(Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents Habitat for Humanity.)
By Lacey Latch, Juliette Rihl | Arizona Republic
FLAGSTAFF — Just across the street from the first Habitat for Humanity house Eric Wolverton helped build, he is now overseeing the construction of a new kind of Habitat home.
This time, the house has the explicit purpose of helping alleviate Flagstaff’s affordable housing crisis.
Flagstaff desperately needs more affordable housing, evidenced by the hundreds of people who have applied to own this new Habitat property. The city’s lengthy zoning and approval process, limited amount of residential land and proliferation of short-term vacation rentals and second homes have contributed to a housing shortage in the area, causing prices to climb.
As of January 2021, housing in the city cost a third more than the national average, according to Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy. And half of renters in Coconino County are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing, a Morrison Institute report said.
Instead of the single-family “forever homes” that Habitat has built in the past, Wolverton has led the shift to starter homes.
