The housing crisis in Pima County remains an issue leaders are working to solve. With high poverty rates and rising rents and mortgages, many in the area are left wondering how to find affordable housing.
Pima County Supervisor Dr. Matt Heinz says he’s hoping the Board if Supervisors will be able to work together to get more funding to support affordable housing.
“We lack 40,000 housing units; about 20,000 affordable housing units,” Heinz said. “It’s a big deal because we’re not going to be able to address street-living homeless if we don’t address the massive lack of affordable housing all over the all over the country.”
The board so far has approved $5 million annually to go toward affordable housing projects. Dr. Heinz says he hopes the board will add another $2.2 million in unused funds for housing later this year.
Meanwhile homeowners I talked to say they are feeling the pinch.
“Just stay there with the extra space, that’s what we decided to do. So we got a reverse mortgage,” Ernest Simpson said. “Because we would have downsized, given that big home to somebody else, you know the way things are, houses have so much.”
To find more information on Pima County’s affordable housing programs, click here.