By Juliette Rihl || The Arizona Republic
State legislators this week moved a bill forward that would require government agencies that administer housing assistance programs to give preference to Arizona residents.
The Arizona Republic raised the issue in a March story about how people from across the U.S. were competing for spots on Glendale’s housing choice voucher waitlist.
When Glendale opened its voucher waitlist in 2021, more than 11,000 households from 48 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico applied. Because the waitlist was populated by a random lottery, many out-of-state applicants were picked for the waitlist, while some Glendale residents were not.
Housing assistance “waitlist shopping” is a nationwide phenomenon. The increasing scarcity of affordable housing in the U.S. has meant more poor families are willing to move far from home for subsidized housing.
“We want to give preferences to housing voucher programs for Arizona residents. They should not be competing with someone in Illinois to be on the waitlist. We need to take care of Arizonans first,” Sen. Steve Kaiser, R-Phoenix, said at Tuesday’s House Commerce Committee meeting.
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