(Tom) Hello and welcome to another all new episode of Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara, and we're joining it today from Limberlost Family Park in Tucson's Ward 3.

Not far from here is an apartment complex that we've been investigating for months.

It's all part of our ongoing series, 'Where to Live' that examines the current housing crisis.

So please stay tuned.

(upbeat music) See how the Amphi Panteras are organizing tenants and fighting for better living conditions.

(Hassan) Don't make people live like that here.

And we are making people live like that here.

That's not right.

(Tom) On the lighter side, we'll show you how Literacy Connects is making stories soar for local children.

(Sharon) Kids see their stories come to life.

"I didn't know I was so funny.

I didn't know my story was that good."

(Tom) and take a hike at night.

(Narrator) I've been told this is the time of day when the veil between worlds is thin.

Darkness and light, living and dead, heaven and earth, touch for a moment.

(Tom) In 2022, we aired the investigative story 'Housing Crisis: A Microcosm', which left off with the Tucson Tenant's Union stepping in to advocate for the 52 plus tenants of the Monterey Garden Apartments, whose leases had been terminated, forcing them into a cycle of housing insecurity and homelessness.

The story looked at the lack of affordable housing in Tucson and how predatory landlord practices contribute to the growing housing crisis, which has only intensified since.

Now we bring you the second story in the series, broadening that microcosm to Tucson's Amphi neighborhood here in Ward 3, where several multi-family housing complexes are located and whose residents are fighting to protect their tenants' rights.

But they're not alone.

Several organizations have stepped in to help.

(Hassan) "I'm going to stand up with her and we're going to fight to organize continually in this neighborhood."

"Yeah, hey, it's Hassan Clement with New Life Community."

(Narrator) The formation of the Amphi Panteras began with Hassan Clement, who in 2022 was living at an apartment complex and confronted with a property manager who refused to make repairs in his unit, including broken air conditioning during a heat wave.

He decided to take a more proactive approach and knocked on his neighbor's doors, finding many more tenants whose apartments were under code.

(Hassan) I knocked on 79 doors and we found 16 more people with complaints like mine.

We didn't get answers as individuals, but with our collective action, that we got all of our apartments fixed.

And so from that, Ward 3 came to me and suggested that we do a pilot program.

(Kevin) Hassan came to us with a proposal, which we thought was brilliant, to train people in how to canvas renters, tenants, to give them the information they need to successfully complain about conditions that weren't right.

And the fact that he organized a union after this training happened, it's been a powerful influence in the Amphi Neighborhood where he's working.

(Hassan) We started in December with six canvassers.

They get paid $15 an hour.

Our mission is to inform tenants of their rights to fit and habitable housing.

We advocate with people when they have repairs that need to be made, and we organize those apartment complexes into tenant associations, and we bring those tenant associations into our larger Tucson Tenant Union.

(Narrator) The Amphi Panteras are currently focused on helping tenants at the Malibu apartments, located on First and Prince.

There they found multiple tenants living with health and safety hazards, waiting months before anything is fixed or even repaired at all.

According to the City of Tucson, a number of code enforcement complaints have been filed in the last few years.

(Hassan) From a leak upstairs, the ceiling flooded, and he had like this much water.

You could see a water line in the whole apartment, messed up everything in the apartment.

(Steve) Mice, cockroaches, bed bugs.

I haven't had a good night's sleep in a long time.

(Hassan) He couldn't sleep on his bed.

We had to throw the bed away.

He was spraying Raid on himself and the animal.

We took two days, eight hours a piece.

We cleaned his apartment.

We sanitized his apartment.

Through agencies, we got him bed and furniture.

We had to fight with this place to make them take care and clean up this man's house.

I could not walk away from him.

Don't make people live like that here.

And we are making people live like that here.

That's not right.

(Narrator) Searches online show the tenants pay anywhere between $725 and $950 a month before utilities, and tenants report bug and mice infestations, non-functioning heat and AC, black mold.

Even one tenant has grass growing on the inside of her unit.

(Tenant) I've been here a year and I've been pulling the grass for a year, and it'll grow back.

(Narrator) The list goes on and all violations of Arizona health and safety statutes.

Tenants also say that non-residents also use the laundry room to do drugs like fentanyl and say that there was a trap house located on the property.

(Hassan) A trap house is a house where people go do drugs.

Whatever drug you do, you can go there and you can get busy.

(Tenant) It's like a crack house in the 80s, a trap house in post millennium.

Yeah, basically.

(Hassan) That apartment was occupied for a year.

A lot of traffic, a lot of dangerous stuff.

It was kids that lived there too.

Broken windows and the whole nine.

People, the tenants here complained about it constantly, individually.

Nothing happened.

We found out that the people that stayed there hadn't paid rent for a year.

The management, now that we starting to organize, they got somebody with a gun in the parking lot out there now.

But when this trap house was here and people was complaining about it, that it was unsafe, crickets.

Nothing.

(Narrator) Hassan is referring to a tenant who was hired as a security guard who open carries a gun.

A new tenant say "taps it" when he sees particular tenants, making them feel intimidated and scared.

(Security) I don't mind if you record, but if you keep distance, that would be great.

(Camera Operator) Yes, sir.

(Tenant) Cause he's right next door to the trap house that got boarded up and left.

(Tenant) He's telling on us that you guys are here and... (Hassan) Brittenham, SB Properties.

2014 Washington State, they had a judgment against him for fraud.

They took his license in Washington state.

Here in Arizona, he does the same practice.

He has a lot of properties here, and he is a slumlord.

He has a house in the foothills overlooking the slums that he oversees.

(Narrator) AZPM reached out to Brittenham for comment on the Amphi Pantera's findings and got a response from his lawyers, King and Frisch.

"My client is aware that certain units are in need of renovation and I've scheduled those units for renovation upon the expiration of their lease terms as to avoid any inconvenience to tenants and suggest the tenants purporting to have habitability issues with their units to contact the property's manager and to submit a work order.

AZPM followed up with Brittenham and Frisch, extending the opportunity for an interview or to be provided a written response to several questions we had.

Can you respond to the accusation of a legal retaliation?

For what purpose has the security guard been hired?

And how long the average repair takes from the time of tenants' submission to completion?

And how it's determined what repairs are put on hold until leases expire?

We never received a response despite following up a third time.

(Missy) Since I've been here I think I've been through a good nine managers.

(Dylan) Ain't nobody here to talk to for anything.

There's nothing getting done here at all.

(Amber) I just got to the point where I was like, I'm tired of relaying the message because apparently it's not getting relayed through whoever is going in there.

(Brandon) We come to you every day to your face to that office no matter if an appointment or not, we just have to see you and tell you things you don't do diddly-squat.

(Narrator) Several tenants have now begun to receive 10-day notices or non-renewal of their leases and say it's in retaliation for creating the new Malibu Tenants Association.

Amber Ward and her partner Dylan Jump have been living in need of several repairs that have remained unaddressed by management.

(Dylan) No, most likely what it is is a water leak under the floor.

(Amber) All it takes is just that one good hit and then the whole thing has going somewhere.

(Narrator) They received a non-renewal of their lease and believe it's because they were in attendance of the Malibu Association meeting where Amber was elected vice president.

-You think it was an opportunity because you're talking with the Panteras.

(Amber) Oh yeah, I'm not even the first one who's been getting them.

(Missy) Nobody has to worry about that little girl that lives up there in 32 but me.

(Narrator) Tenant Missy Arroyo, single mother and resident of Malibu, joined the Amphi Panteras team because she said she and her daughter were living with no running AC last summer and no heat this winter.

She received a 10-day notice after the Malibu Tenents Association meeting where she was elected president.

The notice states that she violated the two-guess maximum defined in her lease but multiple Malibu tenants say that the Panteras in attendance were the collective guests of nine other residents of Malibu.

A week later, Missy received a notice for non-renewal of her lease to which she disputed because she believes that the notice is on the grounds of retaliation against her right to be part of a Tenants Association.

(Missy) I want to ask Scott, how do you sleep at night?

-True.

How do you sleep at night when my girl gots to move?

How do you sleep at night when my girl's in her room saying, "Mom, it's cold tonight."

Do you sleep worried about where you're going to go next month?

I do.

(Marshell) I asked about putting a safety bar in the shower so I can get it in out safely and a ramp here so I can you know get up and down okay and they're like, "No, you gotta get yourself."

And I said, "Well then I'm going to take it and make sure it's removable."

"Oh no, if you put it in the bathroom you gotta leave it there."

I'm like I'm not paying for it if I have to leave it.

(Narrator) Marshell Oliver, a Malibu tenant who has a disability, was also given a 10-day notice for failing to pick up after her support dog but also believes the reason is for attending the Malibu Tenents Association meeting.

(Brandon) They say we're supposed to have tenant rights but where are they at?

And when we try to practice our tenant rights this is what we get.

How in the heck do we go around that without getting evicted or without living on the damn streets?

You tell me how the hell we do that.

(Narrator) The Amphi Panteras also received a Cease and Desist order from Brittenham and his lawyers stating the tenants have complained that the Panteras are harassing them and that they find the Panteras' request for old work orders paternalistic and condescending and that it shows a lack of respect for tenants' ability to handle their own affairs.

(Marshell) No, I didn't feel harrassed at all in fact they welcomed an extra voice.

(Dylan) I'm pretty sure you know that food, the food and drinks you bring every Sunday comes out of one of your guys' own pocket, you know.

It's nothing but laughs and giggles even for the serious talk.

I don't see how that's intimidation at all, you know.

If that's the case then intimidate the * * * * out of me.

(Alan) There's very specific things that amount to retaliation.

There's four actually and they are specific.

One of the four is being involved in a tenant's union or trying to organize a tenant's union or the like.

It is recognized under Arizona law that tenant's unions may exist.

(Nick) Rentors in Arizona are protected from retaliation when they want to organize a tenant's union or association, amongst other activities like submitting repair requests, things like that, and that anything within a six-month period, if they are doing those protected activities, if it's like an eviction or a cutting of services or anything like that, is going to be presumed as retaliation.

(Hassan) So we had the meeting that you tried to stop and you called the cops and the cops came late and the cops went to talk to Missy and you came back 10 minutes later with a 10-day notice to quit and it's not all tied up.

I don't think so.

I think that you're retaliating, bud.

(Narrator) This is an eviction heat map showing filings in Tucson from 2021 to 2023.

It shows why evictions are invisible because they're concentrated in low-income complexes like the Malibu apartments.

This data was compiled by sociologist Keith Bentele, who examines the drivers of state-level poverty rates, inequality, and homelessness.

In 2023, he was tasked by the City of Tucson to author the needs assessment of adults experiencing homelessness.

(Keith) Evictions are like a small part and many many people leave before an actual eviction is filed and so that is very invisible to us as a community.

There's a massive over-representation of people of color amongst those tenants.

I was quite shocked to see you know the negative impacts on people's mental health, their physical health, hospitalization spike before and after.

Most unfortunately there's lots of negative impacts on the children in those homes both in terms of their food security, their mental health and also unfortunately like child maltreatment and things like that tend to increase.

(Hassan) If I went into an apartment complex and there were a hundred units and that apartment complex was condemned as it should be, where do a hundred families go?

There is no place in the system.

(Alan) Failure to provide a habitable residence is not so easy to remedy.

The tenants rights are ranging from terminating the lease and moving, suing the landlord for money and then in some cases maybe depending on lots of things fixing the problem themselves and deducting that cost from the rent because there's limitations on all of that and one thing I urge anybody who's watching this to never withhold rent from a landlord for habitability issues without legal advice.

(Keith) All of that economic activity spent evicting people then paying for the health and mental, physical, mental health consequences of doing this to folks, all of that to me I view as a self-harm that our community is engaging in.

(Kevin) I believe that if the city of Tucson could we would put rent controls to stop this madness.

State legislature has prevented us from locally deciding that we need rent controls so that's not an option so thank goodness for Hassan and his group for doing what we can to protect tenants, to protect renters, keeping them in their apartments.

(Keith) My hope is that you know middle class and above allies and people who don't have the same vulnerabilities would more recognize the benefits of both just creating more space and time and support for people who are experiencing housing insecurity to again to find a reasonable outcome.

It's to all of our benefit for that to be a compassionate resolution for the folks.

(Hassan) Power to the people.

(Narrator) Despite the continued pushback from landlords like Brittenham, the commitment of Hassan, the Amphi Panteras and their partners has not wavered.

-Power to the people.

(Hassan) This is a machine baby and they ground us up and what we gotta do is be like Mario Savio said we're gonna put our bodies upon the gears we're gonna make this stop.

-Everybody say "fight, fight, fight" Say it loud.

Housing is a right.

Fight, fight, fight.

Housing is a right.

Fight, fight, fight.

- Housing is a right.

- Fight, fight, fight.

(Tom) Before going to air with the previous story, AZPM reached out one more time to Scott Brittenham and his lawyer, James Frisch of King and Frisch and got no response.

To check for updates on this ongoing investigation and see more from our series on the ongoing housing crisis, go to the website news.azpm.org/wheretolive (soft music) And now to something much lighter.

The Stories That Soar!

program empowers young students by transforming their original stories into captivating performances.

Here's the deal, the kids submit their tales to the "Magic Box."

And then a team of actors and musicians brings their story to life at school assemblies, promoting creativity and active literacy.

(soft music) (Dallas) We're at Holoway Elementary and this morning is the Stories That Soar!

show for all of these kids.

[piano music] (Sharon) Stories that Soar!

is all about empowering young people by giving voice to their original words and creative ideas.

It lets kids know that their stories matter.

It connects writing to possibilities.

(Producer) “Did you all write stories for the Magic Box?

” Yes.

Yes.

[piano music] (Dallas) We've worked really hard for two weeks.

We have a wide array of stories and they don't know if their story is performed or not.

So I have the privilege of sitting in the audience and watching them as they realize the story is theirs.

And this is what it's all about.

(Actor) Once there was a dragon.

[Roar] (Teacher #1) My kiddos get so excited.

Like they were elated that magic box was coming today.

(Plaigaristic Box) “I'm hunting stories.

” [Laughs] (Teacher #3) They see, Oh, someone's going to read my story and they're going to go act it out.

And like, people are going to get to see that.

(Actor) The stories are all mine and I'm taking all the credit.

signed, Plaigaristic Box.

[Scream] (Dallas) Stories That Soar begins with an invitation from our hungry, story-eating, Magic Box.

For kids to feed it their stories.

So the Magic Box goes to the schools and it eats stories for about 3 weeks.

And at that point in time, we pick it up and we read all of the stories.

Now, we typically have a team if it's a good sized school, because those kids, the buy in is there and we get hundreds and hundreds of stories.

So we read every single one.

And then whoever is directing narrows it down to a group of about 40 to 50 that they will hand out to the cast.

(Actor) This is more fun for puppetry.

King of the Tower is just kind of comedy.

(Dallas) So what's happening here today, We're starting the rehearsal process for the Holoway Elementary show.

So our actors have their stories.

And tonight they're going to come in and pitch their concepts.

(Actor) Comes out on stage and is like, “my friends are smart.

And you know what's great about friends?

Some friends can be small.

” And then I want somebody.

smaller than them to come out and they like high five.

(Dallas) Once we pitch our concepts, then we'll work as a team to narrow it down to 15 stories that we're going to produce that wind up on the stage.

I want to find a way to have that real clear moment of connection.

(Dallas) We have a team of about 20 contracted artists that we rotate through throughout the season.

We really try to incorporate professionals of different backgrounds.

(Actors) “Hi, hi ” And some friends are big!

Hey!

There are tons of different theater companies that do devised theater, that do children's theater, that roughly is the same concept but they kind of riff off a child's story it's inspired by.

And what we do is we produce that child's story and we're not going to rewrite the story and fix it.

(Actor) Hi, up high, up high.

(Dallas) The whole point is giving voice to their stories.

(Actor) Up high.

(Sharon) I think when kids see their stories come to life.

Like, I didn't know I was so funny.

I didn't know my story was that good.

And that's because we find it in there.

And I think it helps kids see how great their words and ideas are.

(Actor) Then they were learning how to fly.

(Dallas) One of the things that I think is really special about the Magic Box is it invites kids to write whatever they want, whatever they're processing and thinking about.

It doesn't matter if you can write a whole paragraph or even write one word like they want to just take what you have and I think that that's important It gives every child a voice.

(Dallas) This student, Daisy, she wrote a lot of touching stories and they all were around her mother's death.

♪ Can you hear me?

♪ I miss you Mom.

(Sharon) We try not and shy away from something because it's difficult, because we feel if kids are processing and talking about it, they need to be validated.

I loved it.

I loved the way the girl danced actually, when they performed it, I heard a few words and I said, that's my story.

And I actually really loved it that I started crying.

(Dallas) It's so important that those stories have a voice as well, because you know, that's that's part of life, that's part of this child's experience, and it's part of their school's community story.

[sad piano music] [speaking French] Au revoir.

(Kayla) Friends who can be like sad or they're happy and they can have different feelings even though they're struggling through stuff.

Because like, when I was moving here, I had to move and I left my best friends.

So I was really sad.

So I found out to make a story kind of about that.

(Teacher 1) I watched her face when they did her story and her eyes went wide and she had a big smile on her face like she accomplished something.

(Kayla) I felt really happy that I heard my story being telled on the stage.

It actually means a lot because just to know that it got selected and performed, it actually really made me feel happy.

[applause] (Student) I think that the Magic Box was like a creative way to make the kids like, write stories, use their imagination.

(Teacher 3) It opens that broader range for them of what's possible.

And oh yeah, we can connect this to math and yeah, we can do a social studies.

And so they really start to take that on and lead it.

(Actor) The life of a balloon wants more!

(Students) More!

(Teacher 1) Makes you want to go to school everyday, it makes you want to teach.

You know, when you have kids, who just, love what they do and love to come.

(Teacher 2) It's really instilled like a love of writing The impact of that is that they're inspired Did you enjoy the show?

Let me hear it.

(Students) Yeah!

(Sharon) For us, we we see literacy as more than reading.

It's a healthy competition when kids are writing, wanting to see their stories, there on the stage and it's really with increased literacy, we have way more opportunities for success in our lives.

(Tom) Now, typically the performances like the ones you just saw are reserved for the students in the school they're collaborating with.

But if you or someone you know would like to check it out, the Best of Stories at Soar!

show will be held Sunday, May 19th at 3 p.m. at the Stevie Eller Dance Theater on the University of Arizona campus.

The event is suitable for ages five and up.

It is free and open to the public.

To learn more, go to the website literacyconnects.org In the latest installment of our Field Notes series, we head out at dusk and walk under the stars.

Arizona Illustrated producer David Fenster shares his love of hiking at night and explores how our perceptions are changed when the sun goes down.

(eerie music) Dusk is my favorite time of day to be walking outside.

The sun gets low and the light changes.

A landscape I may not have noticed at noon, all of a sudden is completely transformed by the backlight and glowing grasses.

I've been told this is the time of day when the veil between worlds is thin.

Darkness and light, living and dead, heaven and earth, touch for a moment.

On my night hikes in Tucson, I've seen snakes, a spotted skunk, a bobcat's walked in front of my camera.

I have a three-year-old daughter who goes to sleep early, so I don't do a lot of walking in the evening these days.

But when I lived in Los Angeles, I would be outside nearly every night, hiking on trails or finding paths between the houses in the Hollywood Hills, exploring canyons and walking along ridges.

The long exposures of my camera turn me into a ghost.

If I use my headlamp, I turn into light.

Sometimes I walk with friends, but often I'm alone.

Of course, there's the occasional tinge of fear.

But the fear and darkness is part of what makes me feel so alive on these walks.

And it's a small price to pay to move out of the routine patterns and perceptions of life and into another world.

(Tom) Before we go, here's a sneak peek at a story we're working on.

(gentle music) (Nick) I had gone through a difficult divorce and I lived by myself and didn't really have any sort of emotional or social support.

So things were really difficult and I couldn't find a job.

So my landlord evicted me and I was able to get here like the same day.

So I was very blessed for that.

(Scott) Basically it's been cleaning up the desert areas in Sierra Vista that are state trust land or city owned properties.

We took out 42,000 pounds of garbage last year, which is amazing.

(Tom) Thank you for joining us here on Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

We will see you again next week with another all new episode.

(gentle music)