Housing and Transportation Affordability

I have started gathering statistics for the White Paper I am drafting, and am learning quite a bit. The Center For Neighborhood Technologies published a report on the burdens of housing and transportation and working families. In phoenix specifically they found that working families spend 57% of their income on housing and transportation. The Center For Neighborhood Technologies said that to be considered affordable, families should spend no more than 45% of their income on transportation and housing. They also have a Housing And Transportation Affordability Index that you can view and if you look in the Phoenix Metro Area Specifically you will see that the factor of affordability gets smaller in the region when transportation is considered. Too add to the mess many working families spend about 30% of their income on transportation, more than they spend on housing which is 27%.

Currently Illinois is looking at adopting the Housing and Transportation Index as a planning tool and as a criterion in the allocation of funding for transit, highways, economic development, and housing projects. It is in the State Senate and if passed in Illinois will be the first type of legislation that goes beyond including just housing as an affordability factor. It is important for the City of Phoenix I feel to adopt such policies as well if we are going to remain a competitive, economical, sustainable, and attractive city. It is the way the future is moving and since HUD announced its Partnership with DOT and EPA, if we want future funding we will have to be able to be able to and implement and be effective in such policies.

If you are Interested in the report or viewing the index you can click on the following link:
http://www.cnt.org/repository/heavy_load_10_06.pdf

Career Services: Interviewing and Professional Dress

Last Tuesday I listened to a career services webinar on Interviewing and professional dress. It touched on the basics of being prepared for an interview. It stressed the importance of researching the agency you are interviewing with prior to your interview. One great piece of advice was to spend some time clarifying your career goals, which will enable you to answer the interviewer’s question better. You should also be able to answer questions such as: What do you feel are your greatest strengths and challenges? What do you believe you will contribute to this agency? What do you believe qualifies you for this position? And why are you interested in this position?

There was also discussion on professional dress. I jotted down the business attire for women: Makeup should look natural. A conservative style dress suit should be worn. Suits should be dark solid colors such as navy or gray. Closed toe and closed heel shoes are most appropriate. One interesting point, sad but true, do not carry a cheap plastic pen. Also, Make sure to carry your notepad and other materials in a leather cover or nice case.

Please see picture below for appropriate business attire!

It's A Girl

I have known for awhile now that my sister is pregnant. But yesterday, I found out she is going to be having a girl! I am super excited for her, and super excited for the newest member of our family! It is the first grandchild of our family, so you can imagine how excited all of us are! She will definitely be one spoiled little girl!

Congrats Meg! I know She'll be just as cute and wonderful as you!

Employer Assisted Housing

I met with Teresa, Executive Director at LISC Phoenix, today to gain further insight into the White Paper I am drafting. I am going to be doing further research on Employer Assisted Housing, and including findings of my research on the White Paper. This paper will stress the importance of Employers’ offering employee benefits in assistance for affordable housing. Depending on the employer’s location they will be able to see the Neighborhood Stabilization funds being allocated in areas closest to them to further help their employees.

Many employers’ create incentives to get employees to figure out alternatives to transportation, other than single vehicle occupancy use, on their own. Incentives to employees’ may include things such as prize drawings to encourage them to not only make the effort to research their options, but also make the effort to use them. While this is good and helps, our program is intended to put some of that responsibility back on the employer. Valley Metro already has several tools that employers’ can use for mapping out transportation options for employees’. Employers’ can actually enter in specific employee data such as their address and this map will identify carpool or vanpool matches, local bus route options or even a light rail connection that would get employees to work without them driving.

Fannie Mae and the Center for Neighborhood Technology have several studies they have conducted in regards to the connection between housing, jobs, and transportation. I have been finding them useful and very informative. I am also excited to meet the individuals at Valley Metro behind this partnership with LISC, and will hopefully get the opportunity to do so in December. Teresa has asked me if I would be interested in attending the next meeting with her and I intend on doing so!

White Paper

At the end of the research I am doing for LISC in regards to the Sustainable Home Ownership and NSP program, I will have to create a rough draft White Paper. A White Paper is a report or guide that often addresses issues and how to solve them. White papers are used to educate readers and help people make decisions on a particular issue.

This paper will make it apparent why employers should be interested in employer assisted housing. It will make the connection between housing and transportation, as well as transportation and affordability being key factors in job retainment. I have never written a White Paper, so I guess now is as good a time as ever to get started! I will be meeting with Teresa, LISC’s executive director, to get this paper underway!

Something new to learn everyday

I have finally finished the map I have been working on. However, there are a few corrections that need to be made, based off of LISC’s specific target areas. I will probably be up late to get it into the Director on time. I have been re-learning how to use Adobe Illustrator to edit this map. Things that would take an editor an hour, are taking me several hours. Whoever drew up the first map did not do a good job at properly labeling everything, so that has made it even more difficult. Even though it has been frustrating at times, it has been good to refresh my memory on how to use Adobe. It’s a valuable skill to be able to utilize when creating professional documents. On that note…

Tomorrow, Teresa, LISC’s director, has a meeting with Valley Metro to update them on the program. She wants to be able to take the map to the meeting, that is why it is important for me to meet the deadline. So it’s off to work for me!

Work Continues

This week I have continued the tedious process of rendering a pdf file from the Maricopa County Planning Department. I have to change the current colors on the map to match with the respective cities and zip codes for the project I have been working on.

I have also been trying to contact each city to get updated information on their Neighborhood Stabilization Program target areas. We have a current list that is broad and a year old. I need updated information on the zip codes in which NSP funds are being allocated to. Due to Veterans’ Day I have had a problem getting a hold of the right people from the various cities. Hopefully tomorrow I will have better luck.

Making Sustainable Communities Happen

Today I attended a public address by the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban development, Ron Sims. This event was a pre-conference event and was cosponsored by the US Green Building Conference. In addition, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, City of Phoenix and One Economy joined the ASU Stardust Center in co-sponsoring this event.

Ron Sims’ message was especially salient given the challenges we face today in Arizona. He talked about the need for change towards density in our communities, and how sprawl will just not work in the 21st century. He commends Phoenix for its implementation of the light rail saying, “public transportation is the future and we have to make investments in public transportation if we are going to become sustainable.” His overall message was that cities have to embody what sustainability and livability stands for. Sustainability and livability means we leave no one behind. Sustainability and livability are going to be key changes and it is the “smart” cities who will prevail. These will be the communities and cities that attract the talent, how we build is our statement of life and it will define us as cities. I was glad nonetheless, to be able to go and listen to Ron Sims, a well achieved individual, speak on the importance of sustainable, livable, affordable housing.

Mapping

This weekend I have been working on collecting NSP (Neighborhood Stabilization Program) information. The Neighborhood Stabilization Program was established for the purpose of stabilizing communities that have suffered from foreclosures and abandonment. Through the purchase and redevelopment of foreclosed and abandoned homes and residential properties, the goal of the program is being realized. I am searching HUD and individual city websites for each city’s target areas. I am going to compile a map of NSP target areas by zip code for Maricopa County. This will give the program I am working on at LISC a focal point on funding that is being allocated that can be tapped into. It will also help us target specific zip codes of employers’ within the NSP target areas. This is going to be a tedious process but helpful and save time in the beginning stages of this program.

The Real Cost of Driving

This week I have continued work on researching the Valley Metro “Trip Reduction Reference Guide” and Neighborhood Stabilization Communities for LISC. If any of you drive your own vehicle to work or school, go to the following link http://www.valleymetro.org/cost_calculator. I came across this commuter calculator when reading the Trip Reduction Guide. It calculates an individual’s cost of driving by factoring in round trip miles, the number of total work days per month, vacation days per year, your vehicle’s miles per gallon, fuel costs per gallon, and monthly parking costs. When you fill out all the criteria it breaks down how much you pay and how far you travel daily, weekly, monthly and annually. It also factors in cost of car maintenance, which according to AAA is about .08 cents a mile. It maybe hard for a lot of individuals to use public transit but if feasible it is, in most cases, more economical to buy an annual bus pass.

Career Services Event: "The Hidden Job Market"

On October 27th, I listened in on a career services webinar event “The Hidden Job Market.” One major point that was touched upon was networking. Because of the current economic circumstances and unemployment rates, the importance of networking was heavily emphasized. Networking can lead to unadvertised positions in the “hidden job market.” The hidden job market is estimated to contain 60-80% of the total job market. This market is also supposed to be less competitive because less than 25% of people seeking employment use it. Using your personal and professional contacts to your advantage when looking for a job can make the process a lot easier. Expressing your interests to these contacts in a job and what assets you can bring to the table could lead to additional employment leads or even employment.

Happy Halloween!

Last night for Halloween we went to a murder mystery party. Each person was given a character they had to play. My character, Maxine, was a conservative old lady, who was a law abiding citizen. It was the first murder mystery party I had been to, but great fun! Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!

Maxine!!

Good times!

And so it begins...

I have started research on the new project I was assigned to at LISC. Currently I am reading The Trip Reduction Ordinance passed by Arizona Legislature in 1988. This is an air quality bill that requires all employers and schools with 50 or more employees to design and implement their own Trip Reduction Programs. This will play a significant role when finding the employers that are within the Neighborhood Stabilization Communities. Our program will offer one more alternative to employers to comply with the ordinance, by having their employees purchase foreclosed properties closer to work. It will also give us some insight into who is actually complying, and raising their awareness.

The overall goal for the ordinance is for employee’s to reduce single occupant vehicle trips or miles traveled to the employer’s work site by 10 percent a year for a total of five years. The next three years employer’s target is to reduce trips by 5 percent, with an overall target reduction of 60 percent at each work site. LISC program is intended to help make these goals achievable.

Here is the link if you would like to know more:
http://www.maricopa.gov/aq/divisions/trip_reduction/default.aspx