>> Coming up on Arizona PBS, on Arizona horizon, rent prices are increasing to the point that some households are paying out an entire monthly income or facing eviction and what's done to combat Fentanyl overdoses in Arizona.

Welcome to "Arizona horizon."

The state legislature today approved a ban on abortion after 15 weeks with no expceptions for victims of rape or incest.

The House approval comes a month after the senate voted for the bill and it is expected to be signed into law as the U.S. Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of a similar law in Mississippi.

They want this ban in place if that Mississippi bill is upheld and they will have gender reassignment for minors and to ban transgender athletes from playing on girl's sport's teams.

It was approved in the senate and they, too, await the governor's signature which is a question mark and republican governors in Utah and Indiana just this week went against conservatives and their own party and vetoed similar bills restricting transgender rights.

Fall-out from the independent report that shot down conspiracy theories involving Maricopa county reports and found that vote counting machines were not connected to the Internet as claimed by those who insist that the election was somehow rigged.

Republican bill gates who chairs the board of supervisors said, the unanimous conclusion of this expert panel should be a final stake in the heart of the senate's so-called audit and Wendy Rogers rejected the report saying, quote, the machines were connected to the Internet and the election workers tampered with the machines and the truth is the truth.

That is not the truth according to this latest independent review which came out of a settlement between the county and the senate.

This involved three technology experts who each concluded there was no Internet connection and not clear if this will put an end that it be further examined.

There are key cities that Russian troops to be setsing up defensive positions about ten miles outside effort capital city of Kyiv.

These images are from Mariupol and the concern is that the near destruction of that city signals Russia's plan for Kyiv.

President Biden today met with the European leaders in Brussels and the president raised the possibility of excluding Russia from the broader G20 group of developing nations as a way to further isolate rush of invasion of Ukraine and that it has increased unity in NATO countries.

>> NATO has never, never been more united than it is today.

And Putin is getting exactly the opposite of what he intended to have as a consequence of going into Ukraine.

And we built that same unity with the European unity and leading democracies of the G7.

>> The president said that the U.S. will donate one billion dollars to help European countries to help the surge of three million refugees and that the U.S. will accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees in this country.

A sobering statistics, half of the country saw more deaths than births in 2021 and the numbers are, in part, due to an aging population and deaths linked to Covid-19.

Other findings from the census show deaths in the U.S. rose 19% from 2019 to 2020 and the biggest yearly increase in more than a century.

Rental rates in the metro phoenix area are skyrocketing and climbed 80% in the last five years and median income rose 22% during the same time.

And as a result, many people are using most, if not all of their monthly income to pay rent.

Earlier today, we talked about what's happening with Katherine Reiger, the senior real estate reporter at the republic.

Good to have you and good to talk about real estate and this time we're talking about rent, though.

What is going on with these rental rates?

>> It's crazy, and great to be here, thank you.

It's crazy.

We lead the nation 30% in apartment rents last year and more than 20% for the single family rentals that we are taking off with and leading the nation.

>> So why is this happen.

>> We look at population growth and we know we had population growth and because of the rents, that could slow and the jobs, there are people moving here and it's not creating new households.

Millennials are still living with parents and, yeah, demand.

And even though rents are climbing so much, we still look affordable and maybe not now, but last year, looked affordable to cities in the west and on the east coast.

>> A lot of folks from California coming over and Portland, Seattle and these areas?

>> Yeah.

>> And back east, from back east, you're thinking this is not so bad, and goodness, gracious, a one bedroom average downtown is 2,000 and two bedroom average is 28 average and three bedroom is 3500?

>> In some of these buildings, that's what's coming and crazy, like a studio, 1500 in one of the high-rises and talked to so many people who cannot afford.

The big increases, you know, of course, the moratoriums and the big increases are started this year and last year and people are like, the landlords, new landlords coming in and paying record prices, more than 13 billion spent on metro phoenix apartments last year.

>> Wow!

>> That's just buying and not building.

>> Investors that own thousands of units.

>> And big investments and bought another complex.

>> They buy the whole complex and not just a couple.

>> Yeah, and sales have soared, particularly downtown.

The average price per apartment in the valley is about 250.

A couple just sold downtown, 250,000, sorry.

A couple sold 600,000 for apartment.

>> I'm sorry.

>> They break it down by unit, and the money is in real estate.

>> We hear that people are spending, you know, almost 100% of their income now on rents and how long can this go on?

>> It can't, it just can't.

It could be -- that woman particular in Scottsdale and not a nice complex, not luxury and she was looking to move anywhere else in the valley and because we have constraints on buildings as we grow.

You guy as an investment.

We have nimbyism, a labor shortage and a housing shortage.

Nimbyism just simply can't go on.

>> Complexes, the push-back in every valley city, from buckeye to Gilbert and the developers are throwing up their hands and can't build that this way and taking so long that the deals are falling through.

>> I was going to ask who's renting these placing out?

Vacancy rates, they're not there and people are renting out at exorbitant prices.

I'm looking at all of the indicators and the factors and again, it's on construction and the low vacancy rate, I think we can climb more.

>> Single family homes lagging a little bit by not too much.

>> Rents are about 21%, 22% for single family last year and now, that's where investors or home builders getting for sale.

Just recently saw a presentation and we have more single-family rentals than any other in the country.

>> The population growths will continue, but it has to ease off and when it disease, what happens?

>> That's an interesting question.

You know, right now, most single family rentals, what you're paying in rent is more than a mortgage if you have more than a 10% down payment.

The thing is about most apartments, they're paying cash and won't walk away.

The single-family, the builders are backed by, you know, we have Wall Street investors and they won't walk away.

But the high prices they're paying makes you wonder, what's the end game.

It's concerning a lot of people and watching it.

Zillow was buying homes and then got out of the business and seeing it taking a loss on a lot of those homes.

So, you know, just watching from all of these angles and not like the crash and talked about then, where it was bad subprime lows and individual investors and these are big investors and so what is the downside?

I can't see how we can keep growing at the rate in the past with these kind of rents.

>> You hate to see people with this and you can't afford it.

>> I was encouraged after we ran the story and talked about the woman of $800, I had a few landlords reach out and say, hey, I want to help her.

>> That's nice.

>> I was, like, thank you.

>> Something good came out of it, then.

People want to live in phoenix and like the downtown area and Arizona republic, thank you for joining us.

>> Thank you.

>> And up next on Arizona horizon, could desalination be a part of the water concerns?

Water conservation is an increasing necessity as the megadrought continues with no sign of letting up and some are looking at desalination and let there be water, Israel solution.

Ted, it's good to have you.

We have a lot to talk about here and I want to start with this, because this seems like a trendy topic and the governor is looking at it and Israel has looked at this long and hard and used it and what is this?

>> Taking salty water and desalting it.

The process can we one of three or four technologies and the best of them is where you put it through, like, a cheese cloth.

You're pushing the water through it and pure water comes out of the other side and the minerals and stuff remains on the original side.

And you purify and you push that away and back into the ocean or the sea and you're left with very, very high quality, pure water.

>> In reclaiming waste water?

>> That's a different process and could be the same and generally, salt is just a tiny molecular thing is a high filter.

>> It sounds expensive?

>> It could be.

>> How expensive?

>> I've written a book about this, the world's leading place about it.

In Israel, 50 cents cents for about 350 gallons.

If your facility is built in an expensive way, it could be a dollar or dollar and a water, that same quantity of water.

>> Does it make sense for a place like Arizona?

>> It does, because it's part of the all-above strategy and if you think of this as the only solution, it's not a good idea.

First of all, if you start today, you won't have it tomorrow.

You won't have it a year from tomorrow or five years from tomorrow.

It takes awhile to build it.

Second of all, your expectations that it will solve all of your problems, it won't.

For example, the largest desalinatino plant is near San Diego in Carlsbad.

They push it up to 56 acres and that's a tiny fraction of the 80 feat that you will reduce usage for.

As you're thinking about your future, one facility, which costs, by the way, a billion dollars to build, it was about 15, 20 years to conception and costs about $60 billion a year to operate.

A large amount of money, a huge user of energy, but produces very high quality water.

So I would say that it is smart to think about desalination and that facility will be there to help with that.

>> Environmental concerns, this brine, the coastline damage and that has to be a concern.

>> Yeah.

People talk about generally the brine that's pushed back into the water and the high energy usage to purify that water and push the water through that metaphorical cheese cloth and if you have dams into the water ways, that's far more affecting salinizaiton.

There's extra salt to the water and the water is vast and it doesn't -- measurement wise, it doesn't change.

If there are environmental concerns, it should not be ignored.

>> It's part of the plan, but in Arizona, we have water concerns and not going away any time soon.

Agriculture in Arizona takes up three quarters of our water and does that make sense to you or ring true to you?

>> We need food and run locally.

The methods are five thousand years old like flood irrigation.

85% of the fields are irrigated with flood irrigation and let me tell you what it means, that they use a technique, a method back from five thousand years ago when the Egyptians were flooding the Nile Delta and they would grow crops and after the water would evaporate out, they would flood it again and again and it would go to harvest and we are still using that same technique around the world 600 million acres, 830,000 in Arizona.

The technology exists to transform Arizona to use about half as much water and that savings, that savings of that water would answer all of the tier one and two cuts imaginable.

>> As opposed to flood irrigation, sprinklers or showers?

>> A new drip irrigation.

>> It's gravity fed and in expensive to install and that because I'm so excited about the technology, I volunteered to become the chief sustainability officer and this in-drip like new drip and this technology, it saves about half of the water and increases the yield by a third and cuts fertilizer by a half and cuts carbon emissions by 80%.

>> Is it expensive?

>> 20% as expensive as classic pressurized drip.

>> Where is it used?

>> In the farms and in Tonopaw, working in coordination with the projects and I'll make a prediction and I hope you'll have me back that you'll be seeing this on hundreds of acres of Arizona farmland in five years.

>> Because right now groundwater concerns are big here and we have a management act that's teetering after 40 years because of the drought and the Colorado river supply and the whole nine years and we're looking for answers and desalination is an outlier and exists and do you think Arizona will make it as far as water is concerned?

>> I think it will.

Arizona is a dry place and has gone through economic growth.

In Israel, for those of the viewers who have been there, when you go there, you feel like you're in London or New York, water abundant.

They have systematically used technologies of many kinds, but you have all of the above strategy where they look to say, how can we make our water as effective as possible to the people who can live their lives normally and happily and that could be the future of Arizona, too.

It takes market forces and lots of technology.

>> Good conversation, Seth Seigle, thank you for joining us.

>> Thank you, Ted.

Tonight, why Ukraine says western nations promise to increase humanitarian aid isn't enough and that's off your hour of local news on Arizona PBS.

>> And pets can help people who are suffering from loneliness and social isolation and a new joint study by ASU that the impacts pet can have and more from Aaron guess from healthy and resilient aging and meals on wheels America.

Laura and Aaron, thank you for joining us on Arizona horizon and good to you have both here and we're going to start with you.

The impact on loneliness and this research project and let's define terms.

How is socially isolated how is that defined?

>> You know, when with think about social isolation, we think about the lack of companionship, our connection with individuals, you know, outside of the immediate home with no connections at all, very limited connections.

And it's a very objective kind of measure and we compare that with loneliness, which is a subjective measure.

Hows isolated or not isolated makes us feel, whether we're happy to be kind of left alone or in many cases, that we're longing for additional human connection and human contact or some form of contact.

>> Laura, which brings us to this research project involving meals on wheels, your clients and pets.

Talk to us about this.

>> Many of the factors that make older adults more susceptible to social isolation, like living alone, retiring from work, losing a spouse or other loved ones and they're common among wheels on meal clients.

For many, the person delivering their meal may be the only person they see that day or sometimes that week.

So pets are, for many, are important.

>> As well, even just the ability to touch a pet makes a difference, doesn't it?

>> Absolutely.

We've learned a lot about the sensations of the tangible, able to touch something throughout the pandemic and how being able to pet a dog or pet a cat or have something to feel has added health benefits such as reducing blood pressure, addressing challenges around heart disease or cardiovascular health because it releases hormones that help us manage our stress a little bit better.

>> And exercise, as well.

>> As well, absolutely.

And this is one of the things I'm excited about, one of the direct and indirect benefits of pet ownerships.

Owning a pet, it helps with exercise and it can help you introduce to new people because your animal opens the door and those are direct benefits and those indirect benefits, as well, such as having companionship and having something to turn so even if it's not another person in the home.

>> And Laura, this research project, talk to us about how it was conducted so far what has been found.

>> Sure.

You know, so Aaron talked about some of the benefits of pet ownership and we also know in our network that there are a lot of challenges to maintaining a pet in the home and with older adults, you have mobility or transportation limitations and we wanted to do research to explore the issues.

We did a first round of research and published a repeat report on the results of that study and that shows us that currently offer pet programs that, you know, one in three of personal care to provide for their pet and about one in five went without food to feed their pet.

Half had trouble obtaining veterinary care and we found benefits in the first round of the research and nearly all of the clients reported that their pet brings happiness, makes them feel healthier and less lonely.

This year, we wanted to do meals on wheels that don't offer pet services to understand what are the needs experienced by the clients how can they better serve them and understand those challenges and opportunities.

>> Do you have more to say, please?

>> That's where our partnership with Arizona state university and the guest research came in.

>> The research, obviously, it sounds like -- I'm guessing a lot of folks, give me a pet.

>> You know, that's one of the things we've thought about, and I believe we will find pets find they reduce isolation and there's a way forward.

The next logical step is that how do we identify support systems or inventions to provide pets to assist with pet ownership and management which and what we're working with, wheels on wheels and broader implications on ways that we may be able to target and reduce loneliness among community developing adults at home.

>> Laura, barriers, and Aaron touched on this, barriers as far as older folks and pet companionship.

Leases and requirements that get in the way.

>> Absolutely.

This is something that we see with meals on wheels and a lot of the big challenges, not just finding a new pet companion but keeping the pet that you already have.

The meals on wheels programs are providing food that is delivered in addition to meals on wheels for the person and for the pet and they're providing access to veterinary care and emergency boarding.

If an individual has to didn't into the hospital.

A lot of the things that we don't think about, we have a dedicated program and we've been able to give out $2.7 million in funding to our local meals on we'lls program and expand that in 2020 with more support from our friends at pet smart charities.

>> Laura and Aaron, great work, and thank you both for joining us and we appreciate it.

>> Thank you for having us.

>> Thank you.

>> That is it for now.

I'm Ted Simons and thank you for joining us and you have a great evening.

This is coming up at 7:00, at 7:30, and at 8:00.

Tonight starting at 7:00 only on Arizona PBS.

To learn more how to support Arizona PBS and grow your business by reaching the customers you want, call us.