The message delivered several months ago to Tempe officials in an affordable housing analysis was clear, but it was not surprising to Mayor Corey Woods.

He said he knows Tempe has an issue with affordable and workforce housing and has since 2008 when he began serving as a city council member. He has been linked to the cause ever since.

But it isn’t a one-person crusade, he said recently.

“Six other people on the council understand and believe in the same thing,” Woods said.

“It’s not helpful to be a lone wolf.”

Councilmember Doreen Garlid: “We know that cities need a healthy mix of housing to remain vibrant and diverse.”

That’s where Tempe’s Hometown for All program comes in, Woods said.

The initiative was approved in January 2021 with a dedicated funding source.

For every development project built in Tempe, an amount equivalent to 50 percent of certain permitting fees paid to the city support affordable and workforce housing.

The money is used by the Tempe Coalition for Affordable Housing, which leverages the funds to acquire permanently affordable homes, apartments and condos, buy land and redevelop city-owned properties.

Developer donations are also a part of the funding plan, according to the city.

“When I think back over the past two years and everything we’ve accomplished through Hometown for All, it’s easy to point to the money we’ve raised or the properties we’ve purchased for permanently affordable housing,” Woods said.

“But what I’m most proud of is the fact that we’ve really elevated the conversation about affordable housing not just in the City of Tempe but regionally and across the state.”

MORE WORK AHEAD

In the City of Tempe Housing Inventory and Affordability Analysis prepared by Matrix Design Group, Inc., a San Antonio firm, the numbers show the challenge Tempe faces.

“In Tempe, over two-thirds of homes meet the definition of workforce and market rate housing, meaning their costs are excessive for households earning below … $93,600,” the analysis stated among its key findings.

There also is a shortage of low-income rental housing, Matrix found. 

At a recent Tempe City Council study session, Irma Cain, Tempe’s deputy Human Services director, noted the importance of Hometown for All in helping Tempe come to grips with challenges cited in the Matrix report.

The program, she said, “set in motion the predevelopment of hundreds of what will be permanently affordable units in our city.”

For Woods, the vision expressed by Hometown for All is significant, but the words also have been put into practice, he said.

“We can’t just sit back and hope that affordable housing gets built,” the mayor said.

“We have to take a more proactive role to ensure that it happens and that is exactly what we’re doing through our Hometown for All initiative and other strategies.”

2 YEARS OF PROGRESS

The city purchased Apache Central Center on Apache Boulevard in 2021 with plans to transform the site into a housing, retail and grocery hub.

Combined with two adjacent city-owned parcels, the city envisions as many as 400 mixed-income housing units as part of the project.

“The city is actively engaged with nearby residents about the future of the large site, including their desire to bring a grocery store back to the neighborhood,” Tempe officials said in a release.

In November, the Tempe City Council approved the $4.4 million purchase of 1511-1537 E. Apache Blvd. “for future development of affordable and/or workforce and/or a mixed-income housing development with a commercial space on the first floor,” according to the release.

“The purchase grew out of concerns from small business owners about losing this cultural hub,” officials said in the release, referring to the site where Haji Baba and Don Filo’s are located.

Another location with a long-time connection to the city’s roots also could receive a new life while maintaining its local identity.

The City Council voted in September to begin negotiations with a redevelopment team that wants to remake Danelle Plaza at the southwest corner of Mill and Southern avenues. 

First opened in 1963, dozens of restaurants, bars and retail shops have been in the plaza over the years. A temporary Tempe City Hall was once housed in the plaza while the current City Hall was under construction.

The goal of possible redevelopment is to maintain the plaza’s iconic local identity and businesses like Yucca Tap Room, while bringing in affordable housing, new community space and other  uses.

The city  owns a portion of Danelle Plaza. 

THE CHALLENGE CONTINUES

“Hometown for All has been a key strategy for the city, giving us the ability to create a funding stream that expands permanently affordable housing so anyone can call Tempe home,” said Councilwoman Garlid, who was elected in 2020.

“We have accomplished a lot in the past two years, and I think we’re on the precipice of some really big changes that will address more affordable housing needs.”

That challenge of affordable housing is not limited to Tempe, according to the Housing Inventory and Affordability Analysis, and the study indicates there “are signs” that things have improved since The Great Recession.

But, according to Matrix: “A consequence of the low-income rental housing shortage is that cost-burdened – that is, renters who spend more than 30% of their income on housing – are widespread in Tempe.”

And that includes those who live and work in Tempe as well as Arizona State University students.

“Affordable housing is critically important for people of all ages,” Woods said.

“At one end of the spectrum, that means making sure students graduating from ASU can stay in Tempe so we retain that intellectual capital, and at the opposite end, it means keeping our seniors who have worked and contributed their entire lives housed in the face of rising rents.”

On the two-year anniversary of Hometown for All, Woods, a member of the Arizona Legislature’s Housing Supply Study Committee, said it is rewarding to hear other elected officials discuss with him Tempe’s housing effort before voting on projects in their communities.

“We are bringing attention to the challenge that we all face as Arizonans when it comes to higher rent payments or housing payments,” Woods said.

The Tempe mayor said the city wants to grow the fund established by Hometown for All, “and then, as quickly as possible, turn that into future land acquisitions or investments in environmental remediation to give developers clean dirt to build more quickly.

“It’s not just about building up a giant bank account. We are critically aware of the real housing needs people face and want to create a community where people of diverse backgrounds can continue to live.”