>> Coming up on Arizona PBS, on Arizona horizon, addressing the increasing number of seniors experiencing homelessness and on cronkite news, how they're fighting food deserts.

That's ahead on Arizona PBS.

This is made possible by contributions from the friends of PBS.

Thank you.

>> Good evening and welcome to Arizona horizon.

President Biden ordered the largest release of oil from U.S. reserves as a way to reduce gas prices.

>> Today I'm authorizing the release of one million barrels per day for the next six months, over 180 million-barrels from the strategic petroleum reserve.

This is a wartime bridge to increase oil supply until protection ramps up later this year and it is by far the largest release of our national reserve in our history.

>> The president said the blame for high gas prices lies with Russia and Ukraine and the president went after U.S. oil companies that had the ability to increase supplies but aren't doing it.

>> To help execute this first part of the plan, I'm calls for a use it or lose it policy.

Congress should make companies pay fees on wells they haven't used in years and acres of public years they're hoarding without protection.

Companies that are producing from these wells won't be affected and those sitting on unused leases and idle wells will have to produce or pay the price for their in action.

>> And White House officials didn't say how quickly or by how much gas prices might fall because of today's actions.

Other news former vice president releasing an agenda that will help and it's the freedom agenda and governor Doug Ducey craft the agenda with the likes of former trump White House Kellyann conway.

Papers were filed today with representation lead by noted democratic party mark Alias that governor Ducey signed for tightening rules regarding proof of citizenship with registering to vote in federal-only elections and Arizona requires that proof for state elections.

And former secretary of state and senate president Ken Bennett and Bennett, a republican worked with fan as the liaison and supporter of the senate self-styled audit.

If you owned a cat and are having trouble finding cat food, you're not alone.

There's a cat food shortage.

There's a shortage of meat use in cat food and another factor is the cat food adoption and most pet adoption saw a spike and dropped off and cats continue to be adopted at the same rate at their pandemic high.

And there are thousands of people experiencing homelessness in phoenix with the ederly making up an increasing percentage of that number and tonight as part of the monthly AARP sponsor segment highlighting issues to older adults in Arizona, we spoke with the executive director at the human service's campus to learn more.

Amy, good to see you and it's been awhile and good to have you here.

Executive director of human services, the human service's campus and talk to us about that.

>> The human service's campus just down at 12th avenue in Madison between the state capitol and phoenix city hall where we're seeing an increase of people, we serve single adults experiencing homelessness and nearly 11,000 unduplicated people last calendar year and 13 acres of prompt with 16 partner organizations and all working to end individuals homelessness.

>> We're specifically about seniors, the deadly and people experiencing homelessness for the first time which has to be absolutely frightening.

>> It's sad and overwhelming to speak with some of these people.

I would say largely women because women generally outlive men, sorry dad.

[ Laughter ] >> And they're in their 70s, 80 years old and never had this kind of experience before where they've lost so much, right.

If they were married, they lost a spouse and they don't know where to start, but with rents rising, lack of affordable housing and people that owned a home and without their spouse, they can no longer afford their home and they don't know where to get started and it's a frightening place to be in.

>> Oh, it sounds like it and seeing an increase?

>> Seeing an increase in general of people falling into homelessness.

Not quite sure in ederly is rising faster than youth and people 18 to 25 that I feel like we're seeing more people in that age bracket, as well.

>> For the seniors, the medical conditions have to be a big factor and mobility issues, as well.

How does that come into play.

>> Definitely.

A lot of people using walkers and motorized scooters and one thing also, homelessness ages people faster.

Sometimes there's a perception that if you see a certain individual in a wheelchair, you start to judge them and guess that they're ederly and sometimes people that others suspect are 60, 70 years old aren't.

They're in their 50s and still terribly sad, so we have lots of people, though, with the disabling conditions using some assistive device to get around.

So yeah, when you're 70, some people come to us from a hospital or a rehabilitation setting and maybe they have an had or they had some kind of surgery and went recovery and no home to go back to.

And so they're dealing with chronic health conditions and aging and not people that go back to work.

>> You mentioned hospitals and talk to us about that, because it seems as though, and what I'm reading and hearing, emergency situation, you get the emergency taken care of and hospitals aren't required to keep people in nonemergency situations, true?

>> Correct.

They're not required to and California looked at things to provide funding and create different scenarios for hospitals to be reimbursed if they keep people longer.

In Arizona, though, a hospital candies charge someone and there are a couple of programs that are medical respite programs, where they have a warm hand-off from a hospital and so someone has not discharged homelessness.

If you and I went in for surgery and stayed a night or two, when they were discharged, go home and here is your prescription plan and don't do anything, right?

>> Right.

>> And I have a husband and I have someone who can help me.

If you're experiencing homelessness, you don't have a place to go to where you have that support system.

You may not have someone who can get prescription for you and make sure you take them when needed.

Circle the city has medical respite program and the one on the campus is for 50 people and stays full.

So it's not enough to help people who need that place to really finish their recovery.

>> So how do you improve the safety net for seniors?

>> We do lots of advocating.

I think I'm famous for saying can't more people stay housed?

Because really we won't have increases if collectively we were working with funding systems and policy makers to let people on a fixed income be evicted?

If you're a senior living off Social Security, how can we keep people housed?

We know a lot of people have health issues and can we support the adding some of the medical respite type programs.

There's follow-on care to return to housing and really providing a caregiver type support to check on people once they move into the new home and do they need help going to the grocery store.

That's the basic life skills and if you have a partner, hopefully you're sharing the load.

For people that don't have a partner, how can we help them?

>> Last question, a federal funding, it seems as though we heard a lot about federal funding for a lot of things.

When it comes to the ederly experiencing homelessness, where does that fit in?

It's been an interesting three years with care's act and lots of one-time monies.

You know, I would take the state of Arizona, Maricopa county and they've done a great job of putting that into the community and struggling with where should how much money go?

And how much money goes to eviction prevention, rent utility and how much into building more shelters for people experiencing homelessness and how much into housing and housing taking a long time to do new construction.

So I think everyone has done the best they can and we know there's unspent money.

So I think a lot of us are advocating for solutions like we're talking about.

Are there opportunities to stop utilizing some of this one-time money before it expires or before the Federal Government says you can't have it anymore.

>> And to get those operations up to a higher speed so when the money goes away, many things have moved further down the line.

Amy, best of luck to you and human service's campus.

Thank you for joining us.

>> Thanks for having me.

>> And up next on Arizona horizon, Arizona's part in road trip nation, a PBS documentation about education in America.

>> On masterpiece -- >> A garden party and I like the season.

>> To be a friend and what do you believe?

>> I believe in the right person.

>> You have wooed her.

>> I've heard word from my lawyer.

>> Road trip nation is a PBS documentary following college students traveling the nation and meet with leaders talking about how their education opened doors.

This will air on Arizona PBS on Monday, April 11th at 11:00 p.m. We spoke with the president and CEO to help sponsor the episode and one of the students in the episode about the road trip nation edition titled all paths, Arizona.

Gentlemen, thank you for joining us and good to see you both here and thank you for joining us.

Paul, I'll start with you, road trip nation, what are we talking about here?

>> We're talking about -- and thank you for having us to talk about road trip nation and highlight some unique and special students.

This is a Mission driven non-for-profit foundation partnered with and what they specialize this is story-telling and telling stories about students and how we can actually improve education and the value of education for students, for our community and what the opportunities and careers that come about when you have post secondary education opportunities.

>> Road trip nation basically takes students around the country, in this case, around Arizona, to meet people and learn from people and get ideas and where they want to go.

>> I think one of the unique things about the road trip is that the students have an opportunity to both learn about our state, to see -- >> How did you get involved in this >> Through my school and one of the programs I'm part of, a leader foundation and so one of the mentors or college success leaders reached out to this amazing program and thought of you, check this out and see if it works out.

I'm always trying to see new things.

>> What did you think you would get and looking back, is that what you expected?

>> This changes lives and we believe in this power of story-telling and so the idea that we could partner with road trip nation who specializes in documentaries and knows how to really engage the students and meaningful opportunity.

We thought, this is so timely now, I think, to begin to articulate why college matters.

We hear many statements that not all kids go to college or college isn't worth it.

I think these students will tell you based on their experiences that now more than ever, they understand the value of what a post secondary education means to them and how it will lift their life and improve the outcomes that they want to have.

>> Some of the people you met in Arizona, I watched the episode and music studio, a sound recording studio, and you went all over the place.

The people you met and places you went, what have you learned?

>> It was their passion and emphasizing that where they are was because they didn't let anybody tell them where to go.

They took advantage and took advice and at the end of the day, they walked their path and seeked out opportunities especially in education and networking.

>> Did it help you change any ideas about what you want to do with your life?

>> It did, because I think sometimes I get caught up with, I need to be at this level, at this amount of time and hearing their stories about, you know, how they switched careers and hey, I'm continuing to grow and as long I'm continuing to want to learn, I'm doing OK now.

>> And your partner is out there.

And you probably learned from them and how they were learning from others.

>> Yes, Alison and Meeks, we're family now and cool to see the different passions opportunities of where they wanted to grow, music and health and something -- music a little bit, but some things I'm not fully focused and it was good to meet not only passions and personalities and the type of humans they are.

>> That's a part of the learning process, learning what you're interested and see what someone else is interested in and this is what I'm interested in and that's it.

>> It encourages the audience to find the road trip nation and watch it and it will be PBS soon because I think what you'll find is in these student's stories and what they've heard from the leaders they were exposed to, everyone can find everyone of themselves in the story.

You can identify what the students and what they're going through.

I think that helps to, that sharing and understanding will help to lift all of us.

In the short time, you see the growth and confidence of what you all started to believe and understand of what you can do and be and there's real power in that.

I think it's important we embrace and share that and celebrate that.

This importance of education and the ability to earn a college degree will change their lives.

>> From an Ezekius perspective, it's fun to be on TV, huh?

>> Straight in the morning kind of thing, but an amazing opportunity I don't regret and I would encourage to seek opportunities and grow.

>> Are friends and family excited?

>> It's just a video, but it says a lot when there's a lot of family or friends that haven't been able to just seek opportunities or even be around that post secondary education.

>> Congratulations and we look forward to it, April 11th on Arizona PBS and Paul, congratulations on your part in this and continued success and best of luck for you.

>> Thank you.

>> The Cliffton cliff jail is a hole blasted from solid rock and fitted with iron bars paid for by the owners of the first copper mine and local tradition says the jail's first unwilling guest was the local stone mason hired to build it.

When he finished the jail, the mason decided to celebrate at Cliffton's Hoby dance-all where he downed whiskey and shot up the place.

The sheriff rewarded his patrons with a compulsory stay.

In 1906, a flash flood filled it with level and mud and the jail's closure.

Today it's dry and visitors are welcomed to take an eerie step down and back into Arizona history.

>> How Russia is shifting the war tactic to shift on eastern Ukraine.

That's coming up on Arizona PBS.

>> March is women's history month, a time to celebrate the achievements of women in arenas from social justice to education and medicine.

Tonight an artist whose exhibition examines the role of women in shaping the country's history.

>> Reporter: In January of 2017, just days after Donald Trump was elected president, millions of women across the country marched in protest.

Local artist Suzanne Whittaker was one of them.

>> How did we elect a man like that and how do we have a system that allowed for the popular vote to not be the vote of all people.

>> Reporter: Whittaker took anger paintbrush and went to work.

>> It was an opportunity to marry my political interests, my social justice interests with the fact that I can draw, that I have a fine art's background and that this was my opportunity and I just could not keep my mouth shut.

>> Reporter: With a grant from the Arizona commission on the arts, Whittaker spent the last four years creating an exhibition that celebrates women in history.

>> This exhibition is about women's strength and persistence and fortitude and saw a problem and went to fix it and in many cases fixed an entire system.

>> Reporter: Whittaker's 17 portraits include figures like first lady Abigail Adams and advocate Margorie stoneman Douglas and activist Warta and Gabby Giffords.

>> And then there's my morality teacher in high school who wanted to become a priest and wanted women to become priests and up against the arch diocese of netand fought for this and he told her if she continued the fight, she would have to stop teaching.

>> Reporter: Whittaker didn't know the stories of some of the artwork and this is what drives her and wants others to learn, as well.

>> We need know these things, that people were oppressed and we did that to each other.

>> Reporter: Whittaker uses a variety of mediums and for choices are deliberate and thoughtful and always tied back to the story of the women.

Like in this case, a wheelchair for disability right's activist Judy human.

Human who had polio sued the New York board of education claiming she wouldn't be able to get herself and students out of the building in case of a fire.

She won and went onto teach and also create legislation that lead to the individuals with disability's education act, granting rights for students to free an appropriate schooling.

The students of Baltimore mayor Bowser is told in concrete and paint to look like the black live's matter mural she dedicated in 2020.

>> I'm having a hard time getting her eyes down.

>> Reporter: As she nears the completion of her project, Whittaker hopes it inspires others to create more equality for all.

>> I think sometimes we think that we think we don't have a voice.

We think that we can't do anything and it's just me, you know, and I'm just one person, but we really can start a whole movement.

We can change systems if we put our minds to it and things that need to be better.

>> Whittaker's exhibition is on display at the university of Arizona in downtown phoenix until August 31st.

>> That's it for now and thank you for joining us and you have a great evening.

Coming up if the next half hour, a forecast on what could be an active wildfire season in Arizona.