In The OZone: Affordability Housing Crisis: Just Another Report

In a post published here last week using reliable data from a sample of over 45,000 respondents, the City of Mesa had the biggest increase in rents of any city in the country 

In another report today from Steven Hsieh in Phoenix New Times

Minimum Earners in Arizona Must Work 71 Hours to Afford a Two-Bedroom Apartment

Steven Hsieh | June 18, 2019 | 6:39am
 

What is the mayor of Mesa doing about the crisis here?
Does John Giles have track-record after four years in elected office as a strong advocate for inclusive innovative and affordable housing?
Where's the local leadership on this critical issue?

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" Arizonans making the state minimum wage must work two full-time jobs, effectively, to afford a market-value two-bedroom apartment, according to a national report released Tuesday.

> The National Low Income Housing Coalition's (NLIHC) latest annual study on the gap between rental housing costs and income for working-class Americans. . . found that
In Arizona, a worker making the state minimum wage of $11 per hour would need to put in 71 hours a week to afford a fair market value two-bedroom apartment with a $1,105 monthly rent, the study shows.
The affordability problem is slightly worse in the metropolitan statistical area known as Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale. . . NLIHC's report comes as Arizona, and Maricopa County specifically, confronts a growing housing affordability crisis. . .
> Meanwhile another report released by the NLIHC this year found that Arizona has the third biggest shortage of housing for extremely low-income individuals, defined by the federal government as below the poverty line or 30 percent of the area medium income.
State and local officials have done little to counter the growing costs that come with a booming population and laws preventing cities from requiring developers to build affordable housing. . . "

The issue is drawing more attention in Phoenix, too. Mayor Kate Gallego made housing affordability a plank of her election campaign. 

In her inaugural state of the city address on June 13, Gallego announced that she is hiring a new "housing czar" to find solutions to the crisis. . .
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QUESTION: Here in Mesa and the rest of the nation

Will Housing Swing the 2020 Election?

CityLab-2 hours ago

There isn't even a clear partisan divide on the affordability crisis. ... in on local land-use regulations as an answer to the affordable housing crisis. .... of registered voters in April 2019 that showed strong support for the group's ...

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