(Tom) This week on Arizona Illustrated, we check in with the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona to see how they're handling an increase in demand.

(Chris) We see an increase in demand even before the federal shutdown, even before SNAP suspensions, and it's just been kind of a perfect storm.

(Tom) Mobile Home Park owners are accused of overcharging food, water, and electricity to see how some residents are fighting back.

(Raye) The Attorney General didn't go to Redwood Mobile Home Park.

Residents spoke up for themselves.

Residents had the courage to say, "I'm already living the consequences of not speaking up."

(Tom) We'll take you to the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge to see how recent border wall construction has affected the area.

(Russ) Wildlife here and migratory wildlife from far away co-evolved with this place being a wetland system.

(Tom) And poet Gabriel Palacios reads, "Nights above grass".

As our ongoing collaboration with The Poetry Center continues.

(Gabriel) Tabulation in your book of needs, naked, dressed like the magicians in your system.

Hi, and welcome to Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara, and we are joining you from the beautiful Nuestra Tierra Learning Gardens, which sits at the main location of the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.

This small garden is one of the many things the food bank does to enhance regional food security here in Southern Arizona.

It features garden beds, a chicken coop, integrative rainwater harvesting, compost demonstrations, and this incredible Gregg's Mistflower that draws a lot of attention.

Classes are held here to teach people how to replicate these practices in their own backyard.

Well, joining us now is Chris Firmage, who is the Public Relations Manager here at the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.

Chris, thanks for having us in the garden and on the property today.

It's a great operation.

Yeah, well, thanks for being here.

I'm glad you're enjoying it.

You guys have been a go-to now.

Everyone knows about the government shutdown.

Everyone knows about the stresses on SNAP.

How's it been?

How's it going?

We've seen increasing demand even before the federal shutdown, even before SNAP suspensions or SNAP benefits were suspended.

And it's just been kind of a perfect storm of all this coming together.

Luckily, as a food bank, we've been through this kind of before with COVID, with other natural disasters, with all kinds of things.

We're an organization that pivots.

We're an organization that adapts.

And that's kind of what we're doing.

Are we concerned?

Absolutely.

But are we going to pivot and make sure that we're here to feed people?

We're going to do that as well.

The government shutdown has been seismic in many respects, and the repercussions flow from an event like that.

It doesn't end today on a dime.

How do you handle those repercussions, that lingering demand, until things get back to full speed?

Once a federal program gets reinstituted or once benefits come back, it doesn't automatically just, the demand doesn't just dissipate, right?

So we have been mindful of that, and we have kind of, we have a little bit of a contingency plan to make our resources go further.

But I would say that we are definitely relying on the private sector to step up.

As they've done time and time again, they've been amazing here, but we're hoping for that again.

Yeah, in our short time here this morning, we have seen the demand you talk about.

We've seen people walking up to the front door, hungry.

Are you open yet?

Can you help us out?

So you're really pretty much at that pivot point for folks in need, whether there's a shutdown or life carries on normally.

You guys are front and center.

(Chris) Yeah, absolutely.

I think, yeah, again, speaking of the perfect storm, whether it's a suspension and SNAP benefits, that wouldn't have a direct effect on us, but it does have a direct effect on the people that we may serve.

So, yes, absolutely.

We are kind of the focal point of that.

I mean, at the Food Bank of Southern Arizona, we distribute not just here in Tucson, but across five counties in Southern Arizona, you know, to some of the rural areas that may be getting hit harder than even here in Pima County.

How does the community food bank and all the people involved stay on that treadmill that seems to stay stuck on fast mode, you know, never slows down?

First of all, it's an easy mission to get behind, right, to actually feed those people that are in need.

And I think in alluding to all these other programs we do, I do think that keeps a variety of things that are in place.

Like, we are not just here to feed people today.

We're here to strike at the root causes of hunger.

And with some of these programs, like the garden that we're at currently, I mean, this is a learning garden where people can come and actually get their hands in the ground, enjoy, you know, enjoy the gardening, which can be a lifetime way of sustaining yourself.

It's a very important thing.

And a lot of people, especially in urban areas like this, may not get to experience that.

So this would be one example of kind of trying to, well, strike at those root causes of hunger so that we don't perpetuate hunger over and over again.

And I mean, we are trying to put ourselves out of business.

We may never accomplish that, but that's our goal.

Chris, we wish you and your colleagues the very best going forward.

Thanks for having us in today.

Yeah, thanks, Tom.

Thanks for coming in and thanks for enjoying the garden and welcome back anytime.

Thank you.

Now to the next piece in our series, Mobile Homes, the Last Affordable Housing.

We're looking at ways that some residents say they're being pushed out through utility bills, skyrocketing electricity and water, costing hundreds of dollars more than what residents owe.

Well, now residents and organizers are fighting back by demanding accountability from park owners and they're getting attention from the state's top law enforcement office.

♪ OMINOUS NOTE (Kimberly) Over billing of electricity in master meter parks is appalling.

♪ RISING STRINGS Master meters are a total opportunity for unscrupulous landlords to take advantage of tenants, and they're doing that.

♪ RISING STRINGS CONTINUE ♪ (Mark) Oftentimes, the customer of the utility is the owner of the park.

And so they're paying TEP, and then they hire a sub-metering company that then decides how much of that total bill each of the individual residents need to pay.

[ CARS PASSING ] (Kimberly) We were bringing issue to the table that they have the ability and are currently trying to make as much money as they can off their utilities.

[ LOW CHATTER ] (Attendee 1) There's a big issue with fraudulent utility bills in master meter parks.

(Attendee 2) Your bill has three items: rent, electric and gas.

Now, there are 17 items.

(Attendee 3) We're seeing utilities that normally would be $125 a month going as high as $900 a month.

- It's not an aberration.

I think it's more common than not that someone loses their home from the eviction.

And I think in some ways, it feels like you're the last line of defense, not because other people don't have the power, but because they're not using the power.

I wish I wasn't your last line of defense.

I wish that we had a stronger set of laws on this.

But I do have laws that I can enforce.

(Kim) We want the world to know that we're fighting this 'cuz we can't afford it.

We can't afford not to fight it.

♪ OMINOUS SYNTHS (Reporter) Organizers point to two troubling flashpoints in particular.

One is electricity outages amid the heat of summer.

The other is fraudulent or contested utility bills, where residents who get a high bill in a park where utilities are submetered are often left to negotiate with their landlord.

And if they don't pay the requested amount, they can face eviction and lose their home.

In Tucson, a grassroots network that includes mobile home residents themselves is working to change that system by educating families, especially Spanish-speaking residents, about their rights.

(Imelda) Nosotros como Poder Casas Móviles, educamos a la comunidad acerca de sus derechos por decir si algo te esta faltando por decir has tenido un corto en eléctrico, tu tienes el derecho de reportarlo con tu manager.

It's a group that's predominantly people who live or have spent extensive time living in manufactured housing and understand the issues that people are facing and do the work with a lot of compassion and care.

Estamos ayudando a personas que están a nuestro mismo nivel.

Y yo creo que también eso hace mas fuerte la relación con ellos.

♪ AMBIENT SYNTHS (Raye) We see there's so little case law in eviction court.

Some of that is because the vast majority of people, even if they have very, very valid claims, are not able to appeal because it's cost prohibitive, because it's a quick turnaround time, and because a lot of people are in a state where, like they're focused on having a place to live.

And we really are able to help share some of that risk with people by providing completely free services.

And we can provide limited scope housing and eviction legal advice.

Empecaremos con el abogado del parque.

luego escucharemos a usted, y luego tomar una decisión.

(Raye) Recently we did an eviction theater where we took pretty much an exact script from eviction court.

So, we're like, "We really need to act this out and embody it," and had people then reflect on what did you see happening.

(Propietario Simulado) El inquilino debe $1,590 de renta atrasada.

Mas $900 en servicios público $150 en cargos de demora (Sandra) Cuando se presentan ante de una corte es un temor de ver el juez, aparte que hablan en un idióma que no es el nuestro.

Es importante que ellos sepan que igual ante de una corte también tienen derechos.

♪ HOPEFUL KEYS (Raye) We got another call from Redwood Mobile Home Park.

It was actually a Facebook message to one of my coworkers.

(Imelda) Me llegó un mensaje un Domingo en la noche, a las 9 de la noche por Messenger.

Entonces decidimos ir a este lote de trailers en Sur Tucson y vamos hablar con ciertas familias nada más.

(Reporter) Families at Redwood Mobile Home Park had endured weeks without reliable electricity in triple-digit heat.

Residents contacted Poder Casas Móviles, who connected them with the Attorney General's office.

Within hours of receiving notice of the issues at Redwood, the Attorney General's office responded and began an investigation.

Somebody got ahold of— how they got ahold of Ray or whoever, and then I was just invited to go to the meeting.

(Miryam) I was like, "I'm going to go around and see what neighbors want to come out," and I did—my whole line.

I went to knock on their doors.

(Imelda) Y vinieron como unas 5 familias y empezamos hablar ahí mismo.

Les explicamos quienes somos, que hacemos a que nos dedicamos.

Nos dijeron la situación.

(Paul) The electric has been going off when the ACs are going on.

(Miryam) I think we had a whole week, two times a day.

- Yep - There was no power?

- Twice a day.

- No power.

- Twice a day, it was happening.

(Paul) When the weather was 114 and all that that's when it would go up.

(Reporter) Families at Redwood Mobile Home Park endured weeks without reliable electricity or water in triple-digit heat.

In August, Attorney General Mayes issued a cease-and-desist order.

That extraordinary step underscored the danger residents have been warning about all along and highlighted the few avenues for relief otherwise available to them.

In response to a request for comment, Josh Court, the central region leader with the owner of the park, Boa Vida, blamed the electrical issues on alterations made by residents.

"It was determined that there were numerous, unpermitted alterations made by residents, which caused the power draw to greatly exceed the capacity of the system.

We will continue to work with licensed electricians to make any repairs or changes needed to ensure the system is being used as designed and ensure that our residents do not experience interruptions caused by other residents tampering with the system."

(Miryam) The response from them is, we have overused our electric.

(Paul) Oh, ya And we did get a letter from her that our meters are 50 amps and that we're overusing them.

(Paul) Well 50 amps is not enough juice to run them.

A water main busted.

We're going to be without water for four hours.

But the plumbers never showed up that day.

They didn't show up till the next day.

So we're stuck without water.

♪ LIGHT PERCUSSION (Raye) Any of these changes, they happen only when residents are working together, and when they're organized; and, when they're leading the efforts.

The Attorney General didn't go to Redwood Mobile Home Park and say, "Hey, I think there might be an issue here."

Residents spoke up for themselves.

(Reporter) Fueled by testimonies and evidence gathered by residents and advocates, the state's top lawyer took action on electricity outages and high utility bills in several parks.

But she also issued a warning to owners across the state.

(Kris) I just came from Desert Haven Mobile Home Park.

We started digging into some complaints from that mobile home park that led to them agreeing to pay back hundreds of dollars per person that they had been overcharging the renters for more than seven years."

In the statement to Arizona Luminaria, Skyline Regional Manager Mike Hall said, "In the case of Desert Haven, it was Skyline who, quote, "identified inconsistencies in historical water billing that predated our current management practices.

We then proactively notified the Attorney General's Office and other relevant agencies of the corrective measures already underway."

We are sending a signal in every way possible.

The cease and desist letter was a signal that I sent not just to Redwood, but to everybody else.

Redwood, all residents there, thank you so much."

I'd like to see something in writing that says these elderly people don't have to use the computer to pay their bills.

Lots of people, they can't afford this.

Your landlord cannot charge you more than the utility is charging.

We have no extra money, so where does the money come from?

(Reporter) For residents who have waited years for answers, the Attorney General's actions have been one clear space of support.

For organizers, it was one step in a broader campaign to create a robust system of accountability for mobile home tenants.

When residents know that someone has their back, they're so much more willing to speak up and make a complaint.

Y no sé si tener un derecho por si me faltaba agua si me faltaba luz or si vení muy caro el bill.

Yo no sabía nada de eso.

(Maria) No solamente vamos a lidiar calor y frío, tenemos que lidiar las injusticias de los dueños de este lugar.

(Raye) Parks that are united with one another, where the residents are standing together, where they're connected to Poder Casas Móviles, and where they're connected to the Attorney General's office, they're just so much safer than if one person were making a complaint on their own.

What we're going to do at the Attorney General's office, for as long as I am the Attorney General, is we are going to enforce the Arizona Landlord Tenant Act, we're going to enforce the Mobile Home Act, and we're going to enforce the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act.

So I promise you that we're going to continue to hold these landlords accountable and keep letting us know what's going on in Tucson.

Well, for the first time in years, residents say they're finally seeing some accountability and even justice.

Though, as we've seen, the problems go deeper than just one park and one manager.

They're rooted in decades of policy decisions, redlining, and the steady buyout of affordable housing by corporate investors.

In our next episode, we'll take a closer look at what comes next, how residents, small park owners, and advocates are working to preserve this last form of affordable housing.

The San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge is located in the far southeastern corner of Cochise County, right along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Now, it was established in 1982 as part of the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service to help protect native species and habitat.

Well, next, AZPM reporter Katya Mendoza takes us to this remote refuge to see how construction of the border wall during the first Trump administration has affected the area.

(Russ) We're driving right now to the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge right at the border.

This is an area where, in Trump's first administration, they built a massive wall across an entire valley.

Because of the way border wall construction happens, it functions above the law, it functions beyond the law.

I bump up against border walls a lot, and mining projects that are proposed for, you know, some of the most important and spectacular conservation lands in the American Southwest.

The San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge is, you know, it's a refuge that was established in the early 80s to protect this really large Cienega at the border.

Refuge is a little under 3,000 acres.

It's a small area, but it boasts really incredible biodiversity.

According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, they've documented over 1,600 species there.

That's pretty unheard of anywhere in the world.

♪ METRONOMIC MUSIC [ CAR DOOR CLOSES ] [ FOOTSTEPS ] (Katya) So, Russ, if you wouldn't mind describing to me where we are right now.

(Russ) We're in the San Bernardino Valley.

We're in southeastern Arizona.

New Mexico is just a couple dozen miles that way.

We're just a couple hundred feet from the border with Sonora, Mexico there.

And this area is where, during the first Trump administration, the entire valley was walled in between 2019 and 2020.

In this particular area where we're standing was a concrete batch facility, a big massive facility that was used to mix concrete.

It's one of the things that used the most water in this valley.

(Katya) Advocacy groups have raised concerns over groundwater depletion caused by border wall construction for years.

In a 2019 email, Bill Radke, a former manager of the refuge, said that the Department of Homeland Security reported it would use up to 700,000 gallons of water per day to support the mixing of concrete and road maintenance during border wall construction.

(Russ) It's steel bollard wall that we see here.

Beneath that is, you know a five-foot deep trench.

(Katya) Were there various wells that were drilled here about how much water was pumped out of those wells?

Did they need permits for an infrastructure project like this?

(Russ) Yeah, it was a bit of a mixed scene.

They used one local land owner's well, the Glen well, which is not too far beyond us here, but that did not provide enough water.

And so they drilled multiple well sites right along the border and right along the National Wildlife Refuge.

(Katya) We're not exactly at the refuge.

We're close by way back five years ago.

You know Fish and Wildlife Service, they were warning CBP about the water usage out of concern for the refuge nearby.

Could you expand on that a little bit?

(Russ) Yeah, I mean FOIA documents we received that were communications, email communications between the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Refuge Manager, and CBP was that the single greatest threat to wildlife in this region was the water drawdown that was used for the construction of this border wall.

It was depleting surface water resources that provide habitat for a whole range of important species, but also threatened and endangered species that live directly in the spring systems.

You know, there's spring snails and there's endangered fish and endangered frogs.

(Katya) Have we been able to document any changes to that ecosystem or the surrounding ecosystem?

I mean what you're describing is a little oasis in a vast land of nothing.

It's dry.

(Russ) Yeah, I mean especially we know that the border wall itself has impacted wildlife incredibly just by blocking their movement.

Trail cameras at the border have detected numerous species that are unable to move back and forth across this area and so species on the Mexico side are completely cut off from the springs on the US side.

At the springs themselves some of the springs are now dry.

(Russ) Quite obviously a desert oasis.

Water is sitting on the surface and we have waterfowl behind us, you know, American coots and you know I'm hearing a lot of wetland species, Chiricahua leopard frogs in the pond and these spring systems are home to several threatened and endangered species.

Wildlife here and migratory wildlife from far away, you know, have co-evolved with this place being a wetland system.

(Katya) The Fish and Wildlife Service says that the water table has declined over time.

Solar pumps have been used at the refuge since 1991.

However, the Department of Homeland Security provided mitigation funding in 2021 for multiple pumps following the conclusion of border wall construction.

The Fish and Wildlife Serivce does not have accurate data on water usage related to border wall construction in the San Bernardino Valley.

(Russ) The solar system we see over there is what's powering the pumps that are drawing water from the the depths of the aquifer and putting them back on the surface.

We can literally walk to each one of these spring systems and watch the water pour in from a pvc pipe.

[ WATER FLOWING ] (Katya) Do you think that these ponds, these spring systems will ever be able to pump water as they used to?

(Russ) Yeah, I think the science is unclear about that.

Can these systems recover over time, over dozens or hundreds of years?

I think there is potential for that, but it's really unclear.

I think we are on the precipice of ecosystems that are still really vibrant with wildlife, which they are in our part of the world, but that could very well disappear.

A real concern is what this means going forward.

You know, we know that border wall construction has started in the San Rafael Valley.

Join us next week for the continuation of our series, "The Water and the Wall."

As AZPM News reporter Danyelle Khmara takes us to the San Rafael Valley where border wall construction is currently underway.

Next, we share with you the seventh and final visual poem from our collaboration with the University of Arizona Poetry Center.

Here Gabriel Palacios reads, "Nights Above Grass."

I've cast mine-- paperwork and everything-- with Princess Anastasias, teenage craigslist obstetricians, mindset pastors' bespoke suits like varicolored sea freight.

And with these panadería tongs, I've arranged choices.

So much excised tissue writhes on tin trays, dent-flecked from being targeted.

At checkout some conveyor blood won't merit the desultory eye.

We're meant to be delighted by the pull-- foam trays of skirt steak, wooden skewers, white devotional candles, coconut cream pudding mix, submit to bell tones, coin noise, the membranous Food City bags, peeled off by blue-veined hands and arms, sleeved in wintry aftershave and Sears mohair; This neatly put-together old cashier who coughs in streaks of rust like new old stock intercoms, whose cuff brushes the lip of the conveyor, snags a roller, and he gets sleeves then body swallowed in the works up to his neck-- No one's worried.

And the line has slithered out to the meat.

"Can you fix it?"

I ask his neck and head.

"Why would I?"

I think that every time I drag my blue recycle bin in the dark to the edge of the property to play myself.

I trust this current system of cartoons painted from memory on cinder block piñata shop, steaming origin-gore off the dollar, named for daughters.

Nevaeh, be for real now: for how many puddings would you make me disappear?

Tonight in varicolored sea freight bricks, the mannequins I didn't add to cart, dock anyway-- fouled up with the stevedore's tattoos.

The sun don't chill.

I thought I'd dodge it-- tabulation in your book of needs, naked, dressed like a magician's new assistant.

Is this whole night drive, desire and not need, ghost merchant angel, this prismatic self-enucleation offering to help me see the indefatigable city inside city, as it glows with my entire body.

Thanks for joining us from the beautiful Nuestra Tierra Gardens at the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.

I'm Tom McNamara, we'll see you again next week.