By Catherine Reagor | Arizona Republic
The housing crisis keeps frontline advocates who participated in an Urban Land Institute Arizona panel discussion up at night.
“It’s thinking about what raising rates will mean that keeps me up,” said Terry Benelli, executive director of LISC Phoenix. “Or it’s thinking about my son, who is a school teacher and can’t afford a house.”
Tom Simplot, the former director of the Arizona Housing Department, said the state’s housing shortage is his big concern.
“We’re not building our way out of this fast enough,” said Simplot, who is now director of housing policy at Sugar Creek Capital. “What keeps me up at night is knowing that with every single passing month we’re going to find more people falling off the cliff into homelessness by no fault of their own.”
“The housing shortage and our affordability issues keep me up at night,” said Tempe Mayor Corey Woods, who was also on the panel. “I don’t believe Arizona cities have the tools needed to create housing for our teachers and people working in the service industry.”
Help is on the way, thanks to these efforts
Vitalyst Health Foundation highlighted a couple dozen developments and groups doing important work to help in a report called Promising Housing Practices in Arizona.
Here are some in metro Phoenix:
- South 7th Village, UMOM New Day Centers’ newest affordable housing community in Phoenix, is for people 55 and older and specializes in helping veterans. It’s near light rail, community centers, grocery stores, health care services and employers.
- First Place in Phoenix is a supportive housing and residential transition community with wrap-around services for adults with autism and other neurodiversities. Residents can receive public insurance to live there from Arizona’s Medicaid program and other insurers.
- Newtown Community Land Trust builds and renovates houses and sells them to qualified buyers for below-market prices. The housing counseling agency has sold more than 135 affordable homes since 2004.
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