Sen. Mark Kelly met with local leaders and advocates at a Glendale senior center to discuss affordable housing specifically for the aging population.
In recent years, advocates have pointed to seniors as one of the fastest growing populations among people experiencing homelessness for the first time.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego praised backing for projects like the one to convert a former Super 8 motel near I-17 into affordable housing units.
But she said there’s still a disparity in how federal assistance is distributed.
“Part of that is historical formulas and the fact that we have been a quickly growing city,” said Gallego. “But as folks here will tell you, the need is enormous.”
Kelly said he has his eye on opportunities outside of limited-time funding pools, like the American Rescue Plan Act.
“We've got to look for other options, specifically with housing,” Kelly said. “One of the programs that really helps us build affordable housing is tax credits.”
The battle there, he said, is that even the larger of the two major credit programs available to Arizonans is underfunded.
“The larger one is a 9% tax credit program that is underfunded,” he said. “It's a matter of finding these resources in a challenging fiscal environment, so we continue to work on that.”
Still, roughly $3 million federal dollars are earmarked for an affordable housing project that Kelly said will ideally break ground by next year.
Rachel Milne with the Phoenix Office of Homelessness Solutions presented plans to convert a former Super 8 motel into small-scale housing units.
“The target population for this site will be seniors aged 55 and older,” Milne explained. “We're really looking to help people who have a housing voucher and we're targeting folk [with] zero to 30% area median income and for a single adult right now that is just over $21,000. So [we’re] really focusing on people exiting homelessness.”
Milne added that the city plans to work with partners to assist with on-site needs, from wraparound services to property management.
