By Sean Golightly | AZ Sun
During Tuesday’s work session, Flagstaff City Council unanimously voted to adopt a 10-year housing plan that comes in direct response to the affordable housing emergency declared in December of 2020.
The plan summarizes the city’s immediate and long-term housing needs, and presents policy initiatives and strategies for a path forward.
A robust amount of data and public participation went into its formation, including a community housing survey that reached 3,000 respondents, a community forum survey that garnered 327 respondents, and roughly 16.4 hours of public comment, 600 written comments and more than 1,000 volunteer hours from the combined efforts of 80 volunteers in informal working groups.
Public participation combined with census data provided the housing commission with critical figures that illustrate the severity of Flagstaff’s housing emergency. The rising cost of housing in Flagstaff has far outpaced rising wages. Since 2011, the median sale price of an area home has risen 119%, while the median area income has only experienced a 16% increase. Ballooning housing costs combined with wage stagnation have burdened a full 45% of Flagstaff’s population with housing costs that exceed 30% of their income.
