In the U S withdrawal from Afghanistan questions arise about what happens next.

That's.

Hope that we did not see Afghanistan placed there.

Terror attacks on us or on our allies are organized.

Child tax credit equates to millions in federal dollars for Arizona families.

They're using Mr. Food for.

Um, childcare for, you know, getting out of debt.

Pandemic continues.

Arizona's economy rebounds.

Of this year.

Arizona has replaced 97% of the jobs that we lost during those initial months of the pandemic.

Hello and welcome to Arizona 360 I'm Tony Piney, Agua filling in full of rain Rivera.

Thanks for joining us now that the us has withdrawn military efforts in Afghanistan.

Questions remain about what happens next and the greater implications for peace across the world.

We've got insight from Daniel Rothenberg.

He is co-director of the center on the future of war at Arizona state university school of politics, global studies.

The us should remain being concerned about the dangerous of externally organized terrorist attacks, perhaps the most interesting and positive outcome.

And reflecting back on 20 years after nine 11, is that we've been fortunate to not have a single successful externally organized a terrorist attack in the United States.

We've had domestic terror attacks.

We've had lone Wolf terror attacks, but we have not had another nine 11.

Um, we have to be vigilant.

We have to be concerned about that.

Clearly the changes in this 10% challenge let's hope that we did not see Afghanistan place, new terror attacks on us or on our allies are organized.

So billions of dollars are spent in Afghanistan trying to quote, transform that nation, make it more democratic, more open to women and minorities.

Do you think moving forward, all of is will have worked, uh, was something accomplished now that the Taliban is back in power.

So a difficult question to know what was accomplished and what, what was wasted massive amounts of money had been wasted.

And the U S government has been documenting that the special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction CPR.

Um, so this isn't something we don't know about.

It is interesting how little Americans have paid attention to Afghanistan and how distant both Afghanistan and Iraq, and some of the other, other sites of the post nine 11 wars have been for Americans who can't recognize these places on maps often.

And this tells us something about what it means to be engaged in countries in this way.

And I don't think that our, our leaders or our society effectively figured out how to talk about these far off places.

What do you think it will take for people to care more?

At least on this side of the world, the United States.

It's not easy to present a distant place, Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world to present that in a way that is readable.

That makes sense for ordinary Americans sitting at home and dealing with their own wives and issues.

I don't think there is some trick there.

I do think the refugee situation may humanize some of all of this, but frankly it's quite late.

This is two decades of enormous investments, uh, enormous risks and sacrifices on the part of Americans and Africans.

And, uh, what we have to think about is how to productively move forward.

But, uh, this has been, uh, a devastating time for, for Afghanistan and a time of sort of reckoning, uh, for our own country.

And.

You spend some of your years in Afghanistan.

Can you tell us a little bit about those experiences?

What were you doing?

I initially went to Afghanistan as a assistant to the UN independent expert for human rights in Afghanistan.

And we were trying to uncover human rights violations occurring around the country and submitting reports to various authorities.

And then I worked on a rule of law and human rights projects for a number of years and spent a lot of time as part of that broad international effort to try to rebuild the country and try to create a kind of new, new Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban regime.

And after the U S invasion in 2001.

We've been hearing a lot about the wars and the violence and the conflict in Afghanistan.

What would you like to say about the people and the land since you spent some of your time there?

Well, it's an incredibly beautiful country.

It's physically beautiful.

Uh, working with Afghans, I always found was a real honor.

It's difficult to explain.

It's a complicated country.

Of course, it's a diverse population.

There are enormous rural and urban divides, especially with grown in the post nine 11 era.

Uh, it's a beautiful place, but of course it's a country that suffered so many tragedies that, uh, can't help, but worry about where things are going now.

And I do think that us has a really significant responsibility for our Afghan friends and partners, both in terms of bringing folks here and just generally retaining a commitment to the country.

How do you think the United States will best engage moving forward with Afghanistan?

If you could recommend a way or a policy for the United States to undertake with Afghanistan moving forward, what would it be?

Well, one of the questions is now that the Taliban has one more, at least by controlling Afghan territory or most of it, uh, what will they do?

They did a pretty terrible job of governing the country back when they ran the country and they were unable to get international recognition for their state.

Only three countries in the world were willing to recognize Afghanistan, but we don't know what it's going to be like moving forward.

Uh, it's a country that is going to have a hard time.

They're facing a terrible drought.

Uh, most of the government officials have been paid by international funding teachers and healthcare workers, pretty forced, uh, members.

So what will the state do moving forward?

The Taliban probably need significant international support to continue a highly functioning state, but we don't know how it's going to play out.

I very much hope that the us retains its commitment to Afghan people, even as it has to complexly negotiate what it means to work with the Taliban.

Daniel Rothenburg.

Thank you very much for joining us.

Thank you so much.

Here in Arizona efforts are underway to support Afghans when they arrive.

Uh, TFL Rawan is an African-American.

She was born in Afghanistan and came to the U S for higher education, uh, ULA library, faculty at Marietta.

She has traveled to Afghanistan 15 times since 2002 every day.

She's been speaking with family and colleagues in Afghanistan is our tifo Rawan in her own words and pictures.

Life in Afghanistan was very simple, but yet very beautiful.

The African culture always was very rich.

The family was very important.

It was the center of everything for us.

And we were raised by a large number of extended family members, life and Afghanistan.

For some people, it still goes on, but the, the issues are there's.

A lot of them are a lot of my colleagues are just staying at home and not doing anything.

Universities are not open banks, so running out of money, but at the ATM only a minimum of 200 Afghanis people can take out that's equivalent to a two, $2 and 50 cents.

And so if you have a large family of 10, how are you going to survive with, with $2 and 50 cents?

You know, Afghanistan is located in a, in a, in a, in a part of the world that is surrounded by, uh, hostile neighbors.

Uh, but by, um, you know, I also, it's, it's, it's just being isolated from other, other, other areas for a long time.

Telephone actually is invaded cobble.

This is a four time invaded in 92.

And then again in 96 action data, power 96, and they stayed until 2011.

And then of course now, um, but the nine 11 is an important, uh, in a sad time for all of us in the U S is because we remembered that that major incidents, but problem and Tomas in Afghanistan started way before that we'd gone to 15 times since 2002, and I have projects there.

I see, I see progress in education.

I see progress in, in media journalism.

I see progress among the artists.

Um, but then by and large, there's not anything else happening in the country.

I worry about the fact that the United States and its allies were the major and they employed thousands and thousands of people in Afghanistan.

It's a driver is the cook is a, uh, is a fixer, is a translator.

You name it.

And there was multi basis in Afghanistan, uh, built by, by us and its allies.

So all those people, not everybody can leave the country and come here, but they, they will be without jobs for them is also a sense of betrayal sent by, by their own government, by their own president, a sense of, um, abandonment by the United States, um, a sense of, uh, being afraid of what Taliban are going to do to them.

I think a United States and its allies needs to rethink about what to do, how to, you know, make sure that these people survive.

The nation was not totally collapsed.

I mean, I, of course there's a, it's an individual is an African-American.

I, I always have a hope, but at this point, things are so confusing and so many, uh, issues, uh, you know, they, I don't know who to blame, whether we have to blame our former president for creating a stage for the Taliban, or we have to blame our present president from having an HT withdrawal or blame the lack of leadership of the African government.

And I mean, a lot of money was spent to build the armed forces in Afghanistan, but the, at the end they did not perform.

I'm not sure what's going on.

I think I'm not the only one.

This is the mind in the mind of all of us.

[inaudible].

The child tax credit program is in full swing across the country in Arizona.

The treasury department says more than 1.4 million families have received an average of more than $400 to these last two months.

That's an extra $344 million throughout the state.

Stanford children.

Arizona says the funding has come at a critical time.

We learned more from Georgina Mossad vote.

She is the Arizona organizing director for Stanford children, Arizona.

I have seen firsthand a lot of the impact that this has having in, in Arizona families.

And there is a lot of need.

We know fam families lost their main breadwinners from due to COVID, um, affordable housing Cal care.

So we know there is a lot of need, and this is, um, this is going to be a very beneficial to Arizona families.

You have various examples of people that, you know, personally, can you give us an example perhaps of a single mom, a two parent household?

Yeah.

So just last week I was at a community meeting and I was actually talking about the child tax credit and create an awareness and a family came over and they're like, you know, we've been living out of motel for the last couple of months because we haven't been able to find affordable housing and they have four kids.

So this money that they received and that will, they will continue to receive.

We'll help them gather, you know, the first DePaul, you know, the first one friend and the deposit to be able to find a stable home, to live another single mom that she unfortunately lost her husband due to COVID.

And he was the only one that worked.

So she was having a really hard time getting back into the workforce and this money is helping her get on her feet.

And I'll just end with another example is I am a single mother and due to COVID and everything that happened, my son is really behind in, in school, he needs tutoring services.

So this money will help me pay for those services.

So I am benefiting from the child tax credit as well.

So that is, that is going to be a tremendous help for everyone.

And without the tax credit, how might you have been impacted?

To be honest, I probably wouldn't have been able to afford those services because it wasn't, you know, it wasn't in my budget with everything that's going on.

I wouldn't have been able to afford it.

So, um, that's, those are just a few examples of how the child tax credit has benefiting us.

There are some cases where people are choosing to opt out of the child tax credit.

What does that entail?

Why is that happening?

So.

I think there is a lot of confusion in the community right now.

First of all, some families think that they have to pay this back.

That is one of the things that we're seeing.

Another, um, thing that we're seeing is that some families are paying to buy a home or, you know, they need a car.

So they're just saving it until the end of the tax year.

So they could get the, you know, the full lump.

Eugena.

Is there a concern that some families are getting used to this extra money in this child tax credit?

And therefore if it does expire, they will be set up to fail somehow.

Yes.

And that is, that is another of the things that are the organization, Stanford children, that I work for, that we are, um, creating awareness, right.

And making sure that families know this is a one-time thing, but also sharing their stories, right.

With elected officials, sharing it with, um, our senators, because we have to make sure that we make this permanent, because we know that this is a way out of poverty families.

They're using this for school supplies, some families just to get by from month to month.

And even sometimes it's getting out of that.

So it is very important that we make sure that we are creating awareness in our community, but also advocating to make this a permanent change.

I would imagine you're also educating families about not wasting this opportunity and not going out there and buying these special gifts or vacations that they might've wanted a long time ago.

In brides.

And, and, you know, from my experience and what I've heard from families is some families, you know, they're using this for food for, um, childcare, for, you know, getting out of debt.

And one of the other important things is the child tax credit.

This one time is eligible for non filers.

So for example, if you don't make enough money to file for taxes, but you have kids you're still eligible for this payment.

So that is another, um, another thing that is really benefiting those families that don't even make that much money.

Gina, as it currently stands, when is the child tax credit due to expire?

So the child tax credit doesn't really expire.

What expires is that extra amount that the biding administration is giving?

So they had advanced payments that we're receiving from July to December, and then the other half were receiving the next step.

So here, what happens is if this is not made permanent, then basically it goes back to what the usual amount is.

We wouldn't be getting this advanced credit from that we're getting from July to December.

Any other issues that Stanford children is working on right now?

Yeah.

So we, we are working on, you know, creating awareness for the child tax credit, but we're also working on making sure that every child has an equitable education because we know that, um, education funding in Arizona is lacking.

So, um, one of the other things that we're working on is, um, making sure that there is education funding for every Arizona student.

Okay.

Georgina, masato.

Thank you very much for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

The child tax credit is contributing to the economy.

And so is the dip and unemployment claims and the booming housing market.

It's all part of Arizona's economic recovery story.

George Hammond is a professor at the U of A's Eller college of management.

We spoke with him earlier this week.

Well, it looks like it's improving.

Um, you know, the state lost a huge amount of jobs from February to April of last year, and we've gradually been adding them back.

Uh, as of July of, uh, of this year, Arizona has replaced 97% of the jobs that we lost during those initial months of the pandemic.

That's much better than the, the national economy, which has replaced about 75% of the jobs lost during the, those early months of the pandemic.

Of course, you know, across industries, it's still, you know, leisure and hospitality, the travel and tourism jobs and local government jobs are still lagging significantly below where they were before the pandemic began.

So with the 97% replacement in the number of jobs, at least are people just going to different industries because we hear over and over that, for example, as you mentioned, the service industry, restaurants, hotels, et cetera, are really still lacking personnel.

Yep.

I, people are at least to some extent switching industries in a most sectors of the state are still below where they were in terms of employment before the pandemic began.

There are now two exceptions.

One is financial activities.

So real estate brokers, real estate agents, uh, you know, uh, bankers tellers, those financial activities are now basically back to where they were before the pandemic began.

Really the one sector that's really stood out, um, in terms of job growth, even during the pandemic was transportation and warehousing.

So, you know, warehouse jobs and delivery jobs, uh, really took off during the pandemic.

And that reflects the shift to online shopping and delivery services.

The federal tax credit, uh, rollout has begun.

What are you, are you seeing any measurable impacts to families here in the state of Arizona.

Payments related to the child tax credit?

Um, those began, uh, in July and that is, uh, you know, contributing to the, uh, two household incomes and household spending nationwide.

And here in Arizona, what you want to keep in mind is that there were there, you know, during 2020 and early 2021, and that was just an incredible infusion of federal income support flowing throughout the nation and into Arizona.

And that is starting to dissipate.

We're seeing the unemployment insurance benefits, um, rapidly, uh, decline.

We'll see those, um, uh, drop nationwide as we go through, uh, September.

The housing market is facing unprecedented growth.

Uh, what is your reaction to what is happening?

We really are seeing, um, a really hot housing market with really rapidly growing house prices.

Uh, you know, over the year gains in house prices and Phoenix and Tucson were in the neighborhood of 30% in June and July.

So very rapid, uh, increases.

And there's a, there's a number of factors driving that some, uh, some of them are on the demand side.

Uh, you know, we're likely seeing increased migration to Arizona as remote workers.

Um, uh, particularly those in the high cost Western metropolitan areas look for lower cost areas to live.

And certainly that's, um, that's Arizona.

Um, but we're also seeing supply side factors.

So housing inventory is very low and, and declined during the pandemic.

It looks like that may be starting to, to turn the corner a little bit and we'll see some increased housing inventory going forward.

Um, you know, on the, in terms of new housing construction, the input prices for things like lumber, copper plastics, uh, you know, drywall prices, uh, are still rising really rapidly.

That's putting upward pressure on new, uh, home prices and that's translating into upward pressure on existing on prices and even on rent.

How sustainable do you think this will be?

Because I know already people are saying, it looks like I will never be able to afford a house.

And these are people with educations and decent salaries.

The increases in, in home prices I think are, are temporary.

Uh, I think it's connected.

You know, what we're seeing with input prices for new construction, that's probably temporary related to, um, uh, you know, supply chains getting back to normal.

Um, there are some labor shortages, uh, that I think are, are short-lived.

I think the demand pressure is also, uh, short-lived those remote remote workers that are, that are kind of reallocating reallocating across the U S that's something that will last for the next year or so.

And then, uh, and then, you know, population growth, we'll, we'll get back to something more normal.

George Hyman.

Thank you very much for joining us.

Thank you.

Affordable housing is becoming more difficult to find that much of the country, and that's putting extra pressure on nonprofit organizations that try to help habitat for humanity.

Tucson is celebrating 40 years of getting people into their own homes, but rising prices.

And the coronavirus had made it at normally challenging.

The last couple of years, we spoke to the group CEO at a new development in the city where dreams are coming true for some residents.

Carter's court.

It's a subdivision of 19 new homes that we're building in the flung Wells neighborhood.

Uh, we're on Roslyn a way, which is, uh, certainly a tribute to president Carter and Mrs. Carter.

Uh, we named it that because we bought the property during our 39th year as a habitat, and he was the 39th president.

So it has a really great tie.

I would imagine most of these were being built in 2020, perhaps, uh, earlier this year, as well during the pandemic.

How has that had an impact on the construction?

Um, in October of 2019, when we started the neighborhood, uh, we thought we'd be done a lot quicker, but the pandemic has really impacted us with the number of volunteers that we can have on, on site.

Uh, the number of, uh, subcontractors subcontractors are almost impossible to get these days.

The trades are really scarce here in Tucson and the cost of the commodities used to build a house, have escalated dramatically.

We saw lumber, take a huge climb.

It's come down a little bit, nowhere near the levels.

It was pre pandemic.

We're still looking at 3, 4, 5 times the cost for some of our materials.

And we're working with our vendors.

We're looking at working with local partners and getting a, whatever we can and securing things to the best of our ability, but it's slow.

There are a lot of disruptions in the supply chain, a lot of cost increases for a lot of reasons.

So we're just doing what we can with the volunteers we have.

And we have a really great core of volunteers that are out here every day, and we're making sure people get in houses when they really need it.

The pandemic has really shown us how important the safety of someone's home is.

My name is Jesse Neo.

Uh, I moved into this house, uh, about April, the end of April.

Um, and right now I'm just trying to get into school.

So that's what I'm doing.

So what was your house hunting situation like prior to this house?

I was.

Thinking about using my VA loan at one point, but, um, I got it provided an opportunity to get to work with habitat and do sweat equity.

And I always tell everybody about it, try to get people in the program and see what they can do.

Cause it's like, believe everybody should have the house.

If they want it.

Do you know, house prices are booming right now has become really difficult for people.

Some people to buy a house here in the city.

How did this make a difference in your life?

It's a blessing, man.

Um, there's no interest on it.

Uh, I got 30 years to pay it off or I could do 15 if I choose to, if I choose to pay an extra, um, it just, it's a blessing it's, you know, along with all interest rates going up and supply and demand, it's just, it's so nice to have a program that helps people out that aren't able to afford it, where it helps them be able to afford it.

We think land's is going to be our biggest problem.

We do have a small land bank, so we're good to build, uh, this current fiscal year.

We're building, uh, 13 houses in, uh, in Miranda.

Uh, we'll work, uh, near the, um, near a mountain the following year.

Uh, we are just looking at small infill projects that we can do wherever we can get land.

This project, uh, kind of landed in our lap.

Someone wasn't going to develop it.

We were able to purchase it and, uh, built here.

So we're always looking for opportunities.

Does it get depressing, challenging?

What, what adjectives would you use?

Well, I would say all of those things, it gets frustrating and discouraging, and it's very challenging, but we have amazing volunteers and donors that have really come through during the pandemic.

And if you focus on the goal, which are getting families in homes, there's nothing better just, you know, seeing the kids play here in the street, knowing that families are safe.

So in the end there's a reward and that reward is well worth all of the frustration.

And.

You cannot provide houses for, let's say tens of thousands of people, but for that one family to show is a big difference, right?

Yeah.

That's sort of the mantra on a bad day, one family one day, right?

So this year we got six, 16 new families have moved into houses during the past year, since the beginning of the pandemic, 19 families have moved into new houses.

And we're excited about that.

What are the other projects you have coming along is the Chuck center.

Can you talk to us about that please?

Absolutely.

The Chuck center is going to leverage two problems that need for skilled trades in Southern Arizona and the need for affordable housing.

Currently Pima college, J Ted, many of the, uh, unions and high schools have trade programs where they're building walls, they're wiring, they're doing plumbing, but on sort of fake, you know, houses or, or walls that they then disassemble.

Uh, the check center's going to allow us to build, uh, during all weather conditions, fully climate controlled.

Uh, and it's going to allow us to train students on all of the trades while we're building habitat houses that the wall sections then move out to the site.

The other amazing thing about the Chuck center is it's going to allow us to buy in bulk or when we see, uh, lumber or doors or something that we use on a regular basis at a good price, we'll be able to get it, store it in safe conditions, and then use it to build more housing.

I love this house.

This is, I'm not moving from this house though.

I'm planning to stay here till I pass away.

That's a lot.

I.

Have maybe 40 years left, pass it on to the family.

After it's paid off, then somebody else has a place to live.

That's all for now.

Thanks for joining us to get in touch, visit us on social media or send an email to Arizona three sixty@acpm.org and let us know what you think.

We'll see you next week.

[Inaudible].