The City of Phoenix is launching a new and ambitious program that could see the construction of at least 100 new affordable housing structures in the next year.
Members of the Phoenix City Council have given their approval to building the residential units on a list of lots already owned by the city.
The project is part of a significantly larger effort to both build new housing or keep intact and upgrade existing housing stock in order to make available more affordable housing.
The effort draws from a document called Housing Phoenix Plan which envisions ultimately creating a stock of up to 50,000 homes by the beginning of the next decade as a means of addressing the city’s ongoing affordable and workforce housing shortage.
That document notes that while Phoenix has seen its population increase by around 20% in the last two decades and has been repeatedly named the fastest growing city in the country, “Phoenix’s housing production has not kept pace with population growth.”
The document continues: “The current shortages of housing supply, relative to demand, is a primary reason housing costs are increasing. A significant increase in housing supply is necessary to keep pace with current and projected housing demand.”
According to sources, city staff expects to begin the process of soliciting proposals for affordable or mixed-income housing projects within the next three months.
By Garry Boulard
