today what we can do as a city is stand by you support you and make sure that you're not in the streets um as to GCU or any of the owners of the properties they weren't here today they didn't show up they were cowards and particularly GCU they sat they're they're here the lawyer made the lawyer may be here but the lawyer was too scared to come up and testify I agree I agree with you and to and to send your students who are on scholarship some of them I believe your your have positions at your University so I hope they're registered as lobbyists or else the lawyers today uh had them present unlawfully and then to invite um churches that you donate to and have them stand in front of you to take these hits It's just unfair and so I'm not sure who the lawyers are and I hope the GCU president who refuses to meet with these folks or any of us is listening and I hope that today we vote to give these folks that leverage and that they do the right thing so I'm obviously going to be supportive of all four measures thank you [Applause] cool mayor councilwoman cordado thank you yeah I just first want to thank all the families I think I said this last week just want to thank all the families all the children that were here I don't know if Giovanni is still in the audience but yes I will have run your campaign when you want to run for city council and sit one of these seats and some years I'm definitely a big fan of that all of the children that were here today Michelle Richard Juan Luis America Mitzi Jorge Rosa Sofia Jacqueline Elena all of you I know I've missing a couple of you thank you guys so much for putting the real face to what's really going on in these trailer parks I think you guys if if this if this happens today it's going to be because of you guys and because of the testimony that you guys gave today as a city council and as a city I will applaud our city manager I will plaid Lori I will applaud many of us that have done the right thing to con to support families during this pandemic and today we have to continue we have to continue to do that for our families I think that you know we have given GCU the chance to come to the table we spoke to them I personally met with them I told them you know let's do the right thing in a different in a different place we had those conversations and I think now what they talk about everything that they've done for the community I've been hearing these stories since I was running for office like this is this is about what they need to do now not about what they've done in the last 15 years in terms of scholarships in terms of tutoring in terms of their partnership with the different schools I heard someone today say what does it matter if you want to give me tutoring if I don't have a place to stay that really got to me so whoever said that thank you so much for your words because that is street because that is true and that doesn't give them that doesn't give GCU the right to now displace families just because they've done some stuff that is not right and I want you guys and I want you guys to know that I support all the recommendations from our subcommittee and challenge these Property Owners to come forward with some real solutions of their own I don't think it's fair that we're being put in this position I think yes these are privately private properties and they should have been leaders and done the right thing and not make you guys come out here and make us have these meetings to be able to do something we need to continue to grow and develop as a city to meet the growth we see but dignity and basic human empathy cannot be lost in all of this until that time comes I will not support any development that displaces our most vulnerable we've heard of the families of the of the family members that have passed away that is not right we hear about the children that are not sleeping at night because they're thinking about if they're going to have a place to stay and where is it that they're going to go to school once there's School school year is done I don't I don't think that's right and I I will continue to support these families not exactly sure if this passes today I'm not sure what happens next but I think we have to fight for this I think we got to figure out how do we do this like council member Garcia said we've done this before we've done this type of overlays and now it's time to stand up for all of these children that are here in the audience today and I know um that my colleagues will have the heart um to be able to support this so with that I motion to approve item 93 with the following changes in accordance with City staff's recommendation the emergency funding for displaced mobile home park residents shall not be taken from the landlord incentive program but rather additional available arpa funding based on the Urgent nature of the impending evictions of residents of these mobile home parks the mobile home park overlay process shall be accelerated to allow the proposal to be heard by both the respective Village planning committees and the Planning Commission in the same month and brought back to the full city council thereafter second foreign have some comments as well thank you councilman decisio I believe I heard councilman thank you mayor yes thanks mayor I appreciate it you know my voice so what I want to say right off the bat is I do support two of the four items uh that we have in front of us the other two I just don't believe are legal and asking us to do something that's contrary to the law I just don't think that that's just a good thing or a good precedent Carlos is right we have voted for overlays before and we voted for overlays over the golf courses which I voted against for the exact same reason that has not changed you know whether it's a golf course or people it's the same thing it's the you know I voted against those things so I want to make sure that people understand I'm consistent the second thing too I just don't think it's just nice right now for us for people to be attacking the uh um Grand Canyon College they've done a lot of good things they really have I mean for us as a community and for us I mean some people may not like what they're doing and this one this one situation here but I remember Grand Canyon College when it was bankrupt it was about to go out of business you were looking at a hole there basically and they came in there um and just put in a lot of effort they put their own money into this and they did everything they took their own risk to try to build it to build it to the organizations now they hand out I can't even tell you the thousands of dollars just they hand out to people of color because they are encouraging those individuals to come and go to school it's just they've done a lot of good things and we've been blessed as a community to be a partner with them I know that there are issues today with this one this one thing here that they have done a lot to try to be good people to be good citizens and they are a Christian organization and they've done a lot of hard work to try to promote that so I just don't think it's fair the second thing I went through something similar not even close to what some of these people are going through so the pain that you're hearing today is real it really is my mom and dad were poor my dad had a sixth grade education my mom had a fourth grade education my first language was not English I learned English in the first grade um my you know I couldn't speak a word of English until I learned it in school so when you hear these children and it breaks my heart because the pain that you're hearing from them they're going to carry for the rest of their lives they will never trust a business organization again they will never trust government they won't do it okay because I understand where they're coming from and they will not trust people to do what they have to do they will constantly be in our society and they will be pushing back on everything so what we do as adults that impact these children will have an impact for the rest of their lives and our lives and it will change the Dynamics of everything what's happening now with some of the individuals that are coming across their border the the stress that's going on in those families the the pain that they're going through the fears that all gets translated into the kids people don't understand that when I was 14 years old I was negotiating with an insurance company so that my dad could go to work because they handed me the phone that's just what I did that's what you're hearing here today so a lot of people may criticize the fact that they have children here the reason those children are here is they're already in charge of their families people don't realize that these kids 10 years old 13 14 years old are the lifeline for the parents who cannot speak English that well that's who they are and I remember maybe that's where I got my negotiation abilities is I was on the phone to the insurance company and they were not going to give my dad enough money so that my dad could get a car his car got uh uh in a crash in an accident with a drunk driver and it was totaled so they were going to give them 50 of it we could not find a car so that value I remember talking to the insurance guy it was you know it was late in the afternoon I just got back from school my mom handed me the phone and said here son you deal with this and I told the guy on the phone he said look I said the amount of money you're paying us the amount of money and what you're doing with our family we can't buy my dad can't buy a car and sing with these people here if you can't buy the car because you don't have enough money to do that and you're not given enough to be able to relocate or get where you need to be then you are not going to be able to go to work I told that to the insurance guy and I and I told him I said well look and he was firm and I said look I'm going to do this you have until tomorrow morning at 7 30 because I've got to be at school after eight o'clock we have until 7 30 tomorrow morning call me back and tell me what your decision is he called back and he shows hearts and he gave us the money that we needed to buy the right car so I'm emotional about this because I feel so sick to my stomach with these children that are there I know what they're going through and I feel horrible for them so if we could separate these mayor I'd be happy but if not I'm good with it they just need to know that I would have supported the money I would have supported the study I just can't support the other two thank you mayor thank you councilman I know that was difficult oh sorry Council vice mayor it was thank you mayor um I think I'm going to focus on the issue of of houselessness because I represent district 7 which is home to the Human Services campus and we have as a council said over and over and over again that addressing this crisis is our number one priority um when I when I took office two years ago the number of folks who lived outside of the zone for those who don't know that's the area outside of the Human Services campus there were 250 people living outside in tents by last summer that number was somewhere between 800 and a thousand and as a city we have invested over a hundred million dollars over the last two years to build new Emergency Shelters to up our Outreach Services to build new transitional housing this is an unprecedented investment and even though we have invested all of this funding we have a new office of homelessness Solutions we have 10 new staff members who work full-time around the clock on this issue we added 500 new shelter beds last year we have 800 new ones coming this year and I'm saying all this just to say I really am proud that we have done a lot but that has still not made a dent in that 800 to a thousand number I get those reports every single day every week from from our team and we have not been able to keep up with the demand because this is the largest shelter provider in the state and people from all over Arizona and even all over the country come to this area and again I'm saying all this because it's very frustrating I hear all the time from my colleagues I was not able to attend the budget meeting yesterday because I was sick but I understand that some of my colleagues were again talking about the issue of homelessness and how this is such a crisis and right here today we literally have an opportunity to prevent over 130 people or more from becoming homeless and from adding to that and that is what I find extremely extremely frustrating because we it is going to be impossible for us to make a dent in this crisis to get people off of the streets to get people into homes if we cannot prevent more from falling into that situation I understand the legal challenges I really do understand that but there were several speakers who I think put it very eloquently today that sometimes as elected officials and as Leaders we have to make that decision to take a risk and especially in this case when it's going to save people's lives and prevent that anxiety and that fear that I know that we feel so strongly from everyone who's been coming here for many many many many many months so I just want to thank everyone for doing that and really just beg my my really beg my colleagues to understand that and that we cannot keep talking about addressing homelessness and what a crisis it is and how challenging it is because again I understand that representing the zone if we don't take this vote today and I know it's going to be difficult but we have state leaders who will back us up we do have an attorney general who I hope will back us up and again the City of Phoenix is constantly facing lawsuits we get sued every single day for something and we're paying millions of dollars in fees to overcome those lawsuits and for me if that means protecting the residents of these mobile homes from falling into that crisis I think that is worth it so just begging and pleading for folks to to come along and to buy and earn that time that that residents have so um eloquently and passionately and bravely called for thank you [Applause] mayor go ahead councilwoman thank you mayor serwanu thank all of the families children speakers everybody who came out to speak today um I know that it is very difficult for our children to come out and talk about something so difficult I wrestled with the proposals put forth by my fellow council members but like councilman decisio I'm not comfortable with the zoning overlay or the moratorium and so I would like to make a substitute motion to have the um to give direction to the staff to do the work on the 12 different options that they provided to us that would not put the city in jeopardy um since we're researching all of these 12 would require more than eight hours of Staff time would move to direct staff to research those 12 options and return back to the appropriate subcommittees with each proposed solution would that is my substitute motion second thank you councilwoman and for people who didn't get to attend the subcommittee meeting staff put forward 12 different policy options to try to address these challenges their heartbreaking challenges and unfortunately far greater than just the folks who have been able to be here today Miracle Association of government shared census data that one out of four people in the greater Phoenix region is unsure how they will pay rent next month so we need to come up with policies that will continue to help we know these are not the only three parks that will be impacted and that there are a whole lot more children and parents will be impacted so we need policies that can continue to work and and fit all of the circumstances so I would ask our staff could you briefly tell us about some of the 12 policies you have put forward in your suggestions mayor members of the council I'll I'll start with the the first five I believe and then um Alan Stevenson will continue um the first the first five recommendations many of them we have already begun to implement and so I I will say one through three include the assistance that we've provided We are continuing to provide and make available to those impacted um but who are being displaced that would be the rental and rent and utility deposit and Rental payment assistance programs available through through arpa the American Rescue plan act funds and the emergency rental assistance program um the second is the housing navigation and Case Management Services this program we we began last fall and so um the navigation is being provided for the Periwinkle residence by trellis and for the other two parks helping families in need through a contract IGA with Phoenix Industrial Development Authority those who are already in place and um and proceeding and then the third is the housing vouchers emergency housing vouchers to the extent those are available and actually I should say with all of these resources um they are are limited and are available to other residents in addition to those who are impacted by the displacement from mobile home parks but those are the first three the fourth would be to develop a communication strategy and action protocol to inform residents of information critical information related to their potential displacement as well as any available assistance and resources that might be available to them um that that one has not been implemented yet and is available as an option and then the fifth also has been made available and that's the provision of home ownership down payment assistance funding for those who may be in a position to purchase a home and those are the first five again most of those have already been implemented or in process and then I'll turn it over to Alan Stevenson to continue thank you thank you Gina mayor members of council item number six would be to modify the existing special permit mobile home park development requirements to make it easier to develop new mobile home parks uh for that proposed one number seven would be uh develop a mobile home park zoning overlay incentive District this text Amendment would uh allow for a language we put in the ordinance that would keep a entice a property owner to keep it a local home park for a longer time period in order to develop additional development standards and entitlements once they would convert it from a mobile home park to redevelop it so for example they could have additional Building height or density for the multi-family zoning that would take the place of the mobile home park in the future but it gives more time in order to make that happen and all the details have to be worked out with that Amendment the third one or number eight I should say on our list here is to modify that non-conforming zoning ordinance Provisions this would be focused at existing mobile home parks and allowing them to have additional mobile home units put on them so that they could house more people within those existing mobile home parks the ninth one would be working with a qualified opportunity funds to bring them up to speed on these issues and see if they would be willing to invest in some of these mobile home parks where the property owner wants to sell sooner rather than later the opportunity fund could then come in and purchase that home park and keep it as a mobile home park to try and take advantage of the zoning overlay incentive provisions the tenth one would be to partner with a non-profit on purchasing mobile home parks um so that we can work with them to help try and address some of the the issues around that so a non-profit could operate the mobile home park uh the Phoenix Industrial Development Authority has agreed to work with the city on trying to help Finance some options to assist nonprofits to do this the item number 11 would be working with Rock USA which is a national non-profit that has assists existing mobile home owners in forming a Cooperative entity to finance the purchase of a mobile home park and then 12 would be develop a comprehensive strategy and action plan related to mobile home communities and manufactured housing to be a more proactive as development you know continues on in the city of Phoenix and we want to work in this plan to set up this the ability to be proactive so that we can address this issue in a proactive Manner and sorry instead of reactive as we are at this point and with that we're happy to answer any questions mayor mayor mayor oh I have tons of questions but and um I have a few more questions um Alan could you explain overlays as a tool and some of the different ways they have been used and how the situation is different mayor members of council the city has used zoning overlays uh over time to create development standards that are different than your base zoning District to accommodate various issues and and needs that would would come into play however once proposition 207 was passed in 2006 the though the ability for cities to do overlays became significantly curtailed because you cannot enact a land use law that diminishes the value of someone's private property right without having to pay for that and so since that time the city has not used overlays very frequently we do without property owner consent and so we have used them in a HP case that it was along Central Avenue and then I believe councilman Garcia referenced a golf course and I think the the golf course one predates proposition 207 and it was done with the property owner consent out of a court decree because they were redeveloping a portion of the the golf course and so in that case they got the ability to develop a portion of the golf course and then the in this case a golf course zoning overlay was put on the rest of the golf course but that was in exchange for keeping their rights and what they redeveloped on that portion of the golf course thank you I think that's important background and I want to thank our staff for working so hard on those 12 policies which range from down payment assistance to vouchers to helping residents by the parks cooperatively I know people don't go into this work at the city for any other reason other than trying to really help people and and find Solutions and this is hours of research that went into this the philanthropy the philanthropy Community keeps stepping up and and they want to be part of the solution as well there's a lot of Goodwill in this community people want to find Solutions and I appreciate everyone who's come to this with good faith some people have said that that um by right zoning would solve this problem and Alan will you speak to that what would happen if we did a lot of buy right zoning as some of the State Legislative proposals have said mayor members of council one of the um significant contributors to the value of property that entices Redevelopment on it is the zoning that a property has on it and under various proposals being considered at the state legislature that have by right zoning that preempt local control those would exacerbate the conditions of mobile home park residents because they would end up being able to bypass any City requirements and redevelop them with residential uses and in cases of the couple of bills that were out there like 11 17 there is no maximum density that would be allowed and so that's going to make that that property even more valuable and enticing to redevelop and so it would ultimately impact the mobile home park residents not just in these three but in the others throughout the City in a more significant way thank you I know there's a lot of mobile home parks along for example the South Central Lake Corps Light Rail Corridor and so they could be even at more at risk with more by right zoning and the city continues to work on these issues from from a variety of different perspectives for example ASU has found that mobile homes are about five percent of the total housing stock in Arizona but unfortunately are associated with 40 percent of the indoor deaths and so our office of heat responses working to try to provide life-saving measures there it's really a whole of city government effort and we know the state is also trying to do more I'm very hopeful about the state legislation prop 207 is a real challenge I went door to door against proposition 207 but the voters passed it and the Arizona Supreme Court is the ultimate decision maker on that law it is the law right now in Arizona and I'm happy to work with folks who think we can change it which would have to be done at the ballot but those of us who make laws should follow them even when we think they were incorrectly made and it's just misleading for us to tell people that we can ignore the law all right we'll go let's see I understand that um councilwoman O'Brien may have um we'll go to councilman O'Brien or no I'm sorry no I'm sorry we'll go to um I think I heard Laura Pastor Council women Pastor next my name is Laura Pasad last name is bastard that's how you say it in Spanish um I am just I'm just taken aback by this whole conversation um so one through five Gina we've already kind of implemented include number one include assistance which is the funding number two is housing navigations that's what's happening currently housing vouchers is part of all of this am I correct or wrong um development develop a communication strategy I don't know how I mean I know we can develop a communication strategy but we're in crisis right now so I don't know what type of communication uh plan you'll do maybe it'll be like oh tomorrow you'll be homeless uh thank the city and thank those that vote for you to be homeless so I don't know if that's what the communication plan will be um homeownership funding that's not it's available but it's not available because right now uh these uh residents are even if they're able to apply it's going to take time and they will be May 1st May 28th and end of June they will be out of uh a space a home and we'll be homeless so I hope you can speed up the bureau bureaucracy and get that paperwork and okayed by tomorrow so um item six through ten that's no way gonna happen six through ten is in development right now so it's not going to save any of these residents from their homes um the conversation of of the fact that should we speak to the property owners let's ask for the property owners for more time I'll tell you at least for two property owners that I've worked with and uh the third one uh did what he did on the contracts and everything so I didn't get a chance to speak to that property owner um but I would say I have asked for a meeting to a GCU to speak about this I was told I was not allowed to speak about this I'm allowed to speak about any other items on GCU and GCO program and programming but I'm not allowed to speak about this that's because they have a lawyer now and they've lawyered up and I'm not allowed to speak about possible solutions so I'm answering the question of talking to a property owner the Weldon Park property owner they they are lawyered up and then the residents are lawyered up so the lawyers are are taking care of what they need to take care of and discuss I am familiar with it I have talked to both uh so I get information I don't negotiate but I get information and then able to help the residents with communication and obviously the third one as you uh as was stated uh did what he did and I didn't get a chance to speak with them so I'm going to answer I answered the question of of helping uh speaking to the property owners it's a in the best interest of the property owners right now is to really give us more time and it's in their fate and it's in her hands like the Pastor said uh those that were here Faith love and uh let me see Faith Love and Hope well that's what GCU can give to these residents is Faith Love and Hope [Applause] um what I would like to know since we've heard from uh and I always get this wrong helping families I usually say Healthy Families I would like to hear from trellis and I would like to hear from trellis and I have some questions for trellis because uh I would like to speak to them and ask them questions so my question um here are my following questions how many families are in the Periwinkle trailer park uh space 46 46. out of those 46 how many families are you supporting 46. so you've provided 46 families with Services vouchers uh all the different things that are happening councilman you asked how many we were supporting supporting 46. okay my question now is how many of you helping with vouchers uh providing help and relocating I don't think it's 46. we've relocated 11 families okay we have three more that will be relocated within the next month we have eight families that are trying to decide their choice of Housing and we have 24 families that since September have refused to talk to us okay I think that's that's kind of where I was leading to the number um so 24 out of the 46 are not speaking to you that's correct okay the other that may change because we had a meeting with them last night and I got a call from uh Community Legal Services this morning saying that she has a list of people that now want to speak to us that's that's great news I mean for this process that's wonderful news yes yeah I mean I think that's exciting um out of the 24 my understanding is that I read I don't have it in front of me but I read a document basically where families were given a deadline date I want to say at the end of April but I'm not sure I will pull the document I'll have somebody look for it right now um that said if you don't apply with to get Services then after that date you would no longer be able to get Services is that true or not true that's partially true we advise the residents about two months ago that because of the length of time that you've heard tonight from several sources that it takes a long time to try to find people alternate housing that if they don't at least engage with us by April 1st the GCU benefits would not be available to them we didn't say that we wouldn't work with them we were just relaying that the GCU benefits would not be available after April 1st okay so out of these 24 and there's a possible several that will be working with you uh before April 1st I'm just gonna say 12 people choose not to speak with you uh or before April 1st then it's April 15th or May 30th and May 1st they're being evicted um and they call you then can they participate and get services with trellis yes with the whole yeah with trellis but trellis is part of this whole GCU agreement right trellis is providing services to the Periwinkle residents at the request of the City of Phoenix I might add well yeah I I would hope the City of Phoenix is trying to help you but I'm asking you're on you're there on the behalf of GCU am I correct no we're there on it we're there on behalf of the residents we were asked by the city if we were asked by the City of Phoenix we were asked by the City of Phoenix in August if we would help the Prairie Winkle residents and work with GCU we agreed to do that knowing that other non-profits had turned you down because we they all knew how hard this was going to be but we thought because of our HUD approved bilingual housing counselors that we could be helpful to the residents that's the only reason why we're here you see him a little hostile right now as I'm asking questions it's been a little one-sided all night tonight okay but then I would ask the City of Phoenix since we asked them to participate are we paying right now trellis at this moment on the city city of Phoenix behalf uh mayor councilwoman Pastor no this um is the Grand Canyon University is paying for trellis to provide the services so the City of Phoenix is not paying trellis but the City of Phoenix then asked trellis to participate with or engage with GCU yes Council and Pastor um yes the we as the City of Phoenix did help facilitate the conversation the conversation for cellus to engage with GCU to provide the service could you please tell me why we asked trellis and councilman Pastor I I wasn't involved directly in the discussion um in in making this Arrangement so my understanding is is that because they provide the housing counseling services um and they were willing to um to engage that um they weren't they were connected with um with GCU okay so then my next question is then how did helping families get involved in the other two cases and uh not trellis um councilwoman Pastor the kind of the sequence of events and how um the who was engaged with the various mobile home parks is how it evolved and so the Phoenix Industrial Development Authority Ida kind of initially was involved in assisting the Las Casitas residents I believe at the request of District eight and at that point they had identified helping families in need as a potential provider to assist the residents um and and so that's how H fin was identified and um and and we knowing and understanding the speed that we needed to engage another provider um were provided the funding to Ida in order to um for hvn to provide the services and then when Weldon Court was followed after Las Casitas we had already engaged H Finn and through the Ida and we included Walden Park and in providing the navigation and case management as well for Weldon Court thank you um I'm really sorry uh because I've had a good working relationship with trellis when Patricia was there Duarte and I worked very closely with trellis especially on the Miracle Mile and McDowell Road so I am just taken back by the energy I'm receiving but that's okay I can handle it and we'll deal with it um so I find it very uh hopeful like I'm going to go back to faith hope and love I find it very hopeful that Periwinkle is at least trying to engage with trellis my question is if if some of the residents don't feel comfortable with trellis then what do we do um councilwoman pastor they are welcome to obtain some of the services through the human services department and and the housing department that is one option that is available to them um the there was um a desire for someone other than the City of Phoenix to provide services to many of the residents but you know just feeling that that they might be comfortable more comfortable with a non-profit organization but the services are available we we do not have the capacity for a lot of the direct navigation just to to be clear and so for that reason it's good to have a a non-profit assisting with that but all of those the the city Ben the city programs are available to any Phoenix resident the the GCU benefits that are being provided we as a city have not engaged you know we don't have a direct line to those um the additional funding that's being provided as of this moment um but the other city city programs are definitely available to residents okay um Mike what do you need or funding and how much funding well based on our experience helping 11 people get relocated and the three that are about to get relocated um another fifteen thousand dollars per family would be very helpful and so GCU hired you right you're you're it's part of a GCU is is paying the the services the navigation Services yes they are okay so maybe we can have a conversation with GCU to look at adding more dollars to be able to help trellis in order to help these families get relocated um but they have to come to the table can I ask a question no no okay then maybe I'll make a statement the other two parks are not contributing one dollar towards the relocation of the residents you're absolutely right and that's because we were all involved as you see this Council and we were all involved in trying to help Las Casitas and Weldon councilwoman guardato was in the middle of periwinkle trying to help and that was the deal that GCU cut with trellis I can't change that right now that's the deal I can help but we you and I can work together to bring them to the table to be able to help we would like to do anything we can okay I'm willing to help it's just I'm asking the questions to put on records for because there's also been some false accusations not with trellis but I'm willing to help in order to help these families not be homeless we will do everything within our ability to make sure that doesn't happen all right so everybody saw that we're going to work together we're going to figure it out but it took a little bit to get there sorry um to others uh one of the things that I like to say is that fear kills us and anybody in a psychological space a psychiatrist anybody that has any social behavior knows that fear kills us if the fear that I always have every day when I get up and to meet the public to be able to solve these problems that you are bringing to me the weight that I carry and responsibility to make sure that you're not homeless if I allowed the fear that I had this morning when I was coming in to be able to sit here I'd be immobilized and I wouldn't be able to lead so if we want to allow fear to get in the way of what we need to do and what is the right thing for the people then allow those to vote out of fear because the solution that came up right now the one to twelve or one to eleven will not save you you will be homeless we will do our best to in helping you and getting what you need but basically these 12 items or 11 items are not going to help you today so with that I'm just letting you know I supported the letter I'm supporting uh the first motion thank you mayor we'll go to council member Garcia next thank you mayor and I just want to talk about the well the last point the councilwoman made so thank you staff I think those those 10 12 match 10 I think it was 12 at some point are great and then my understanding is we were already doing those right we're already working on those and so I just want to let everybody else know that that secondary motion process wise what it does if it passes that means we will not vote on the initial motion that includes the overlay and the moratorium and so just as a process if you see right now when we vote if this fictitious motion that includes the things that we're already doing passes we will not have an opportunity to actually vote on the overlay in the moratorium and I don't know where translations are but just so I feel better I'm gonna say it in Spanish and this is just wanted everyone to make sure that we know what's happening process-wise thank you mayor mayor councilwoman guardato thank you I guess on these um and thank you council member Garcia for that clarification um so on these what is it 6 through 12 Ellen um I guess I want to know what are timelines on all of this so uh mayor councilwoman guardato we are working on the special permit changes and the non-conforming uh text Amendment so those two ones and are set to bring that uh to a council vote by July 3rd um and then the incentive overlay zoning Amendment uh would be October and uh as part of that would also be working with the um working on the plan but the plan would not be able and be completely done until early next year so that we could have that voted on sorry go ahead and then the other ones are are ongoing now in terms of like having a discussion with Rock and working on those issues we are continuing to to work on those also but I don't know exactly when we'll be a timeline on that because those are involve us working with outside entities to try and make things happen we continue to to work on those so just given what you what you just said and look and I appreciate all of the hard work that staff has done I know my first meeting with you Jeff about GCU and how did we how we figure that out and Chris Mackey got involved and I know there's a lot of initial work that went in when we first saw that these that that these residents um in my district were getting evicted and I do appreciate all of your guys's hard work around that and everything that has been done but at the same time looking at this timeline and looking at these steps that we we're going to see after after our motion fails today we're gonna see a lot more mobile home parks do this and we're gonna see a lot more residents being evicted and we're not gonna really have anything like from the timeline that I'm looking at and the way you're explaining it Ellen um we're not going to see anything to be able to save these families until next year that gives that gives other other other folks more opportunity to affect more evict more folks so I want to know what is it that what is it that what directive do you need from us to accelerate this process I mean I'm still upset that this does not help the families that are sitting here with their children they'll be evicted in a couple of weeks um but I just don't see um the we need to put a more urgency around this I think what do you need from us to accelerate this given that it is a crisis given that we are doing this for the for the future and the future is I you know in my opinion the future is now like what do you need from us to be able to move this forward faster or accelerate the timeline not to July not till October not till next year so mayor uh councilman Morado they the challenge that is presented in all this is is that at the end of the day what you heard from our our outside attorney is that City doesn't have any legal authority to stop a property owner from evicting someone and so the the things we are bringing forward are items that we can move forward more quickly but I don't we won't we've got some statutory requirements we have to meet from a public hearing process standpoint so we can bring those forward but they're not at the end of the day going to guarantee that people aren't going to get evicted from their homes uh and because that's a entirely private transaction that we don't have any legal authority over so I want to be clear that what we are proposing and working on is trying to come up with tools to entice owners to to not do that or to ensure that we are um you know trying to make it as easy as possible to move some of them if that's possible to even move them but as you know a number of them have some structural challenges in being able to be moved and and that's going to be an impediment as well so everything that we're talking about is is around trying to do what we can but there's no legal Authority that the city has that I'm aware of to ensure that we can help these residents directly or others with eviction because we don't have that legal Authority no I I understand that I I get that but part of the reason why you guys came up with this plan was to help families and I guess I feel it some con contradicting I don't know because now it seems you're telling me like even if we put this plan up and running um it's still not going to help families if they get if they if we have more families that start going through this well mayor and uh councilworado I want to be be clear that the the public and the residents are impacted understand that um advancing these uh you know steps forward isn't a guarantee that that's going to solve the the issue because we the city simply doesn't have that legal Authority and so that's what I want to make clear by that it will help in some fashion but only to The Limited extent that that's the authority we have you know I mean at at the end of the day the the state law that only provides for a six-month notification and very limited dollars and a limited focus group of people that that it would apply to would be much more impactful to help these residents and future uh mobile home park residents that are are going to be displaced uh you know under the current laws in Arizona uh we're a state that very heavily is a pro property right State and given prop 207 given that the legislature has bills to completely preempt local zoning Authority and exacerbate this condition even more I don't see that being something that is going to be solved at the local level it's far more impactful to solve it at the state level and get more money to the the residents who are impacted because of that private transaction between the the property owned and the resident that again the city doesn't control what the state can have influence in what happens there well thank you for that clarification and I don't mean to say that I don't appreciate the work that you guys have done on this I get it that this is a big problem with the state and given the loss that we have I understand that but I just wanted to make sure that we clarified that and that we are going to have a lot of families homeless in the next in the next couple of weeks given that there's very little that you know that we can do here thank you thank you thank you Ellen I think that's an important point that the overlay in moratorium would not protect residents from eviction we'll go to councilman Ansari and then councilman decisio and vice mayor and sorry and then councilman decisio thank you um so given the urgency of the situation one of the one of the four recommendations that we had on item 93 today was a 2.5 million dollar emergency fund to be able to additionally support residents and since it sounds like the original motion's not going to pass I wanted to see if the maker of the secondary motion may be willing to include that piece as a friendly Amendment or whatever it needs to be right there and sorry unfortunately my concern with that is that those are one-time dollars and and if as our fellow council members have said that this will now become an epidemic what will we do as more and more um mobile home parks are purchased and people are evicted I mean that's an absolutely fair question but I think we absolutely also need the 2.5 million dollars right now to support the families of the three that are right here and also the ones that are impending in the immediate future so I I don't know I hope we can find something in the general fund if that is needed we'll need private dollars but this 2.5 million I think needs to come from the remainder of what we have left from the American Rescue plan I I just I can't I I can't because it's one time funding and this will be an ongoing problem and until we know where that continues that money will continue to come from I don't think it is in our best interest to do that councilwoman O'Brien America yes ma'am okay um and I think councilman decisio is next so we'll go to councilman decisio If the vice mayor is done well I just want to ask about that thank you mayor and I'll uh councilman Pastor I'll go to you after councilman decisio councilman decisio the floor is yours thank you mayor so I was going to ask the same thing these people need help now I can answer the question on the covet monies when it's out it's out you can't I don't think you can legally do this with general fund Monies uh it goes contrary to the Constitution as a giveaway at that point you can't do that so I think this is an easy thing for us to do I would implore and ask and if you don't mind just to think about this again I can't support this uh motion without those monies in there I gave my word I was going to do that um at the end of the day it looks like both proposals would end up failing because I won't support either one of them for for those reasons but these people need help today I know that it could set a precedent but when the covet monies are out they're out and I think that that's an easy lift for us to be able to tell the public when others come to us um I couldn't bear to think that these individuals would not have some sort of cushion some sort of safety net that they could rely on um I did meet with Grand Canyon just so you know they did meet with me they were incredibly gracious people I thought the meeting went really well it just didn't happen to go the way I liked it to have gone or what I thought we could have gotten out of that but at the end of the day that was their choice but in this case here after hearing with I heard on these testimonies I'm hearing those kids these people need a lifeline and I'm all good with that and I'm good with giving them this money so that they can survive and make it through they're not going to find housing they're just not going to do it with the amount of monies that are out there just can't do it I mean this economy are the fact that we are so short in housing and this in the city in the state it's just driving rents up and it's just going to be harder and harder for people to find places and I've been in their shoes not as bad as theirs and not as long as theirs and I'm just not gonna not do I won't do it without those monies in there so I'm just asking imploring you and begging you just to add that in there and I'll support your motion thank you Mary mayor thank you councilwoman Pastor okay um I think I said councilman Pastor next so well but she may just ask you the question would you want to email to councilwoman O'Brien yeah I just wanted to talk about the the dollars but councilwin O'Brien go ahead the two and a half million dollars would that be available to all three groups of people I would like it to be I mean we just heard that sorry is there a city the city staff can they answer that question mayor um councilwoman O'Brien the staff would would welcome it being available to the three mobile home parks and I would even go so far as to say as any as long as the funds exist and if if there were a need in the future that it would be open should we have the additional situation before the funds are expended and timelines are up okay I I am concerned about the president I do understand the need um so I will um accept the friendly Amendment thank you councilwoman and one thing we could consider is the city has Community Development block grant money and that isn't likely to be an ongoing funding source so perhaps we could work on developing a plan that transitions us from arpa to Community Development block grant because I agree we have to develop policies that will work throughout the city for all of the parks because this is a problem that is not going to go away mayor may I confirm that councilwoman Stark who made the second agrees with that friendly Amendment yes thank you all right thank you uh go ahead councilwoman yes um I know that uh we are right now or tomorrow I have a really early meeting to discuss some of the monies in the digital divide and uh doing the accounting and everything any monies that is uh that is not spent I would like the 2.5 to come from there if possible thank you and we'll turn to Jeff Barton sorry mayor didn't mean to cut you off um mayor members of council councilwoman past daughter as you know we've been working with you and Chris Mackey on that project and we do believe there's some savings there especially in the new direction that we're going so if you're okay with it that would be my recommendation and I'd just to clarify I think what we were talking about using if we were going to go this route initially when this was one of the original motions was that these dollars would be used to provide additional navigation services for for the residents of the mobile home parks for the three Parks three parks just to clarify for the record okay I'm sorry mayor could I clarify something please do the the money would come from the bucket that Jeff and councilwoman Pastor were just talking about not not our landlord incentive program for our housing voucher program that is correct okay thank you very much thank you and the city continues to work on many different strategies we have some units that were just built at Harmony on the Park which is a partnership with the federal government that are immediately available right now so if residents had a voucher they could go there and then we're going to have phase two coming online soon so all of these policies are working together to increase options there is not one perfect solution but we're trying many different policies do we have additional council member comments before we vote on the motion roll call decisio yes Garcia can I explain my vote please do um really disappointed I don't think these two and a half million are going to do anything and that back and forth right now I'm just assured that we're not going to take the stance that's needed to help you all from not being homeless in the next two months so absolutely no on this because it's things we're already doing but unfortunately if this passes we will not vote on the overlay and the and the moratorium so I'm sorry for y'all and uh we'll we'll continue to work and in a short month just like that kid's going to be over here I'm going to be over there and we'll continue to organize and make sure we fight back so it's for GCU I think you've awakened a community that's going to be able to organize and I think many of us are going to be there when you try to move these trailers thank you and that's a no cordado mayor can I explain my vote please do also I'm very disappointed I wish you know that you know it's sad that you know this is happening in my backyard I mean we've put so much money into homelessness our our staff has put in so much time and it's sad that now we are going to be voting on a motion that is going to continue to increase homelessness I'm really sorry for all the families that will that are going to continue on this path um wish we we could have done more um I will be votino O'Brien yes pastor no you already heard me Stark yes wearing yes I'm sorry may I explain my vote please do I also will be voting no I don't feel at all that this measure goes strong enough I'm very grateful to staff for all of the work that you have done on the 12 policies but as was made abundantly clear it's not going to be in time to support these three mobile home parks I'm grateful to councilwoman O'Brien for including the 2.5 million dollars for the emergency fund but again I'm so sorry to the families I do not believe that this motion meets the urgency of what is happening no Gallego yes passes five four thank you we're glad we can provide additional funding to non-profits who are already putting it to work we'll next go to public comment and I'll turn to our City attorney to explain that portion of our our council meeting thank you mayor during citizen comment members of the public May address the city council for up to three minutes on issues of Interest or concern to them the Arizona open meeting law permits the city council to listen to the comments but prohibits council members from discussing or acting on the matters presented the citizen comment session is limited to 30 minutes we'll begin with refill way I'm yeah hello good evening I just want to start by saying I've been on since about 2 40 p.m and in solidarity with the residents fighting for their housing security this evening it's very strange my last city council meeting which is March 1st which I'll speak to more and at that meeting the city council had the decision of ending housing discrimination or moving towards ending housing discrimination and increasing access and this evening was a little confusing for me in terms of realizing how much of a priority or the urgency that there may be so much love and solidarity to the communities currently fighting some maintaining their housing I'm here to speak in solidarity um with Beatrix X Beatrix is uh lovingly known to the community as Aunt B um and her family's been hurting hurting for over a year after the loss of her sister Dorothy Chambers who was murdered along with her partner Joseph Gutierrez last year Dorothy and Joseph were houseless community members living at Perry Park we're crossing the street and we're hit by a driver whose state is still in debate um the last council meeting we went to March 1st right after that meeting right after speaking while quite emotional Aunt B was approached by an officer who told her that the man who ran over her sister and had not been found had actually been found and was booked she was given a bookie number and this looked like hope in terms of accountability for her family however we continue to see victim rights violated as he's once again nowhere to be accounted for has not been presented in front of a judge and their booking is actually not yet been confirmed I'm calling for the rights of this family for Beatrix for Dorothy for Joseph and all of the community members that love them please end this family's hurt be in communication be transparent and let's hold all of our community members accountable to the same extent thank you Leonard Clark sorry thank you well I want to thank the council uh for at least the members who tried to help with the trailer court people today but I want the young people who are here in the audience and the young people who are out there watching that feel a sense of lost hope I remember watching the young people when SB 1070 was passed the show me your papers and I remember young people dreamers crying when Governor Jan Brewer signed that horrible bill and I said to them whatever you do yes you can shed your tears but remember this moment that you will do something about this that you will not give up on bringing love and light and progress to Arizona and I'm saying the same thing we are to do the things that we need to do for more humanity and that's what we need and I want to thank the council members who tried valiantly uh for trying to seek more Humanity thank you but we are facing things now in this new age we are facing institutions that are outdated yes we still need a Democratic Republic but just like down at the state legislature where they can tell you what to do by they say with the 1487 the state constitution they are the modern day basically equivalent the state legislature of a buggy whip Factory because when people used to live in Payson or for that matter we lived here in Washington DC our Congress went off they couldn't vote we couldn't see instantaneously what's going on because you know they had no internet but now we see we've been brought back to that moment where in ancient Greece you know they could go and they could go to that stadium and they could say either vote Yes or no now that is direct democracy but we now have we now have the ability to keep our Republic but we have to understand we have more direct democracy we have people on the internet who just watched people on my social media and your social media what took place tonight so I I want to thank all of the beautiful people that are trying and the the students that came down and I want to thank councilman Carlos Garcia Council lady Laura Pasteur and the council lady guardardo and Ansari uh but I I want to thank you for trying to have some Humanity tonight so don't give up the hope our young people out there don't give up because that's what the forces of Darkness want you to do love and light will carry you through and we will stand by just as I know Carlos Garcia the councilman now will always stand by the people and uh I hope to see you again and maybe we need Carlos Garcia in the legislature I'll knock on a few doors I know but maybe thank you very much thank you that concludes this portion of our first meeting our first meeting is adjourned and in 10 minutes we will begin our second meeting