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Tempe isn’t all red tile roofs and
three-car garages, the leaders of the
Tempe Community Action Agency well know.
Even a community as seemingly affluent
as Tempe has people in crisis--people
with no place to sleep while most of the
community rests comfortably at night.
As TCAA prepares to mark its 40th
anniversary as the city’s social service
crisis agency, executive director Beth
Fiorenza and incoming board president
Glen Reeves understand that a
significant portion of Tempe’s
population needs TCAA’s help.
“Tempe has one of the highest poverty
rates in Maricopa County, believe it or
not,” says Fiorenza, who took over as
TCAA executive director almost three
years ago.
With a poverty rate of about 14 percent,
according to the 2000 Census, Tempe “is
up there with most of the cities in the
county, which is surprising to most
people,” she said.
Reeves, who has about five years’
experience with TCAA and recently was
elected president, thinks “homelessness
is “one of the bigger issues in Tempe”
and that providing affordable housing is
one of the major challenges facing the
city and TCAA.
Since 1966, TCAA has tried to help the
area’s poor and elderly residents,
offering rental and utility-bill
assistance and hot meals to the city’s
needy.
TCAA began as a neighborhood self-help
project called “Operation Grassroots,”
focusing on low-income neighborhoods in
Victory Acres, north Tempe and south
Scottsdale as part of the national
initiative of the Economic Opportunity
Act.
Its early years saw creative economic
development initiatives such as a food
buying cooperative, a community garden,
a tortilla factory and a neighborhood
credit union.
In 1971, TCAA was incorporated as a
non-profit agency and moved its
operations in to the original Escalante
Center. TCAA’s Senior Action Program
began with a senior center nutrition
program at Escalante in 1975 and
expanded to Concord in North Tempe in
1981, and to the Scottsdale Senior
Center in 1989.
TCAA’s efforts increased as the agency
recognized additional needs.
A Collaborative Health Program was
initiated in 1990s through the work of
community coalitions. Health promotion
programs were initiated for the elderly
in 1991 and then expanded to serve
children and their families in 1996.
In 2000, a support program for at-risk
pregnant women and their families was
initiated.
TCAA’s Community Action Program focused
on increased crisis invention services
and self-sufficiency programs, while its
Senior Action Program focused on helping
Tempe and Scottsdale’s seniors remain
independent, expanding the Home
Delivered Meals Program, initiating
Senior Peer Counseling, and adding new
neighborhood outreach satellite senior
center sites at Vista Del Camino (1998),
Pyle Adult Center (1999), and Westside
Center (2002).
In 1997, the Escalante Community Center
was rebuilt by the city of Tempe,
providing TCAA with expanded and
enhanced facility space for services.
Reeves, a Kyrene Corridor resident who
is a Salt River Project executive, said
he was surprised by the wide range of
needs and agencies that try to meet
them.
One of his goals as TCAA president will
be to try to coordinate TCAA’s services
with other area social service providers
“to get the greatest bang for the buck,”
he said.
Reeves has kept an eye on TCAA’s “bucks”
as the agency’s past treasurer. He said
TCAA spent “about $1.5 million” in the
past year, with much of that money going
for hot meals that are either delivered
to shut-ins or provided through area
senior centers.
Fiorenza, also a Kyrene Corridor
resident, said TCAA provides about 220
meals daily throughout Tempe and south
Scottsdale.
Much of TCAA’s funding comes from the
cities of Tempe and Scottsdale, and
Maricopa County. Reeves said the agency
also receives money from the United Way,
a “modest” amount of grant funding from
the private sector, and individual
contributions.
TCAA is working to increase the number
of private contributions that it
receives, by mounting a campaign for
donations that has been “modestly
successful but improving,” Reeves said.
“We need help. We want their money. We
need their volunteerism. We just need
support in any way that we can get it,”
he said.
He and Fiorenza agree that affordable
housing is a rising concern in Tempe.
“The cost of living is rising in Tempe,”
Fiorenza noted. More residents need
housing assistance or help with their
utility bills, she noted.
Reeves said he is not yet sure how
involved the TCAA will become in
providing affordable housing.
“It’s something that appears to be a
need. We want to go into the issue with
an open mind and figure out what’s best
for the agency and the community,” he
said.
That probably will lead to the TCAA
working with other agencies to put roofs
over people’s heads, he predicted.
Working with the TCAA, local church
groups are using their own roofs to
shelter homeless people, at least on
weekends, Reeves and Fiorenza noted.
About six months ago, the TCAA initiated
its I-HELP (Interfaith Homeless
Emergency Lodging Program) that works
with local church officials to shelter
people and provide meals, Fiorenza said.
“We think of Tempe as an affluent
community, but there’s a lot of poverty
and a lot of need,” Reeves said.
“There’s an ongoing need. To address
those needs takes resources, but there
are always more needs than resources.”
For more information about the Tempe
Community Action Agency, visit
www.tempeaction.org. |
