I feel so incredibly honored to have received the appointment from Governor Doug Ducey to serve as Director of the Arizona Department of Housing. Fifteen years ago this month I began the adventure of serving as the head of operations for the newly formed the Arizona Department of Housing. It was a job I was eager to tackle after having worked to deliver Arizona’s housing programs for a number of years. In my naivety, I thought working on internal operations would be much simpler than working on programs and projects. That was a fleeting thought that proved not to be entirely true. Nevertheless, I know these past 15 years, as well as the prior seven years working directly with the State’s housing programs, have prepared me to lead this agency. I look forward to being of service in this new capacity.

Arizona is working hard to transform state government through lean techniques that are the cornerstone of Arizona Management System. At the end of the day, what we are trying to achieve is simple: to improve what we do, each and every day. If you have any ideas concerning improvements to our programs or operations, please reach out to us at [email protected]. As a new director, I invite your feedback.

If you attended the Arizona Housing Forum in August, you have probably already had a chance to see our Imagine video (link is external), celebrating the Arizona Department of Housing’s 15 years of service to Arizona. For those who have not viewed it, we have provided a link (link is external) in this newsletter. Incredibly, when the agency tallied everything it had accomplished over the past 15 years, we were amazed to know that our team, along with the help of our housing and community development partners, had invested over $6.1 billion in Arizona’s communities and touched the lives of over 2.2 million Arizonans since 2002. We know that we were only able to touch the lives of so many Arizonans in a positive way because of the hard work of all of our partners, developing housing and delivering community assistance at the local level. If you have been a part of that effort, we thank you. Please know that we value your partnership, and look forward to all that we can accomplish in the future.

Imagine all that we can do!

Carol Ditmore
Director