Phoenix hopes its new housing assessment will help residents and elected officials better understand the city’s housing challenges.
The assessment shows Phoenix is short 59,000 rental units for low-income households. Specifically for households at or below 50% of the area median income. For a household of three, that’s about $46,300 annually.
Samantha Keating, Phoenix’s deputy director for housing, told council members that a federal program called Low Income Housing Tax Credits, known as LIHTC, is the main funding mechanism and the state decides how to allocate the funds.
“In recent years, the state has placed a focus on rural projects. Due to this focus, the number of new LIHTC projects in Phoenix continues to be limited,” she said. “In the 2024 LIHTC round, only two of 10 awarded projects were located in Phoenix, despite the city having a large percentage of the state’s population.”
