Builder | Streetscout.com
According to Street Scout, the state of Arizona is short on housing by about 100,000 units. Homelessness is on the rise in the state as 400 people living in tents and sleeping bags near Phoenix’s Human Services Campus were forced to to move due to lack of room.
Federal tax credits pump in $200 million a year to provide 1,500 to 2,000 affordable homes in the state, but it’s not enough. “We are looking for the private market to step up, and thankfully are seeing a lot of interest and support there,” said Carol Ditmore, director of the Arizona Department of Housing.
Metro Phoenix’s growing affordability problem is increasingly a priority for not only housing advocates but business and government leaders. On Wednesday, when hundreds of people living outside Arizona’s biggest homeless shelter were moved, more than 100 Valley leaders met a few miles away to figure out ways to build more affordable housing quickly.
