Arizona lawmakers have ideas to fix our housing problems — and they could even pass
Arizona is in the midst of a housing crisis driven by a shortage of 270,000 homes across the state.
It’s squeezing the budgets of middle-class families and forcing low-income residents into homelessness, with 80% of voters across the political spectrum agreeing that costs are out of control.
Legislators took note and promised solutions last year, but ended the 2023 session without passing a single major bill to address the crisis.
The only positive news was a one-time $150 million investment in the Arizona Housing Trust Fund, $49 million of which will subsidize development of 2,195 low-income homes. But that number pales in comparison to what the state needs.
Multiple housing bills have been proposed
Legislators seem eager to make up for lost progress, filing more than two dozen housing bills at the start of the 2024 legislative session.
The bills take a wide variety of approaches, but a common theme is legalizing modest housing types to reduce costs to middle-class families:
HB 2720 and SB 1415 would set a common standard to allow casitas and accessory dwelling units, which rent for less than other types of housing.
HB 2261 would help right-size parking mandates, as parking spots that go unused inflate costs and disproportionately kill small housing projects.
SB 1112 would legalize starter homes, and HB 2297 and SB 1506 would ease the conversion of some commercial buildings into housing. Both are either prohibited or financially infeasible across large swaths of the state due to thick webs of arbitrary and expensive regulations.
And several of these bills are already assigned to or passed through a committee, the first step to becoming a law.
Together, this legislation would greatly alleviate Arizona’s crushing shortage of housing.
Bills have more bipartisan support now
As for the likelihood of passing, there are several reasons for optimism. For one, this year’s bills appear to have increased support from leadership.
Leo Biasiucci, the House majority leader, and Warren Petersen, the Senate president, are sponsoring or cosponsoring some of the most consequential bills on the Republican side. And Mitzi Epstein, the Senate minority leader, was an enthusiastic participant at the press conference announcing the Democrats’ housing bills.
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Another encouraging sign is the number of bills with bipartisan sponsorship. Many reflect Democrats’ and Republicans’ differing philosophies, but several have both Democrat and Republican sponsors.
And others complement each other in intriguing ways — for example, Rep. Marcelino Quiñonez’s bill, HB 2813, to create a first-time homebuyer assistance program and Rep. Biasiucci’s bill to legalize starter homes. Financial assistance to first-time homebuyers is only useful, after all, if there are homes available to buy.
Keep pressuring lawmakers to pass them
Finally, there are promising signs that the powerful lobbying group pivotal to killing last year’s bills, The League of Arizona Cities and Towns, is losing its grip on the Capitol.
The league traditionally relies on Democrats for support, but the legislators who stood up to the group last year — Sen. Anna Hernandez and Reps. Analise Ortiz and Oscar De Los Santos — seem to have attracted a larger group to the cause, based on the number of cosponsors for this year’s bills.
And in an early test of their resolve, HB 2570 received unanimous support from the Democrats on the House Commerce Committee despite opposition from the League, an event unusual enough that it was remarked upon by the committee chair.
Given the enormity of Arizona’s housing shortage and scale of public discontent, perhaps fewer legislators are willing to accept the status quo.
Leadership across both parties seems supportive, and the coalition willing to take action is bipartisan and growing.
If we keep up the pressure on our legislators over the next few months, there’s a real chance of meaningful action on housing this year.
Tyler Denham is a resident of Flagstaff and volunteers with Livable Flagstaff and other housing advocacy groups. Reach him at tyler.b.denham@gmail.com; on Twitter: @LivableFlag, Instagram: @LivableFlagstaff.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Housing is broken in Arizona, but now lawmakers want to help
