The city of Phoenix is going to provide money for residents forced out of three mobile home parks in the city, but it’s punting on the issue of whether it could do more in the name of affordable housing.
The Phoenix City Council approved $2.5 million to assist families being displaced from three mobile home parks, but declined to vote on two other measures attempting to keep those people in their homes based on attorney’s counsel that those measures go beyond the city’s legal authority.
“At the end of the day, what you heard from our outside attorney is that the city doesn’t have any legal authority to stop a property owner from evicting someone,” said Deputy City Manager Alan Stephenson. “…That’s an entirely private transaction that we don’t have any legal authority over.”
