Arizona has a housing crisis. Here's how Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs plans to solve it
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Phoenix-area housing experts and advocates are eager for Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs to move forward with her housing plan, which they largely praised as a comprehensive approach to addressing Arizona's housing crisis. But some experts also said the plan could go further.
Hobbs' plan proposes encouraging local zoning changes, providing legal aid to families facing eviction and investing in the Housing Trust Fund, which funds affordable housing development and assistance programs, among other strategies.
At a Nov. 1 press conference, Hobbs introduced the plan and called housing one of the state’s “most urgent problems.”
The state is short roughly 270,000 housing units, according to the Arizona Department of Housing. Phoenix-area eviction rates are continuing to climb, reaching record levels. And the Valley has the highest inflation rate in the country, making housing even less affordable.
“We can’t tackle the housing crisis without tackling skyrocketing costs,” said Hobbs, a Democrat.
Her plan starkly contrasts with former Republican opponent Kari Lake’s homelessness plan, which sought to expand shelter space and substance use treatment services but also called unsheltered people “drugged out and deranged” and encouraged aggressive policing of minor crimes.
Joanna Carr, research and policy director for the Arizona Housing Coalition, said Hobbs’ plan is “substantive” and “well thought-out.”
“It provides a lot of hope in the political will, I would say, that the new leadership will bring,” Carr said.
What Hobbs' plan says
Hobbs’ plan introduces solutions across five core strategies:
Empowering local communities to build more affordable housing, such as by expanding the state’s affordable housing tax credit pilot program and encouraging local zoning changes;
Cutting “needless bureaucracy,” which includes streamlining access to state services for families in need and encouraging innovative housing solutions;
Protecting Arizonans, including by launching a pilot program to provide legal aid for people facing eviction and allowing for more regulation of short-term vacation rentals;
Comprehensively fixing the homelessness crisis, such as by investing $200 million in the Housing Trust Fund and building housing for veterans; and
Lowering costs for renters and homeowners, including creating a rebate program for families at risk of not being able to afford their utility bills and funding a home repair program for seniors.
Hobbs' campaign described the housing plan as an “ambitious, but necessary, pathway to finally tackle the housing crisis that has plagued our state for too long.”
What experts are saying
Housing experts praised the plan’s emphasis on changing statewide systems, rather than focusing on individual behavior, and appreciated its comprehensive approach to fixing the housing crisis. But they also largely agreed that the plan was missing components and could expand others.
When coupled with Hobbs’ other plans for making Arizona more affordable and fostering equity, the housing plan “really has potential to have significant impact in the state,” said Cynthia Zwick, executive director of the anti-poverty nonprofit Wildfire.
Carr, of the Arizona Housing Coalition, said she was excited that the plan aims to once again enable local governments to regulate short-term vacation rentals. It's an idea, she said, that has been hard to get political leaders behind in the past. She also appreciated the plan’s emphasis on cross-sector collaboration and allowing for local government control.
But she hopes Hobbs will also consider expanding funding for much-needed emergency rental assistance, she said. In response to the pandemic, the U.S. Department of the Treasury funded emergency rental assistance programs in 2020 and 2021, but those funds are not recurring. As of Nov. 25, about 14% of the federal funds allocated to Maricopa County for emergency rental assistance were still available, or roughly $17.6 million, according to a county report.
“The U.S. Treasury program for rental assistance is really running dry,” Carr said.
A Hobbs campaign spokesperson pointed to the proposed $200 million investment in the Housing Trust Fund, which he said could be used for emergency rental assistance.
Amy Schwabenlender, executive director of the Human Services Campus, said she hopes one of Hobbs’ first actions once in office will be to reconvene an Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness, as the plan proposes. The group, which was initially a commission created in 2004 by then-Gov. Janet Napolitano, brought state agencies and community stakeholders together to coordinate efforts and share resources.
“Those of us in this work every day, we experience the disconnect between state departments,” Schwabenlender said.
Schwabenlender also said she hopes Hobbs’ transition team will pay close attention to existing racial disparities in the homeless population, which were not mentioned in the plan. Black people and Native Americans are overrepresented in Maricopa County’s homeless population, according to the point-in-time count of people experiencing homelessness.
Rashad Shabazz, a geographer and associate professor at Arizona State University, said he liked the plan’s idea of providing Arizonans facing eviction with legal aid but would also like to see the state amend its eviction laws to allow people more than five days to respond to an eviction notice.
And Shabazz disagreed with offering for-profit developers more tax incentives to build affordable units. The state should instead focus on ways it can create affordable housing without relying on private interests, he said.
“The investors who put the money up to build the housing, to purchase the land, to bring water and electricity, all of that, they want a return on their investment,” Shabazz said. “This is a capitalist project where the point is to make money, not to put people in homes.”
Hobbs’ campaign did not answer specific questions about the additional policy initiatives raised by experts but said the administration will “hit the ground running” on day one.
“Once in office, we look forward to working with stakeholders and experts to address skyrocketing housing and rental costs for all Arizonans,” spokesperson Joe Wolf wrote in an email.
Republic reporter Stacey Barchenger contributed to this article.
Juliette Rihl covers housing insecurity and homelessness for The Arizona Republic. She can be reached at jrihl@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter @julietterihl.
Coverage of housing insecurity on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Arizona Community Foundation.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Hobbs' housing plan seeks to fix Arizona's affordable housing crisis
