Divided Scottsdale OKs 28 new affordable housing units for seniors
Scottsdale City Council, on a split vote Tuesday, approved a plan to build 28 new affordable apartment units at the city's Paiute Neighborhood Center, a nearly $16 million initiative that will provide housing at "low or no-cost" to needy residents.
The target demographic will be "seniors and persons with disabilities," according to a city news release.
The vote came after two-and-a-half-hours of debate, testimony and consideration.
The plan is part of an effort to address what staffers call a "growing need for affordable housing units" in Scottsdale. Nearly 450 seniors are waitlisted at the city's three other affordable housing complexes, and officials said elderly residents continue to be priced out of Scottsdale's notoriously and increasingly expensive housing market.
The new housing will be an addition to a separate city effort to build a new community assistance office at the Paiute Neighborhood Center, which was approved by Scottsdale voters as part of the Bond 2019 program. Scottsdale's tentative plan is to build the housing units on the second floor of that future building, although the design details haven't been worked out.
The $16 million construction of the new units will be funded entirely with outside cash. Scottsdale has secured about $8 million from the federal government and Maricopa County to cover its costs.
City Councilmembers passed 5-2, with Councilmembers Barry Graham and Kathy Littlefield casting 'no' votes.
More: Who is on the Scottsdale City Council? What to know about the members
They cited a wide range of concerns, ranging from concerns about mixing cash from different funding sources to whether the effort could exacerbate homelessness in Scottsdale.
"Some of these government housing programs in bigger cities not only don't work, but they can have an even wider impact on the community," Graham said. "Other cities show us pretty clearly that a lot of times, when you throw more and more money at the problem, it tends to grow. I just don't think we can build ourselves out of this (housing) problem."
Staffers and other officials contend those concerns are unfounded. The scale of Scottsdale's low-income and homeless housing efforts is far smaller than cities such as Phoenix, for example, and none of Scottsdale's programs accept those who have been homeless for a long time, are addicts or have serious mental health problems.
"Persons who are considered chronically homeless (means that a person has been homeless for more than a year), or repeatedly in and out of homelessness, with disabling conditions such as serious mental illness, substance use disorder, or physical disability are not eligible for Scottsdale’s Bridge Housing Program," the city's news release said.
Only four to six of the new units would be used to directly combat homelessness. Those apartments will fall under the city's "bridge housing" program, which provides housing for a few months for individuals who recently lost their homes or would become homeless if not for the extra help.
Only seniors and families are eligible.
The remaining units would be available as long-term affordable housing for any low-income Scottsdale resident, although housing seniors and disabled people is the priority. And it's unlikely that anyone else will be housed there, with hundreds of needy seniors already on Scottsdale's waiting list.
“We do these things right. We don’t just lollygag and throw some stuff together. We have a great staff who does things right," said Councilmember Tom Durham, who pushed back on claims from opponents of the program that Scottsdale would face similar issues to San Francisco if it pursued the affordable housing effort.
The new units will be designed and planned-out over the next year, and residents will have opportunities to give feedback on the plan as it develops. Officials expect construction to begin in either 2025 or 2026.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Scottsdale approves initiative to build 28 affordable housing units
