Accelerated Pavement Maintenance Program Update

This report provides an update to the Council on the implementation of the
Transportation 2050 five-year $200 million Accelerated Pavement Maintenance
Program. The report further requests Council approval to allocate and spend $18
million in available Arizona Highway User Revenue Funds on local street pavement
projects over the next two Fiscal Years (Fiscal Years 2021-23) to accelerate paving of
local and residential streets and expand the program.

THIS ITEM IS FOR DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION.

Summary
On Aug. 25, 2015, City of Phoenix voters approved the passage of Proposition 104 /
Transportation 2050 (T2050), which provides a 0.3 percent increase in the transaction
privilege and use tax rate to fund Citywide transportation projects, including the
construction and maintenance of City streets. Collection of T2050 sales tax began on
Jan. 1, 2016. The Street Transportation Department (Streets) receives 13.8 percent of
annual T2050 revenues to support the construction and maintenance of City streets,
improve mobility opportunities, and enhance technology on Phoenix’s major street
network.

On Oct. 3, 2018, the Council provided unanimous direction to Streets staff to develop a
plan that advanced $200 million in Streets T2050 funding over five years to accelerate
pavement maintenance on arterial and major collector streets. The Council
subsequently approved the Accelerated Pavement Maintenance Program (APMP),
which focused on the acceleration of planned asphalt mill and overlay projects on
arterial and major collector streets beginning in Fiscal Year (FY) 2018-19 and wrapping
up in FY 2022-23.

To leverage the T2050-funded acceleration of arterial and major collector street paving
projects, Streets also advanced planned asphalt mill and overlay projects on local and
minor collector streets, using Arizona Highway User Revenue Funds (HURF). The
HURF acceleration condensed five years (FYs 2018-23) of planned overlay projects
into two years (FYs 2018-20). However, this acceleration of local and minor collector
street paving work meant that these streets would not have any asphalt mill and


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overlay projects for essentially three years (FYs 2020-23).

Phoenix’s Street Network
Phoenix has a comprehensive roadway network of more than 4,871 miles of public
streets. The network is made up of arterial, collector, and local streets. Arterials are
major streets, which are typically the major north/south and east/west transportation
corridors spaced at each mile. Collectors are important mid-level transportation
corridors, which are generally on the 1/2-mile north/south and east/west streets
between the arterial streets. Local streets are typically in residential areas and provide
connectivity between the collectors and arterials for local traffic. Pavement
maintenance projects on arterial and major collector streets are primarily funded by
T2050, while pavement maintenance projects on minor collector and local streets are
funded primarily by HURF.

APMP Implementation and Results to Date
With Council's direction, Streets staff undertook extensive community outreach to
collect input from the public on what streets were most in need of being included in the
APMP. That outreach included over 80 community meetings, reaching over 11,700
residents to explain and provide details about the APMP, and solicit feedback from the
community. In addition, the outreach effort also included an interactive public input and
pin-drop tool that highlighted areas of concern with City streets. Streets staff also
focused a significant amount of time in coordination with the City’s utility partners and
right-of-way stakeholders.

Following this successful community engagement process, Streets staff sought to
create a resource to provide comprehensive and updated information to the public
about the APMP. This became an interactive pavement maintenance dashboard tool,
which could easily be used by residents, businesses, elected officials, City staff, utility
companies, developers, and anyone else. The web-based dashboard was launched in
English and Spanish versions and in desktop or mobile-friendly versions. Built in-
house by a team of Streets employees, the accelerated pavement maintenance
dashboard became a critical, popular, and award-winning feature of the APMP, which
has continued to help inform the public of upcoming paving work and shaped staff’s
approach to coordinating their paving work schedules.

As Streets moved into implementation of the APMP, their extensive coordination with
industry and education partners, along with other City departments, utility companies,
and right-of-way stakeholders has allowed Streets to complete approximately 80
percent of the planned APMP work in 60 percent of the planned time frame. Streets
has emphasized communication over the past three years, providing ongoing regular
updates to the Mayor's Office and Council offices through monthly reports that


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highlighted paving progress in each Council District. To date, through the APMP,
Streets has completed over 520 miles of mill and overlay projects on City streets, and
we still have plenty more work to complete over the next two years.

In addition to smooth new pavement, APMP improvements have also included
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) improvements and enhancements, with
approximately 13,000 new or upgraded ADA curb ramps to date. The APMP has also
contributed to the City's and T2050's mobility infrastructure goals through the creation
of 83 new miles of bicycle lanes, including 35 miles of buffered bike lanes.

The APMP has also provided Streets with significant opportunities for innovation.
Asphalt millings are a major byproduct produced during the asphalt mill and overlay
process. Streets staff researched ways to recycle and reuse this material to reduce
contributions to a landfill and hopefully achieve cost savings to the City. Streets now
stores the recycled millings at City facilities and the City’s paving contractors process
the millings for use in the City’s pavement maintenance program as Reclaimed Asphalt
Pavement (RAP) or for alley dust proofing. Since the start of the APMP, over 9,500
tons of RAP have been used in slurry seal and micro surfacing pavement projects
across the City.

Another key innovation that Streets has engaged in is the Cool Pavement Pilot
program. Although not directly tied to the APMP, the Cool Pavement Pilot was
implemented last Summer while Streets paved hundreds of miles through the APMP
and in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the goal of reducing the daytime
heating of the pavement, thereby leading to cooler night-time temperatures around the
treated areas. The Cool Pavement Pilot Program is another innovative approach to
pavement management. Currently, nine residential street quarter sections across the
city have been treated with cool pavement sealant. Staff are finalizing their initial
research and evaluation work with Arizona State University that is analyzing the
benefits of using Cool Pavement technologies and evaluating the City's Cool
Pavement Pilot Program.

As noted earlier, the APMP is an award-winning program, garnering both team and
individual City of Phoenix Employee Excellence Awards, as well as an Award for
Exemplary Systems in Government from the Urban and Regional Information Systems
Association in 2021 for the creation and implementation of the public pavement
maintenance dashboard.

Pavement Maintenance Goals and Budgets for Local Streets
Although the APMP has helped address pavement issues across many miles of City
streets and reduced the number of pavement-related complaints and calls received


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from residents and businesses, the APMP would not have been possible or as
successful without the leadership and unanimous support from the Mayor and Council.
However, pavement maintenance is never finished; it is a continuous investment.
APMP's focus has been on arterial and major street paving projects, with an initial and
short-term advancement of local and minor street paving projects. Streets has
received numerous requests for more paving of residential streets.

To address these requests, Streets staff requests Council approval to allocate and
spend $18 million in HURF on local street pavement projects over the next two fiscal
years (FYs 2021-23) to accelerate paving of local and residential streets. This funding
would equate to paving 18 residential street quarter sections over two years. Streets
staff would work with the Mayor and each Council member to identify and select two
residential street quarter sections each to receive asphalt mill and overlay treatments
over the next two fiscal years. Potential quarter section options will be provided to the
System.

Concurrence/Previous Council Action
The City Council directed staff to accelerate pavement maintenance on arterial and
major collector streets by advancing $200 million in Street Transportation Department
T2050 revenues over the next five years on Oct. 3, 2018.

Public Outreach
Staff has conducted more than 80 public meetings, reaching over 11,700 residents to
explain the program and listen to feedback from the community and conducted a social
media campaign generating over 42,000 views.

Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Deputy City Manager Mario Paniagua and the Street
Transportation Department.




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Report

Emergency Rental Assistance Program/American Rescue Plan Act Rent and
Utility Assistance Recommendations

This report provides information regarding the City's past, current, and upcoming
emergency rental and utility assistance efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

THIS ITEM IS FOR DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION.

Summary
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many jurisdictions, including the City of
Phoenix, created or expanded emergency rental/mortgage and utility assistance
programs to support individuals and families impacted by COVID-19, as many were
unexpectedly facing eviction and homelessness. The following provides a summary of
programs implemented by the City and the future expansion of the current Emergency
Rental Assistance (ERA) Program.

Past and Current Programs
In 2020, the City Council approved more than $29 million to provide emergency utility,
rent and mortgage assistance services to Phoenix residents impacted by the COVID-
19 pandemic. Approximately 6,200 households were assisted by the Human Services
Department and Wildfire.

This amount came from the City's $293 million Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF)
allocation from the 2020 CARES Act, enacted on March 27, 2020, and provided
financial services to residents needing rent, mortgage, and utility assistance. The
Neighborhood Services Department contracted with Wildfire, an experienced nonprofit
corporation focused on ending poverty, to administer the program and disburse funds
to residents. Wildfire partners with a large number of service providers locally, more
than 20 nonprofit and community action agencies throughout Maricopa County.

In February 2021, the City Council approved $51.1 million for the City's ERA 1.0
Program to provide financial services to residents needing rent and utility assistance.
As of Aug. 30, the City's ERA Program has assisted 4,231 households and has
disbursed approximately $32.4 million, expending 70 percent of program funds.



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Funding for this program came from the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021,
enacted on Dec. 27, 2020. To best serve the community, the City agreed to administer
$26.1 million through the Human Services Department and the remaining $25 million
through Wildfire. The City's ERA Program launched on March 8, 2021, with the Human
Services Department scheduling and completing appointments through its Central
Intake Line (602) 534-AIDE (2433). On March 22, 2021, Wildfire opened its online
application portal and has since been receiving and completing ERA applications
through 11 subcontracted agencies. Deliverables to date are shown in Attachment A.

Eligible households for ERA funds must be at or below 80 percent Area Median
Income (AMI), have one or more individuals who qualify for unemployment benefits or
experienced a reduction in household income, incurred significant costs, or
experienced other financial hardship due to COVID-19, and can demonstrate a risk of
experiencing homelessness or housing instability. The Human Services Department
prioritizes applications if the household is experiencing one of the following emergency
scenarios: facing eviction or pending a 24-hour lockout; disconnected or pending 24-
hour shut-off notice of utility services; no cooling/heating or water in the household;
current domestic violence or crime victim; or facing homelessness.

Challenges and Improvements
While the relief programs have provided millions of dollars of rent and utility assistance
to households, program challenges have been identified: completeness of applications
by residents and staff resources. These challenges are not unique to the City and
programs nationwide are reporting the same issues. To address these challenges, the
City has made a number of program improvements:

· In July, the City hired a contract ERA Administrator to oversee the ERA Program
who mapped the application process from start to finish to identify program
efficiencies. Staff noted nearly 80 percent of caseworker time was expended in the
document collection phase. As a result, a Document Center has been created and
several new staff were hired in August. Total new staff will be 58. This improvement
will result in increased complete applications reaching caseworkers, leading to a
more efficient process of disbursing funds to residents.
· Beginning in September, the Family Services Centers will extend hours of operation
from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the week and the same hours on
Saturday. This will increase accessibility through more flexible appointment times
for residents.
· Since July, Human Services staff has assisted Wildfire with completing online
applications. As of Aug. 23, staff has assisted 91 households that applied through
the online portal.



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· The City partnered with Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) and created
an income proxy tool to assist caseworkers and residents in streamlining the ERA
Program income eligibility requirement (Attachment B).
· Since the end of July, the City partnered with a landlord/tenant law firm to identify
persons scheduled for a lockout from their home or eviction proceeding and offered
expedited ERA Program assistance; 53 households were served, totaling $414,792
in financial services.

Upcoming Programs - ERA 2.0 and ARPA Program

ERA 2.0 Program
Under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021, the federal government
allocated $21.5 billion to continue the national emergency rental assistance program;
this program is known as ERA 2.0. The City has been allocated a total of $55.3 million
in ERA 2.0 funding. Eligibility requirements are similar to ERA 1.0 and the U.S.
Treasury has directed jurisdictions to implement this program consistently with ERA
1.0 to reduce administrative burdens for grantees.

Wildfire continues to process applications under ERA 1.0. Current discussions are
underway with Wildfire regarding ERA 2.0 funding. Several options are being
discussed for ERA 2.0 implementation. One option is for Wildfire to accept a certain
allocation, similar to ERA 1.0, and continue processing online applications. The City
would continue, as it does today, to assist and process online applications. The second
option is for the City to pay Wildfire an administration fee to keep the online portal
open for residents, and City staff will continue to process online applications. In this
option, all applications, whether over the phone or online, would be completed by
Human Services staff. One thing is certain - residents will experience no negative
impact to applying no matter which path is taken. The City will continue to process
applications without interruption to critical services to the community. Staff will provide

ARPA Program
On June 8, 2021, the City Council approved the City's ARPA Strategic Plan which
outlined program summaries for the City's Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal
Recovery Funds ARPA allocation. Included was $10 million to provide additional rent
and utility assistance to Phoenix residents that do not qualify for ERA assistance. The
current ERA Program funding does not assist residents with rent and utility payments if
the household income is above 80 percent of Area Median Income (AMI) resulting in
an unmet need that ARPA funding can cover. It is recommended to use $4 million to
provide funding to applicants with a household income between 80 percent and 120



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percent AMI to receive services under the same guidelines as the ERA Program.

Deferred Payment Arrangement Recovery Program
Included under this ARPA program is the allocation of $5 million to the City's Deferred
Payment Arrangement (DPA) Recovery Program. This program will assist City
Services customers with a DPA by providing bill relief equal to two-thirds of their
outstanding DPA balance as of Oct. 1, 2021.

DPAs were launched in March 2020 to assist customers facing financial hardship due
to COVID-19. DPAs allowed residential customers to set aside any outstanding
balance without being assessed late fees or the danger of service interruption. As of
Aug. 30, the total outstanding residential delinquency was greater than $10 million
across more than 21,000 accounts.

DPAs will end on Sept. 30, 2021. At that point in time, any single-family residential
customer who is enrolled in a DPA that meets the eligibility criteria will be enrolled into
the DPA Recovery Program. Customers will be asked to pay one-third of their
outstanding DPA balance as of Oct. 1, 2021, which can be paid in up to four
consecutive monthly installments. Once one-third of the outstanding balance has been
paid, ARPA funding will be directly applied to the remaining two-thirds.

Landlord Incentive Program
Additionally, $1 million of funding will be used for the Housing Department’s Landlord
Incentive Program. The Landlord Incentive Program incentivizes Phoenix landlords to
participate in the Section 8 program and make their properties available to Housing
Choice Voucher (HCV) holders. The program offers a $500 signing bonus for Phoenix
landlords that execute a Section 8 Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) contract. This
incentive is paid to landlords who manage regular HCV, Veterans Affairs Supportive
Housing (VASH) vouchers, and mainstream vouchers, including landlords housing the
homeless population. The incentive is per unit and an owner can be eligible for more
than one incentive if the owner leases multiple units. The HAP contracts are valid for
one year, which means that residents with housing vouchers will be assured a place to
live for at least 12 months.

The Landlord Incentive Program was first launched on Sept. 1, 2020, using $500,000
of Federal CARES Act funding as an innovative approach to combat the shrinking
number of units and fewer affordable housing opportunities for Phoenix voucher
holders. From September 2020 through August 2021, incentives were paid to 982
landlords, of which 127 were first-time Section 8 landlords. The original CARES Act
funding allocation will soon be exhausted. The additional $1 million ARPA Funding will
double the original allocation of funds to allow the Landlord Incentive Program to


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continue and help sustain/increase the affordable housing stock options in the
community.

Recommendations
Staff seeks approval to implement the Utility and Rent Assistance ARPA Program as
follows: $4 million will provide households between 80 percent and 120 percent AMI
financial services, $5 million will fund the Deferred Payment Arrangement Recovery
Plan, and $1 million will fund the Landlord Incentive Program.

The City will implement ERA 2.0 and ARPA program funding seamlessly to the
community and will bring back the Wildfire contract for City Council approval later this
fall. Residents will continue to apply for assistance by scheduling an appointment or
completing an online application. The addition of the Document Center will provide
additional capacity to enhance efforts to proactively serve residents under imminent
threat of eviction once the current moratorium is lifted. The additional staffing will
provide expanded outreach and intervention strategies with landlords and other
community stakeholders. As additional efficiencies are identified, staff will implement
new procedures, ensuring residents are receiving as much assistance as possible, in
the most efficient and timely manner.

Concurrence/Previous Council Action
The City Council approved:
· The Emergency Rental Assistance 1.0 (Ordinance S-47291) on Feb. 9, 2021, by a
vote of 7-1; and
· The City's ARPA Strategic Plan on June 8, 2021, by a vote of 7-2.

Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Deputy City Managers Gina Montes and Karen Peters, and
the Human Services, Housing, and Water Services departments.




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Attachment A

Emergency Rental Assistance Data


Program Amount Disbursed Households Served
Coronavirus Relief Fund $29,000,000 6,200
Emergency Rental Assistance 1.0 $32,361,552 4,231
TOTAL $61,361,552 10,431

Breakdown of ERA 1.0

Disbursement by Service Type Amount Disbursed
Rent $28,364,809
Utilities $3,996,743
TOTAL $32,361,552




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Attachment B


Area Median Income Tool




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