This week, we’re going to speak with the CEO of Tucson’s Industrial Development Authority, Dre Thompson. She’s been on the show before, but this is a new role for her. We’re going to talk about the community impact of the Tucson IDA, and we’re going to hear about a new home loan program supporting essential workers.

Today is May 22th, my name is Tom Heath and you’re listening to “Life Along the Streetcar”.

Each and every Sunday our focus is on Social, Cultural and Economic impacts in Tucson’s Urban Core and we shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about. From A Mountain to UArizona and all stops in between. You get the inside track- right here on 99.1 FM, streaming on DowntownRadio.org- we’re also available on your iPhone or Android using our very own Downtown Radio app.

Reach us by email [email protected] — interact with us on Facebook @Life Along the Streetcar and follow us on Twitter @StreetcarLife— And check out our past episodes on www.lifeAlongTheStreetcar.org, Spotify, iTunes or asking your smart speaker to “Play Life Along The Streetcar Podcast.”

Our intro music is by Ryanhood and we exit with music from Patrick Aimes, “Essential Workers.”

Transcript

Good morning. It’s a beautiful sunny in the old Pueblo, and you’re listening to Ktdt Tucson. Thank you for spending a part of your brunch are with us on your downtown Tucson community sponsored rock and roll radio station. And this week, we’re going to speak with the CEO of Tucson’s Industrial Development Authority, Dre Thompson. She’s been on the show before, but this is a new role for her. We’re going to talk about the community impact of the Tucson IDA, and we’re going to hear about a new home loan program supporting essential workers. Today is May 22, 2022. My name is Tom Heath, and you’re listening to Life Along the streetcar each and every Sunday. Our focus is on social, cultural and economic impacts in Tucson’s urban core. And we shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about, from May Mountain to the University of Arizona and all stops in between. You get the inside track right here on 99.1 FM, streaming on Downtownradio.org, also available on your iPhone or Android by downloading

the Downtown Radio Tucson app. If you want to reach us on the show, our email address is [email protected]. We’re also available on Facebook, Instagram, Podcast, wherever you find that podcast, your favorite one out there. Our past episodes are on Lifelongthstreetcar.org, and you can always check that out for information on our newly released book. Well, we are wrapping up May, which means June and July and August. The hot months are right around the corner. And one thing we know during those hot months, we like to do things at night. And the Mercado district over just west of the freeway, the Western end of the street. Car, by the way, is starting their summer night markets. That’s going to begin this coming Friday the 27th. And they’ll do it monthly through September. So June, July, August and September, you can head over to the MSA annex area. They’ve got local vendors, probably like 50 or 60 of them show up, as well as their MSA. The annex shops are open with extended

hours and a chance to shop a little bit in the evening hours under the sun. Probably has some music. There, some good food as well. If you want more information, you can head over to their website. It’s the Ricadodistrict.com. Well, we’ve talked on this show many times about the housing shortage in Tucson, the affordability issues. And we’re looking at solutions in the urban core that maybe can resonate throughout our community. One organization, the Industrial Development Authority, the IDA from Tucson, offers down payment assistance programs for home purchases. They do many other things. And we’re going to talk to their CEO, Dre Thompson, in just a moment. But the focus of our interview today is not just their impact, but looking how they’re expanding that down payment assistance program with specific benefits for essential workers. They got a program coming out in June. So Dre is fairly new in this role and taking a charge like she always does. And we sat down with her to find out more

about the idea of this program. Well, once again, we are joined by Dre. Thompson. This time, we are talking about a new venture that she is on with the Tucson Industrial Development Authority. We call it the IDA. But Dre. You are no stranger to the show. You’ve been on here with lots of important topics. But can you tell us about your current role?

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me back on here. And it’s always a joy to speak to you. You are such an important part of our community. So I love to chat with you about new things that are going on. So, yeah, last time we spoke, I was at Startup Tucson, and then in January, I switched over the Tucson Industrial Development Authority. And if you haven’t heard of it before, that’s okay, because I hadn’t either prior to joining, really. And that is kind of part of the problem. That’s why I wanted to get involved, because the Tucson IDA is a really important economic development engine for the city of Tucson. And we’ve done a ton of work in the community in the past. But really, there’s a lot more that we can be doing. We are a quasi governmental nonprofit finance authority. We have a lot of opportunities to assist with affordable housing, access to capital, and really just help Tucson tackle a lot of the economic development challenges we have. So I’m Super excited to come on board and

really try to elevate the work that we do at the IDA and also to really get more engaged in some of the big challenges that Tucson is facing right now.

And we talked about these private quasi government organizations and economic development. And the first thing that leaves to my mind is like with RIA Nuevo, and that seems to be kind of the same thing. Right. They’re not really a government entity, but they kind of are. And they have this economic vision. Are you structured similarly to Ryanuevo?

Not exactly the same as Ryanuevo insomnia as the funds that the Tucson IDA raises are all self generated funds. So we have a slightly different charter than Reonuevo. We also work. A lot of our work is not location boxed. Obviously, benefiting City of Tucson is our big primary goal.

So we’re not structured exactly the same way. But in some ways, I think you could say it’s similar in so much as we are working hand in glove with the city of Tucson to help implement some of their strategic economic and community goals.

Okay. And you said your funds are self generated. How do you generate that money?

Yeah, we have a number of different revenue sources, so we have some property holdings. We also do small business lending as one of our sources of opportunity for access to capital, but also revenue generation. We have a number of different types of programs that help build capital for our fund, and all of our funds are reinvested into more projects.

Okay. So you have to make good decisions then. If you want to be sustainable over the long term, you can’t just be doling out cash. You’ve got to have sound business plans behind all this.

Yeah, we are in some ways like a bank, except our stakeholders and shareholders are the city of Tucson and the residence here, that is really who we’re accountable to. And so we do have to make sound business decisions, but we also have flexibility to really be mission based in the programs that we bring.

And it’s pretty broad based, too. I think that’s sometimes where the confusion comes in because you can’t put a specific label on what you do. Just in preparation for the interview, I went to your website, and the first thing that jumps out at me is you’ve got these testimonials, and you have Pueblo Vita, one of our downtown brewers is talking about how you help them expand and grow their business. And then right next to that is an assisted living facility that’s discussing how they couldn’t get renovations to make this work without your help. So you’re kind of across the spectrum. It’s kind of hard to say. The one thing that you do, it seems like there’s a lot yeah, I.

Think that’s a good point. A lot of the ways that IDA serve is sort of filling gaps that exist in traditional financing systems. So wherever we see that there is a gap or that there is a need for someone to come in as a partner, for example, if you’re an early stage restaurant owner, it can be challenging to get a traditional loan so we can come in and reduce the risk. So that’s how we partner with traditional banks as well. We’re not replacing them, but we can say, hey, we’ll come in as a partner and we’ll help a deal that maybe wouldn’t have otherwise been approved get approved because we’re helping to reduce some of the risk in that transaction. So whether you’re a restaurant or you’re trying to expand a manufacturing facility here in Tucson, or if you’re trying to build some housing, that we can come in and really partner with different stakeholders from the banks to the entrepreneurs to the small businesses to help really make deals come through so that we’re not having great projects

sort of die on the vine because someone wasn’t able to get that access to capital.

Okay. So hearing all of this now, and I have to admit, I was somewhat naive about I thought I understood the idea. I didn’t realize how complex it was. But now hearing you talk, I’m like, okay, your transition from start up Tucson to the idea role makes perfect sense to me now because it’s just sort of an expansion of that sort of same concept, but you’re doing it in a slightly different way.

That’s right. That’s what really fueled this curiosity. If you are working in entrepreneurship, you just see so many times that time and again, the access to capital is a barrier. You have great companies and for whatever reason, just aren’t a great fit for traditional methods of access to capital. So what I love about the idea is that you can do very experimental, cool types of lending and participation. Bringing new financial tools is one of the things that I’m really excited about bringing to Tucson. There’s a lot of new financial programs and access to capital that we can help facilitate as an idea that you wouldn’t really be able to do as a traditional bank, not as a venture capitalist, but we can really do it from serving from our mission and our vision.

Yeah. Your background for those that have listened to the show, I mean, obviously you’ve been on many times, but it’s always when I’m talking to you, it’s always pulling something together. There’s different entities that need to cooperate to make something happen. And you always seem to be in the middle of pulling those people together.

It really is great. And that is what an IDA is supposed to be, that neutral territory between multiple partners and really getting it done. You know, Tesla, sometimes it feels like we hit a wall and things just don’t quite happen and things aren’t quite as timely. And so my hope in really making an idea a very active partner that we can really move the needle on some of these big problems, big challenges that we’re working on.

And we’ll be back to find out more about some of these big challenges that Dre. Thompson speaks about, and specifically, a program that she is spearheading for housing support of our essential workers. My name is Tom Heath, and you’re listening to Life Along the Streetcar in Downtown radio, 99.1 FM and available for streaming on Downtownradio.org.

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We are back to finish up our interview with Dre. Thompson. She’s been on the show many times, always in some role where she is helping to create something new in our community, helping to pull organizations together and do something special. And now she’s in charge of Tucson’s Industrial Development Authority. And one of her first acts as the leader of this organization is to put together a program to support essential workers.

Kind of my first program that I started was what we are going to talk about today now, which was the essential workers housing fund. If you’re paying attention at all about living under a rock right now, you know how challenging the housing market is. And this specific issue of essential workers, I think has broad ramifications for our economy over how our workforce. And so I really wanted to create a targeted program that can help, specifically this important group of workers in our community.

Well, my side gig when I’m not doing this radio thing is the mortgage business. And we see time and time again the challenges of anyone really in this market. It’s more challenging than it’s been in the past. When you get into first time home buyers and then you get into individuals that are, as you say, essential workers, sometimes the income they have from those jobs is not reflective of how important they are in our community. And it’s even more challenging for them to get into housing. So I certainly get this very specific targeting of an audience to a specific challenge. But let’s talk more about this. So in general, we know we have housing issues in Tucson. We have affordability issues. There are some programs in place to help. But this is a sort of a brand new concept. I think, again, this is something that’s going to be in partnership potentially with other opportunities, correct?

Yeah, exactly. So how this all came about was I was listening to Zach’s show, I got to give him credit for this. And he was talking about some stories that were coming out of Phoenix where nurses, firefighters, police officers were being completely boxed out of the housing market. And

part of it is this is horrible. These folks are putting their sometimes life on the line. They are so essential. We know that teachers, retail workers, grocery shop, all the people that really keep our community going. So we don’t want to have them boxed out. But if you are unable to get a home in the community where you work, you’re starting to see and this is already happening really significant challenges, attracting and retaining essential workers in our workforce, in our hospitals, in our police force, in our fire stations. And that puts all of us at risk. So I really believe and even downtown, as you’re having all these restaurants going up, the folks that are working in the restaurant should be able to afford living nearby and having the opportunity to participate in the benefits of the community. So there’s kind of multiple reasons why essential workers are an important group to target for economic development support. So basically how it works is we have an existing down payment

assistance program, Pima Tucson homebuyer solution, which the average person gets about $14,000 of down payment assistance, down payment assistance, about 40% of people that don’t owe homes that want them say down payment is the hardest part. And closing cost is kind of tackled into that, too. This is all out of pocket cash you have to have on hand. So we have this existing program, 2000 Homebuyer solution. What we’ve done is we’ve partnered with a number of community partners to add additional funding. On top of that funding, the Tucson Realtors Charitable Foundation is our title sponsor. The city of Tucson came in, FHR Cares, the Family Housing Resources CIC, my partners at Pima IDA. So all of us created this additional fund where if you’re an essential worker, you get an additional $2,500 to help cover some of those closing costs. So the idea is if you’re in the market for a home and you are eligible for a home, but you need that a little extra help and assistance. We sort of rallied

the community around these folks to help kind of push it over the edge and make the housing process more affordable.

It’s 2500 is what is available through this particular piece of the program.

That’s right, correct.

Again, this is something that I do fairly regularly. And when you start to look at some of the down payment assistance programs and they’re structured a little bit differently, but just to maybe simplify it a little bit on some of the programs, when you look at the amount of down payment required for the loan and the closing costs and then the assistance that you can get from the down payment assistance piece of it, a lot of times we’re about two to $3,000 short of where we need to be. So having $2,500 really bridges that gap and puts it in a situation where an essential worker really could have no money out of pocket to get into one of these houses. I don’t think you came upon that number by accident.

Yeah. We worked really closely with the Tucson Realtors Association to understand what would really be helpful, what’s the right amount to just help exactly what you said bridge that gap. Obviously, we’d love to offer more. So if there’s more partners that are listening, that when I can help contribute to the fund, we would love to grow the fund and maybe we can even increase that. But still, with this program, we’ll be helping 200, 240 families that are in this category to secure homeownership. And like you say, by itself, 2500. Okay, maybe that doesn’t feel like a make or break, but when you start adding additional assistance and all the different things that you can sort of bundle with this, it really starts to make a sizeable impact.

And the down payment assistance that you mentioned, the home buyer solution, that’s not something that’s a grant that doesn’t have to be repaid as long as the home buyer agrees to certain stipulations, like living in the home for three years. And that type of thing is this 2500 similar? Like it’s not something that has to be repaid.

That’s exactly right. So if you do stay in your home for three years and you’re making your mortgage payments on time, after three years, all of the assistance, the essential workers and your regular down payment assistance gets kind of converted or acts as a grant. And you do not have to pay this funding back. That is a great element of it. If you want to cash out and sell your house before then, whatever is left remaining, it amortizes monthly. So whatever’s left remaining, then you would pay that back. But most people, the average people that buy a home, they stay in their home three, five years before they’re even thinking about moving anyway. So we felt like that number does make sense for people that are not necessarily looking to flip, but really to stay and build roots in the community.

Yeah. And again, this is not a mortgage show, so I don’t want to get too deep into the weeds, but because it’s my background, I just want to make sure we’re clear on a few things. One, is there’s a lot of different conditions that apply. So talk with your real estate agent, talk with your lender, make sure you understand all of the details of that. And this is for is it for first time home buyers or is it just for people that are buying a primary residence that are essential workers?

That’s right. That’s a very good point. There are, of course, buying a house is a very technical process. So you’re going to have a trained loan officer. There’s over 500 loan officers that are trained in Pima, Tucson Homebuyer Solution in Pima County, Arizona. Tucson. So they’re going to really walk you through all the steps. But yeah, that is good news. It is not for first time home buyers. It is for primary residence. And if you are making under $122,000, you are eligible. So it’s pretty expensive in terms of all the different careers that could apply.

I think this is very welcome news at a time where housing is tight. And as we start to think creatively about this, even if you have all of the money yourself, using some of these programs can help you be more competitive in the market or you can save a little bit of your money for home repairs or things that might come down the line. So it’s not just for those that don’t have the money. I think it’s for people that it makes a good fit for their home buying decision.

That’s right. And we want our local community members to be more competitive in the home buying process. I know people are really concerned about batch investment purchases of single family homes. So anything that we can do to make sure that our local residents are having a very competitive chance at getting the homes to live in as their primary residence. We know the home ownership. And I don’t have to tell you, this is such a critical and important path to generational wealth development for families. 90% of the folks that do participate in the program are first time home buyers, but it’s not just eligible for that. And 55% are Latino identifying families. And so this program, we felt, was a perfect fit for a vehicle for including the essential Workers housing fund.

And what’s the launch date for the program? We’re airing this. It’s May 22. Is it out or is it coming out?

Yeah. So right now we are actively getting lenders on board. So if you’re a loan officer and you want to participate, definitely reach out to me so that you can offer this to your clients. So we’re getting everybody geared up to be able to offer it. We are looking at a June 1 start date, but if not June 1, very shortly after we have the capital ready to go. It’s just a matter of making sure that we have everybody trained so that the process is seamless and that there are no hiccups in the delivery process.

We have Dre. Thompson, chief executive officer. Congratulations on that. By the way, of the Tucson Industrial Development Authority. Their job is to bridge gaps and make things happen. And the first program she launches is to help bridge the gap for homeownership with essential workers. Very thoughtful and exciting program. And I appreciate that this is your sort of first endeavor on your new leadership role.

Yes. Thank you. Many more programs to come. So I hope to be on here many more times telling you about exciting things happening at the tsunamida. And so I’m so grateful for you allowing me some time to chat with you about it.

Well, you always have a spot. You let me know unless you’re too busy with Zack Answers show. I mean, I don’t want to take time away from him, but you’re always welcome Zach’s good people. I listen to his shows as well. So, Dre, thanks so much for your time.

All right. Take care. Bye bye.

Bye. That was Dre. Thompson, CEO of Tucson’s Industrial Development Authority, the IDA. She’s been on the show many times. You can just Google her on or do a search for her on our website, Lifelongstreetcar.org, to find out some of the other things she’s been instrumental in creating here in Tucson. And while you’re there, you can also look up Mr. Zach Yenser. He’s been on our show a few times and always brings great insight to the program. My name is Tom Heath, and you’re listening to Life Along the Streetcar in Downtown Radio, 99.1 FM and available for streaming on Downtownradio.org.

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And while you’re getting swag on, check out all the cool programs we’ve got here on downtown radio. Coming up next, we’ve got words and work with Ted Prazelski. That man knows what he’s talking about. He interviews writers and others from the labor movement. He is a very knowledgeable and well versed in his topic. And then at the top of the hour, Ty Logan and heavy mental. Of course we got fabulous music all week long so check it all out on downtownradio.org and yeah, you’re going to enjoy it. Thank you again, Dre. Thompson, CEO of the Industrial development authority here in Tucson. Always doing good things in our community and I think she has found a place where all of these talents are coming together and she’s going to have even a larger impact in Tucson next week. We have kind of a statewide feature here with a woman named Kerry Kelly. She’s in charge of the Arizona Association of Economic Development. They recently had a conference here in Tucson and we’re going to talk with her about

their role overall and kind of what she felt about Tucson’s economic development. And we’re going to leave you with music today by a gentleman named Patrick Ames. In honor of Dre. Thompson’s new program, this is a song called Essential Workers. My name is Tom Heath. I hope you have a great week and tune in next Sunday for more life along the streetcar.

Blaze I travel empty streets we know we are the souls of all but essential is people

inside

another weed

but I’m not free I’m a father’s worker I’m essential to business

we are the mighty protestors we shout against the police we try to push the hate inside that can’t sleep democracy.