State lawmakers gave preliminary approval to a prospective leader of the Arizona housing department on Monday.
The state Senate is tasked with vetting the governor’s nominees to lead state agencies. The Republicans hold power in the state Legislature, and several of Gov. Katie Hobbs’ nominees have not passed the Senate interview process.
Ruby Dhillon-Williams, Arizona Department of Housing interim director, underwent scrutiny from a panel of senators on Monday.
Committee chair Sen. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek) criticized the department’s implementation of low income housing tax credits (LIHTC), arguing they don’t do enough to make housing affordable.
“It's simply just a government handout, right? When it comes to homelessness, the grants that are being given to places like Phoenix and Mesa and Tucson and yes, even Flagstaff, which you cited earlier as a positive, right? Those grants aren't actually solving any problems,” Hoffman said.
Dhillon-Williams defended the department’s use of LIHTC.
“Over the last three years, we have been able to create more than 10,000 units using the low income housing tax credit program, which then creates the opportunity in that middle segment of the housing continuum to have more Arizonans housed in affordable housing before they take that next step,” Dhillon-Williams said. “And so I feel that there is an impact happening.”
She wasn’t able to say how much each unit costs to build.
Lawmakers also questioned Dhillon-Williams about negative findings in an audit of the Arizona Department of Housing from October 2024.
The audit found the department didn’t have appropriate policies in place to prevent fraud, which resulted in a fraudulent wire transfer of $2 million from the State Housing Trust Fund in 2023.
Hobbs previously put forward Joan Serviss to lead the department, but lawmakers rejected her, largely over the same wire transfer incident.
At the time, Democrats said it wasn’t fair to blame Serviss for all the audit’s findings as it covered 2021-2023, and former director Tom Simplot was the agency head until January 2023.
Dhillon-Williams assured the lawmakers the audit findings are being corrected, and better fraud prevention policies are in place.
Sen. T.J. Shope (R-Coolidge) joined Democrats on the panel in the 3-2 vote to recommend the full Senate approve Dhillon-Williams’ nomination.
Several people spoke in Dhillon-Williams’ favor, including Lincoln Avenue Capital Vice President Ben Taylor.
“ADOH punches well above its weight. That is a reflection of her [Dhillon-Williams’] direct leadership. … Our willingness to invest in Arizona is directly tied to our confidence with Ruby," Taylor told lawmakers.
Lincoln Avenue Capital is a national affordable housing developer.
If approved by the full Senate, she will be the department’s official leader.
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