Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Arkansas Times, and Little Rock public Radio.

Welcome to Arkansas week.

I'm Michael helpline.

Construction is progressing on two unique projects to provide housing for those experiencing homelessness.

Later in the program, I'll talk with the organizers.

But first, Congress is heading into the August recess with efforts underway to avert a government shutdown in two months.

Joining me is Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Washington correspondent Alex Thomas.

Alex, thanks as always.

Thank you, Michael, for having me on.

I appreciate the opportunity.

This was the final week for both the House and Senate to be in session before the five week break, when they return, there will be a hectic pace to secure government funding before a September 30th deadline.

What are members of our delegation saying about the prospects at this point?

Right, so when it comes to government funding, it really involves two of our members specifically.

You have Representative Womack, who leads the transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee with the House Appropriations Committee.

And then you have Senator Bozeman, who is one of the main Senate appropriators.

On the Senate side, he leads the Military Construction Veterans Affairs subcommittee.

So they're trying to get these bills done right now.

Right now in the Senate, they're actually working through that milk on VA bill, and they'll be back next week to try to finalize some things.

But at the same time, though the house is leaving at the end of this week, they already have left by the time the show is aired.

And so time is running out.

They actually spoke to Representative Womack last week about when they would consider that tea HUD bill, and it may not be until early September at the earliest.

Keep in mind here, Michael, they have to get through 12 bills through the next month when they come back, and they do face that September 30th deadline.

Representative Womack is not a fan of what they call continuing resolutions, which maintains government funding.

He really wants Congress to pass these appropriation measures and really get all this done by that September 30th deadline.

And Democrats have said actions by Republicans, have, in their words, been an affront to the bipartisan appropriations process.

And the Senate Democrats have suggested they might use a filibuster, which would require a 60 vote margin.

Is that looking likely?

What are you hearing?

Well, the good news is, it seems like Senate appropriators have always been willing to be more bipartisan with their work, willing to work with each other to get this done.

The House side, not so much.

We're seeing things on the House side that are not going to win over any Democrats, not trying to get that simple majority plus then some.

So that's going to be the real challenge here is when the House gets done with its bills.

And since measures over to the Senate, what will the Senate do to not just get those measures through their own chamber, but also make enough Republicans and Democrats hold their noses and say, all right, we can get this done.

We can send it to the white House, and we can avert that shutdown if, funding agreement can't be reached, rather than a government shutdown, is a continuing resolution looking more likely?

Well, I talked to Representative Womack back in March when they were debating the previous government shutdown to make a comment that my dad would make in this situation.

When I talked to him every week.

Are we always talking about government shutdowns?

Pretty much.

That's the pattern we've gotten into.

So if you're seeing like this seems like a repeat of Arkansas, we know it is a new episode.

We're just always talking about government shutdowns, it seems.

But Representative Womack is not very keen to support another continuing resolution based on the conversations I've had with him since the last continuing resolution they passed.

He really wants Congress to take this seriously.

He wants lawmakers to pass these bills, get them through, make sure Congress handles its responsibilities as it should.

And if Representative Womack is saying this, then what else is going on within the House Republican Conference?

Representative Womack is the last person in the world that wants to shut down the government.

And if he's not willing to back a continuing resolution, who else is willing to say no?

To, talk about, some other members of the House?

You wrote this week that, U.S., Representative Bruce Westerman has renewed his call for permitting reform.

This involves the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act.

Explain what he is suggesting here.

Right.

So Nepa is this big.

It's pretty much the main environmental review law.

Whenever you have a project, Nepa is.

And for so people can see what the environmental impact of our projects going to be.

And even before any work is done, the government has some understanding about what a public or energy project, how that's going to affect the local environment.

Representative Westerman has been adamant he wants to change the Nepa process, not to reduce the process, not to make things, you know, more environmentally risky, but to speed up that process, he says.

That has been a big concern that people who are pushing these energy and public projects, they can't get their work done in a timely manner because the Nepa process takes too dang long to get through.

So he really wants to see this process expedited, and he thinks that there is support on the other side to get this done.

But that being said, Democrats want to make sure if they do end up finding ways to expedite the need for process, there are still climate and environmental protections in place to make sure the ecosystems are protected.

Two another issue, one that has been a priority for the second district Congress.

And, after years of committee hearings, the House last week approved three measures aimed at regulating digital assets like cryptocurrency.

Representative French Hill, a former banker, now chairs the Financial Services Committee.

Before we discuss this, I want to play a clip of Hill at a press conference with colleagues, saying the establishment of modern regulations was the result of a lot of hard work behind the scenes.

There's a, old expression in venture capital, which is that the average, overnight success takes ten years.

And what you see before us is the work by staff in the House Agriculture Committee, House Financial Services Committee staff and the Senate Banking Committee that people have been working on for years.

And so for the better part of five years, the members here led by Whip Emmer, our colleague from Ohio, Warren Davidson, former chair of Patrick McHenry, that really set the stage for the success that we're having today.

And you wrote that, Congressman Hill was, beaming on that Thursday.

This came at the end of, crypto week in the House.

Explain what this legislation does and, why it has been so important for Hill.

Right, Michael.

So these are three bills regarding cryptocurrency and digital asset regulations.

And the big question is, okay, why is this important?

Why should people care?

Well, the SEC and the CFTC have been regulating cryptocurrencies and digital assets.

But the problem has been that those regulations go back to the 1930s and 1940s, before the internet, before cryptocurrencies were even thought.

So what lawmakers like Representative Hill have wanted to do is update those regulations.

But new regulations in place to not just protect consumers, but protect investors, protect markets, because as representatives, Senator Boozman rather told me, it's been like the Wild West where investors have just thrown things out there, put things onto the market, and consumers just didn't have the right tools to understand if they were risky investments, sound investments.

And eventually those investors ended up being the losers in those whole ordeals.

Was there any significant opposition to this?

Yeah, that's kind of the interesting thread to all this.

Some Democrats were on board with doing Crypto Week.

Representative Dan Davis of North Carolina's a good example.

Representative Angie Craig of Minnesota, who is a native Arkansan from the Helena, West Helena area.

Both of those lawmakers are just some great examples of people who really wanted to do something like Crypto Week.

But at the same time, some Democrats raised concerns about the Trump family's involvement in the cryptocurrency industry.

And I asked representative Phil about that.

Should there be concerns about the Trump family and their interest in cryptocurrencies?

And he said, to put it bluntly, America is better today because Congress took Crypto Week seriously in the House, passed those like those measures rather than just allowing the status quo to exist.

So hopefully we're going to see regulations.

The Senate has to take up two of those three bills.

They did pass one of those measures in the Senate already.

But same time, a major step forward on Capitol Hill when it comes to regulating cryptocurrencies.

Yeah.

And earlier this year, bicameral working group was formed to address digital asset, legislation.

And it included not only Hill but, Senator John Bozeman.

So Arkansas seems to have, kind of an outside role, outsized role in cryptocurrency.

Right.

I was talking to Carol Goforth out of the University of Arkansas, who specializes and looks into cryptocurrency and digital asset regulations and even she was a little bit surprised that people haven't picked up on the fact that Arkansas is this major player in the cryptocurrency and digital asset space.

You have Representative Hill, you have Sender Bozeman, you have the venture center down in little Rock.

All of these are playing major roles in how we are considering and looking at digital assets and cryptocurrencies.

And if you're not watching the natural state now, you ought to be, Well, finally, you mentioned Senator Bozeman.

He's been pushing for years for a new farm bill leads the, Agriculture Committee.

The last farm bill was passed seven years ago, and, another temporary extension is expiring this year.

The one big, beautiful bill act, includes some agriculture components, though, some are saying this is, too little, too late.

Right.

So with the one big, beautiful bill, what they've done is update commodity prices, update programs that, like you said, Michael, have not been updated in seven years.

And a lot has happened in the last seven years.

We've had presidential administration changes, we had a pandemic, and farmers have not been able to operate under that system with many farmers, especially in East Arkansas, facing financial pressure because the system is outdated and bad.

So Senator Bozeman really wanted to get this done.

You know, farm bill was one option, but the one big, beautiful bill presented another avenue and they took the opportunity.

Now, what does this mean for farmers?

Well, when we talk to Hallie Schaffner, who's running for U.S. Senate, who is a farmer out of Jackson County, her family just shut down her farm earlier this year.

She said she feels that a lot of farmers in her part of the state are not going to be able to benefit from this.

It's going to be too little, too late.

And what we spoke to another gentleman earlier this year when the bill was first introduced.

He's already concerned that Congress may have to pass ad hoc legislation, ad hoc relief to provide farmers enough financial security to get through this year.

So when those provisions finally fully kick into place next year, they will have the right protections and they'll be able to protect their investments and protect their operations.

And finally, on the topic of the farm bill, is there any discussion about that or any other, legislation to help farmers?

Well, they took a big portion of the farm bill through that one big, beautiful bill.

So that's at least the good news is that it does alleviate some headaches up here on Capitol Hill, because not only would we have had to face that funding deadline at the end of September, but we would also also have to find time to pass a new farm bill.

And there really hasn't been a bipartisan push to get that done this year.

So luckily, with the one big beautiful bill, there is enough in there where the big portions of the farm bill are done.

But as for the rest of it, we're going to have to see what happens when Congress returns in September.

And even though the deadline for the farm bill is September 30th, both Republicans and Democrats have said in the past that they really can get something done by the end of the calendar year.

That being December 31st and everything would be okay for the most part.

So yes, September 30th is the big day, but December 31st is the day with a big red circle around it.

So watch this space.

We're going to be keeping our eyes on this as fall approaches and the winter approaches.

Alex Thomas, Washington correspondent with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Thanks so much for your reporting.

Hope you enjoy some, downtime during the August recess.

I'll try to you my brother said, hey, you're going to have a month vacation.

I laughed, and I said, no.

Yeah, well, we'll be right back.

And welcome back.

Two projects are under construction in central Arkansas, independent of one another, but with a shared goal creating villages to provide housing for those experiencing homelessness.

Joining me are Aaron Stanger, CEO of Providence Park, which is being built in partnership with Pulaski County, and Kevin Howard, director of Little Rock's Department of Housing and Neighborhood Programs.

He's involved in creating the little Rock Micro Village.

Thank you both for coming on.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Both projects are constructing tiny homes.

But one will offer permanent housing, while the other is transitional.

Erin, let's start with you.

Tell me, what, inspired you to create Providence Park?

Yeah, well, thank you so much for having us today.

It's great to be here.

What inspired me to create Providence Park was a relationship, with a woman that, is homeless, and she's actually been homeless since Katrina, so since 2005.

And, getting to know her and learn her story really inspired me to create Providence Park, because I wanted to be able to offer her more than, just kind of services that I could do, you know, kind of one at a time, you know, here's some food, here's some, here's some supplies.

But what does it look like to provide housing and wraparound support services?

So she she really inspired me to to go on this journey and create Providence Park.

And what we're talking about here are 500 tiny homes.

And, we've got some, footage of, what, one of those homes, looks like, but providing permanent housing as well as, all the services describe what, will be happening within this village.

Yeah.

So with that, we're actually building 400, tiny homes is the max amount.

That's what can fit within this 50 acres.

Modeling and after community.

First village, located in Austin, Texas.

And so, of course, we'll have the permanent housing, but the wraparound services that we are excited to include, are the medical clinic, which will have, of course, medical care and mental health care and dental care for our neighbors.

We also are going to have a garden and an orchard.

So everything that's grown there is for the neighbors, so they can introduce themselves to healthy eating habits.

We'll also have a tiny home chapel and a memorial garden and a scatter garden to celebrate their life, even after they pass on from being on the property.

And we will also have, of course, staff and missionaries on site, which are individuals that are called to walk alongside the neighbors to do life with them and help them each day.

So we'll have that available as well.

And full laundry services and of course full kitchen services and we're excited.

Yeah.

And residents will be required to pay rent, but, there are also, work opportunities there at the site.

That's right.

We do.

We, plan to have workforce opportunities.

So the Community works program is it will be created so that we can employ our neighbors.

That would like to work on site within the property, and then they can earn a living and be able to pay their rent and enjoy life within Providence Park.

Yeah.

And, construction began, more than a year ago at 6900 Green Street.

Open.

Hope to open in some capacity, by the winter.

How far along is construction?

Construction is is moving along really well.

We've got our community center in place.

Our first, kitchen, kitchen and laundry building is under construction as well.

We're about to start the tiny home constructions and our health clinic constructions.

So we're moving along as fast as we can with the sunny days that we have.

And I read the last report I saw said, this was in May, but said you're hoping to start the application process.

In August.

Is that still on track?

Almost.

We think we're going to actually push it most likely to September.

We're going to give a little bit more testing time and working with our partners to help us vet the application to make sure that we have the right language choices and that we're really ready, ready to go and hopefully launch that right after Labor Day is the plan.

Okay.

Well, Kevin, the city is, constructing the little Rock Micro Village, 3405 West Roosevelt Road.

It will provide housing units for 80 individual units for individuals and families.

You've also got a 32 bed emergency shelter after a two year, delay, construction is underway.

Where are you on this project?

Yes, again.

Thank you for having me here today.

And grateful to be here.

Yes.

We start at the little Rock micro home village, over, year and a half, almost two years ago.

We got caught up on, some construction issues as far as, the type of funding that we were using to construct the non congregated units.

We were looking at doing community bathrooms, in showers.

With the funding that we receive, from HUD.

They would not allow us to, have, those community bathrooms.

So, we went with had to change plan, scrap, the actual plans that we had.

Get what?

Architect to develop, some new, plans so we can have, bathrooms, in each one of the non congregate units.

Currently.

Right.

Right.

Now we are grading the site.

We do have contractors, working right now to grade the site and put in used site utilities.

Also, we have to work with, all the utility companies in Arkansas, which is KW energy, as well as the Rock World Water Reclamation Authority and also that, people don't know that that's a state highway.

On Roseville.

So it's a lot of things that you have to do, to get permits, pool to, have that drive to come off, Roseville.

So we're moving along.

The, contractor is about 60% complete.

They are completing the extra utilities right now.

Underground.

So hopefully we'll see some roles being put in with within the next 30 days.

And then we'll get started on the community center and the actual non congregating units.

And we do have, some footage that we can show our audience of what this looks like.

But this, as I mentioned, was or is intended to be transitional housing.

How do you decide, who comes in here?

What are the, requirements or stipulations?

Yeah.

So we, we work with a, a number of nonprofits as well as we work with Providence Park.

As, Aaron stated, they also do, chronically homeless too, as well.

So those individuals will be, provided, services.

And then those individuals can go through a process application process so they can get in.

We also have our Jericho Day Resource Center.

We have DePaul USA that runs it.

And so they'll have individuals that they'll bring in to as well.

We also have other nonprofit organizations and catch organizations that will find individuals.

We'll take them through a process so they can be vetted and brought into the actual micro homes that we have.

Also in the community center, we have 32 emergency shelter beds.

16 for men, 16 for women.

We have showers in there, as well as laundry facilities, commercial kitchen.

We have, case managers that will be on site.

They're each and every day, as well as a director that will run the facility.

We also have a health clinic that's on site as well, mental health services that can be provided, the wraparound services and training facility that we can train individuals so they can get a job and get be, be able to transition from just transitional houses to, permanent housing or permanent supportive housing.

And then also, we can transition those individuals out to Providence Park two as well.

And yeah, this is, you know, you work with so many groups, you guys are working together, but there are so many other, nonprofits, our house, the van, the compassion center.

So it really takes kind of a group, mentality to address the problem.

This big, the last time we discussed, homelessness on this program, we heard that, it was continuing to grow in central Arkansas.

To either of you, are you are we still seeing an increase in the number of people, experiencing homelessness?

Aaron.

Yeah, we are so if you, are know about that point in time counts.

Often called the pit count.

So, those numbers show that our numbers are rising here.

In Arkansas, especially in central Arkansas.

And the different levels of homelessness, whether it's transitional or chronic homelessness, we are seeing a percentage increase.

Yeah, yeah.

And and even that pit count doesn't always accurately reflect the true situation, because you have people who might be staying with family or in, long term, long stay hotels.

The what seems to be driving this increase?

Yeah, it's a number of factors.

I'll take that, question with me.

Being over homeless services is one of the divisions under my department.

We see a large increase, of course.

And Aaron just talked about the Peter count.

In 2024, the peak count was a little over 500 that we actually counted.

And, this year was at 973.

So we're closer to 1000.

But that's not a true number, because the homeless engagement and specials that we have go out.

Matthew DiSalvo is our chief homeless officer for the City of little Rock.

And we have four engagement specialists that go out and engage with unsheltered individuals each and every day.

And we see an increase in number.

We have people that's coming in from different states around the country that are coming into little Rock, because they feel like little Rock will provide services to them.

And so in the central Arkansas area, we've provided a lot of services to individuals.

We try to find places where individuals can go, provide wraparound services to them so they can get those needs taken care of.

We have we see a lot of individuals, with mental health issues.

I think we need more mental health facilities in central Arkansas area to assist these individuals, because when we go out, engage with them, we know they have an issue.

And so housing is a big component.

Being able to shelter individuals because you have individuals that we go out there in the woods than ears that you would even believe that they would be in.

And so it poses a danger to as well, especially when we have winter weather issues.

As far as with the winter, the floods, all the heat that we have, we do have winter, cooling shelters that we open up.

And also we do emergency winter shelter too as well.

So we we're doing a lot of different things.

I think individuals around the country, when they see it on the news or in the newspaper and they say, hey, why don't you go to little Rock?

You can get these services in there.

They're helping individuals.

So we see influx individuals being busting in from different parts of the country.

Yeah, well, we've only got less than a minute, but each of you, How big?

A help will this be for the homeless situation?

Are you optimistic this will make a, a significant dent in helping?

I'm definitely optimistic.

And it would make a really good impact in our caring for the homeless here in central Arkansas.

Whether you're providing permanent housing like we are at Providence Park, transitional housing, emergency shelter, along with other organizations.

You know, Amherst, Arkansas, is open to the station, which serves 18 to 24 year olds.

Our house is also expanded their family services.

So I think hopefully we will see, you know, all coming together that we're making a dramatic impact on how we care for our homeless here in Central Arkansas.

Yeah.

Yes.

And I think, that's partnering up with nonprofit organizations, our House, little Rock, compassion Center, Saint Francis and House River City Ministries, all those individuals and nonprofit organizations coming together as a coordinated answer to people's trust, just assisting with those individuals that we see, they have issues in need, housing and being able to work with Providence Park.

I think the mayor's mission in helping us get to Functional Zero and him being putting forth initiative that he's done, is been grateful for the city of little Rock, and I think he'll continue to make that push.

Aaron Stanger, Kevin Howard with City of Little Rock and Aaron with Providence Park.

Thank you both so much for coming by.

I thank you and I'm Michael Helpline.

Thanks for watching.

We'll see you next time.

Support for Arkansas Week, provided by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, The Arkansas Times and Little Rock Public Radio.