A tough nut to crack
The local housing shortage made headlines all year. And probably will next year, too.
When the Pima County supervisors meet this morning, they’re going to consider spending nearly $1 million to re-up an emergency housing deal with the City of Tucson.
Next week, the Tucson City Council is going to consider changing the city’s development code to boost multi-family housing and make better use of abandoned commercial buildings.
These are just the latest in a long line of moves local officials have made as they wrestle with a housing shortage and a spike in homelessness.
The roots of these problems run deep and every solution has its drawbacks, as we found when we went through local news coverage of the housing crisis over the past year.
Local officials have made some progress, but there is a lot left to do. More than 20,000 people applied for housing vouchers last year in Tucson, and Pima County needs 26,000 more units of affordable housing.
So you can bet housing will keep making headlines next year and beyond, just like it did throughout 2024.
Building more housing
A lot of the headlines this year had to do with the tremendous amount of public money that flowed toward housing.
One of the biggest investments was $21 million the City of Tucson got from the state for affordable housing and homelessness. That included $4 million to renovate the Tucson House and help elderly people avoid living on the street.
At the county, the supervisors put nearly $7 million toward developing 835 units of affordable housing and another $1 million for 72 units of low-income apartments, to name a few of the county’s investments in housing.
Private developers also are picking up the pace. They’re applying for far more building permits than they did last year.
You’ll be able to see the results soon. The site of the former Foothills Mall is going to have a 157-unit apartment complex and an area on Tucson’s south side is attracting businesses, and 550 residential units.
The list of new developments goes on, but even with the pace picking up lately for apartments, the pace for building new houses still lags what it was two decades ago.
Of course, homeowners aren’t the only ones having trouble right now. Renters have watched their monthly costs explode over the past few years, partly because of the arrival of highly paid remote workers who work for out-of-state businesses.
Evictions remain a problem for a lot of people, despite low unemployment. Local tenants unions are pushing back, and even South Tucson City Council members are calling out landlords they say are exploiting tenants.
Not everybody agrees
The Tucson council took some heat from city residents this summer for not including more money for housing when they approved their budget.
Protesters rallied at City Hall during budget talks, saying the city should spend more on housing and less on police.
Over in Oro Valley, officials nixed a rezoning application for 207 apartments after nearby residents said “We don’t want it” and “It’s a square peg and a round hole. It doesn’t fit.”
Residents of a neighborhood on Tucson’s west side don’t want 129 new houses going up. They say it would be too dense to match the character of the neighborhood. One resident said it was their “personal nightmare” to see two-story houses block their view.
The flip side of that coin is a growing sense of YIMBY-ism, or “Yes In My BackYard.” Federal lawmakers created the “YIMBY caucus” and Rep. Juan Ciscomani, a Republican representing southeastern Arizona, is one of the co-chairs. Ciscomani also is promoting a bill that would give money to cities and counties that streamline construction regulations.
Changing the rules
This where you can expect to see many of the headlines next year.
The Supreme Court opened the door this summer for cities and towns to draw a harder line on homelessness, which means local officials have plenty of options that had been off the table for many years.
At the same time, the state Legislature is pushing cities to relax their zoning rules to make it easier to build more housing.
In Tucson, the city council is developing a large-scale plan to improve homeless services and housing stability, while also dealing with residents who don’t want to see so many unhoused people sleeping in parks and washes.
The council already shifted away from having police officers respond to most calls that deal with homelessness. Instead, they set up a non-emergency 311 call system and send care coordinators to deal with non-violent reports, help with evictions, and set people up with shelter.
Meanwhile, city officials put large rocks along highway underpasses where unsheltered people often seek shade. They temporarily cleared out homeless encampments at Santa Rita Park as part of a cleanup effort. They’re clearing out the 100-Acre Wood, one of the main places where unsheltered people sleep, to make way for an environmental cleanup and improvements to a BMX trail.
Right now, they’re looking at making it harder for local groups to provide food for unsheltered people in parks, which nearby residents say leads to trash being left in the parks. The council will decide on that one in a few months.
They also considered banning people from sleeping in washes, but pulled the item from their meeting agenda at the last minute. That one also could come up again soon.
All of this is unfolding while the city revamps its zoning code to comply with new state laws.
The city already allowed more casitas in residential areas. Next year, they’ll have to figure out how to allow more duplexes and triplexes to comply with a new state law.
Those are the broad strokes of the housing crisis in Tucson and Pima County in 2024. If you want to know more about how the state Legislature wrestled with the housing crisis this year, our sister newsletter the Arizona Agenda took a look at how lawmakers reformed housing policies, and how city and county officials are trying to keep local control over those policies.
Interesting article. However, I did call 311 about 2 months ago while walking on the Loop under First Avenue bridge on the south side. I walk from my home to classes at OLLI, on First Ave. I called 311 after seeing two people who appeared to be sleeping, but were more likely post drug dose, and draped over the railing and one lane of the path. When I contacted 311, they said they really don’t get involved in situations like that and if were really concerned, I should call 911. I didn’t feel the situation needed a 911 call, as other homeless people were hanging around them, and if they were really in trouble, I’m sure their friends would also be concerned. But I felt a welfare check could have been helpful. This is an area with quite a few homeless hanging around, and I do occasionally see drug paraphernalia. I don’t have solutions, but I am a concerned citizen, and want to know more about how I can help. But 311 did not seem to be the solution for my concern.