By J. Graber | Daily Independent
Tony Johnson may not have a roof over his head or a door to close at night, but he won’t have you calling him homeless.
The 64-year-old has been out on the street for the last few months, but he stays around the Scottsdale neighborhood around McDowell and Hayden roads where he’s lived for the past 30 years.
He knows the people around here. Neighborhood residents help feed him, and a 24-hour restaurant as well as a local grocery store let him sleep inside sometimes.
In other words, the community is his home.
“When I got disenfranchised, I didn’t up and leave to go to somebody else’s neighborhood,” Johnson said. “If I was going to get some help, it was going to be from the people right here.”
He says he’s had steady work all his life and didn’t have trouble finding a place to live, but he got evicted from his last place recently because the landlord wasn’t keeping up with the mortgage.
He looked for another place but he couldn’t find anything for less than $1,800 a month, so he hit the streets.
“I think it’s (a problem) that the people who are running the City of Scottsdale overlook,” Johnson said. “When they’re building these new apartment buildings, (rent) is averaging out $3,000 a month. What about the people who have lived here for 30, 40 years? I’ve lived in Scottsdale for 30 years shopping at that same grocery store, at that same Fry’s over there. 30 years and some people been here longer. Now they can’t afford to live in their own community.”
The Scottsdale City Council members do know there is a lack of affordable housing in town.
There is a 3,294 rental unit shortage in the city for residents who make 30% or under the median family income, according to city documents. That shortage jumps to 5,533 for residents in the same bracket looking to buy a home.
In fact, city records say, “There are shortages in affordable housing supply for Scottsdale. Prospective buyers will struggle to find a house unless they are in the 120%+ (median family income) bracket and low wage earners – 50% (median family income) and below – are going to struggle to find a place to rent or buy.”
And the city has done little to combat the issue in the past.
Scottsdale owns eight affordable housing units on Belleview Road, but that is it.
The city council planned to build 22 new affordable housing units and 6 bridge housing units at the Paiute Community Center this year, but Maricopa County pulled $6.6 million for the project at the last minute in February. That was enough to kill the project.
There is also $15 million in the budget for general plan initiatives, which could be used on affordable housing but there currently is no plan to do so, said Scottsdale Community Assistance Manager Mary Witkofski.
Scottsdale isn’t the only city in the Valley dealing with an affordable housing inventory shortage.
For instance, only about 26% of the housing stock in Tempe is considered affordable, according to city records.
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