Urban Living on Fillmore’s form follows Native American Connections’ functions

Check out this description of downtown Phoenix multi-family housing. It’s an urban dweller’s dream: 

“Urban Living on Fillmore is a mid-rise apartment community that offers a unique living experience in the heart of downtown Phoenix. It is within walking distance to local dining hotspots, cultural shops, art, nightlife and light rail. The award-winning, eco-friendly apartment community offers upscale amenities, such as stainless steel appliances, fitness center and gated garage. Any resident would be proud to call our spacious urban loft studios, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments home.”

The splendors of Urban Living on Fillmore are accurately described by owner Native American Connections. It’s got everything downtown Phoenix urbanites love. 

But the description leaves out what arguably is the best thing about ULF: It is an affordable housing project in a high-rent area, and it has quality-of-life-enhancing programs and services for residents that come standard with NAC projects. 

Form follows function at ULF. The 63-unit apartment project was built to offer a rare workforce housing option in the booming downtown area. But it was designed and constructed in the NAC culture of being socially and environmentally responsible in serving people and place. That’s how ULF, which has a significant wait list, is managed, too. 

That you don’t see what the popular perception of an “affordable housing project” is exactly the point, said Diana Yazzie Devine, president and CEO of Native American Connections. 

“Regardless of income all Arizona residents, residents of the city of Phoenix, deserve to live in safe, affordable, quality housing near amenities like anybody else,” Devine said. 

“We want to preserve some affordability for people to live near their jobs. We don’t want to end up like cities where people that are working in the service industry and are part of the fabric of the workforce in downtown Phoenix have to travel an hour to work. They should be able to afford to live and work in the community. To me that’s the story of ULF. It’s a beautiful facility.”

It’s a beautiful facility that Reynaldo Galindo is proud to call ULF home. He and his two sons were among the first residents to move into ULF when it opened in September 2019. Their year at ULF is a far cry from the long stretch of time prior to move-in day when Galindo didn’t have a place for his family to call home. 

In 2017, Galindo learned the lease renewal on the house he had rented for a few years was increasing from $850 to $1,350 per month. He searched in vain for affordable family housing close to his job downtown. He and his sons temporarily moved into a bedroom of a friend’s apartment. 

At ULF, Galindo has a three-bedroom unit with monthly rent that is about half what his former landlord wanted. He looks out the window from his place and sees an apartment building where rent for a one-bedroom unit is $1,300. 

Rent rates at ULF vary by income and are structured in a way that families are never housing burdened. Most residents earn between $18,000 and $44,000 a year.

“For me, being able to live and being comfortable where I’m at, it’s easy for me to focus on the kids and their schooling and what they’re doing,” Galindo said. “I don’t have to worry about where I’ll sleep at night. … It dramatically changed our lives.”

Mark Stapp, executive director of the W. P. Carey School of Business Master of Real Estate Development and a member of the LISC Phoenix local advisory committee, said the Phoenix metropolitan area must address the affordable housing crisis that is only getting worse. The situation in which people aren’t making enough money to pay for housing in the long-term is detrimental to the place, he said.

“If I’m an employer, I want a healthy, reliable, productive, resilient workforce,” Stapp said. “That’s my number one resource. From an economic development standpoint, this is equally important to ensure that we have an environment that remains extremely attractive to employers.”

With projects like ULF, NAC shows the value of bringing affordable housing projects to life by providing residents more than just a roof over their heads, Stapp said.

“It’s not about building something,” Stapp said. “It’s about providing all of the necessary support, and how important that it is to creating healthy, prosperous populations.

“Health outcomes are so dependent on housing and the benefits are more than giving some place for someone to live that’s inexpensive. It’s helping them be a prosperous human being. That’s the cheapest solution to some of the problems we have as a community. The work that (NAC does) is just tremendous.”

But the built product is also tremendous, said Sheree Bouchee, affordable housing advocate for the city of Phoenix. 

“They build quality units,” Bouchee said. “They design in a way where they can meet the requirements of the (Qualified Allocation Plan), but they’re still designing beautiful, livable homes. They just blow me away with that.”

Bouchee also appreciates the set-asides in ULF for special populations, such as people who were chronically homeless or chronic substance abusers. 

“(ULF) has a really good mix of different, diverse types of incomes that can be served,” Bouchee. “That’s what we’re looking for. We don’t want to concentrate poverty in one area like they did back in the ‘60s with public housing. So, we’re always looking for that mixed-income approach where we have workforce, extremely low-income subsidized units, and they do that so well.”

ULF could be among the last affordable housing projects built in downtown. It wouldn’t have happened if NAC hadn’t purchased property decades ago when there was little interest in living downtown. 

But NAC’s downtown Phoenix transit-oriented projects have cultural significance, too. Downtown neighborhoods once had a concentration of Native Americans living in them. Joe Keeper, director of real estate development at NAC, said he wishes the nonprofit owned more downtown land for redevelopment. 

“When we put financing together for ULF, we knew downtown Phoenix was growing,” Keeper said. “I had no idea what would happen on the avenue side, from Central to Seventh avenues. If you go down Fillmore, you see the towers; you see everything that’s happening. 

“What I’m fearful of is that we might be the last affordable housing project built in downtown Phoenix in that area. It’s a little sad.”

ULF resident Galindo is happy. There are three parks within a 10-minute walk of his home. There are usually are things happening downtown for he and his sons to do or see. He has quick access to transit and can easily hop on the freeway if necessary. He’s part of a community that understands him and his circumstances. He can avail himself to programs and services at ULF on things like financial literacy, health and wellness.

You can hear the calm in Galindo’s voice from having a year of housing stability and no housing burden. 

“Literally, my bills are paid off,” Galindo said. “I’m caught up. … For me, I’m comfortable. I’m not worried about anything. I can focus on things that are happening now.”

For urban dweller, living a good life is not a dream. It’s a reality.