By Alden Woods | AZ Central
A decade into Arizona’s affordable-housing crisis, state and local housing advocates see 2019 as a long-awaited chance to respond.
In the final days before the state Legislature returns to the Capitol, advocates are pointing to a spike in homelessness and a well-publicized murder — in which the suspect was a mentally ill man experiencing long-term homelessness — in an attempt to push housing toward the top of this year’s legislative priorities.
“The murder of my neighbor was a shocking thing,” said state Sen.-elect Lela Alston, a Democrat who lives down the street from where the murder occurred. “I think that raised awareness to a level that we’ve not seen in some time.”
