More low- and middle-income individuals and families can now say that ‘Arizona is Home’

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A safe and reliable place to live is a vital component to a good quality of life. Affordable housing is the bedrock of any thriving community, providing individuals and families opportunities to establish economic stability, anchor themselves to communities they love, and lay the foundation for the familiarity that sustains and evolves neighborhoods for generations.

The rapid disappearance of affordable rents and mortgages across Arizona over the last decade has evolved from a nagging concern for mostly working-class families to a full-blown crisis of the majority, fueling record eviction rates and a growing homeless population whose largest new demographic are retirement-aged people on fixed incomes.

Additionally, the lingering effects of the downturn in home construction following the Great Recession has meant that demand for housing continues to outpace supply at a level that some economists have described as the worst imbalance they’ve ever seen. The Phoenix metro area is forecasted to add up to a million new residents this decade, creating the potential for even more strain on the housing supply in the Valley, which saw only half the number of new homes built last decade than the decade prior.

Corporate and private equity interests have exploited this shortfall to manipulate the housing market and price hardworking, everyday Arizonans out of the dream of home ownership. In 2021, a third of single-family homes in our state were sold to corporate investors, who often out-competed working individuals and families by making cash offers well above asking price that sellers can’t say no to.

No one magic solution can solve this growing crisis fueled by corporate greed and tremendous population growth, but I am proud to help lead an organization assisting with a historic effort to provide enhanced down payment assistance and mortgage rate relief to low- and moderate-income families through the $13 million “Arizona is Home” initiative.

Since 1975, Trellis (originally started as Neighborhood Housing Services of Phoenix) has worked to increase access to resources like homeownership counseling, financial access and neighborhood development. We’re proud to be one of just two home lending organizations, alongside Chicanos Por La Causa, selected by Gov. Katie Hobbs to assist the Arizona Department of Housing and Arizona Industrial Development Authority in their mission of expanding homeownership opportunities.

First-time homebuyers who make 80% or below Area Median Income (AMI) are eligible to receive up to $30,000 and those earning between 81% to 120% of AMI are eligible to receive up to $20,000 after taking a HUD-approved homebuyer education course and participating in pre-purchase, one-on-one advising with Trellis or another HUD-certified Housing Counseling Agency in Arizona. 

The funds can be used for a down payment, interest rate buy-down and closing costs related to the purchase of a home, and can be combined with other forms of mortgage assistance like competitive, below-market 30-year fixed rate mortgages through AZIDA’s HOME Plus network, specifically targeted to help residents in our state’s 13 smaller counties.

This program is already helping low- to middle-income Arizona residents in both metro and rural areas succeed in becoming homeowners for the first time, and we are proud to be partners in making homeownership available to the largest number of Arizonans possible by ensuring that no one is priced out of our state. Equally as important, “Arizona is Home” is proving in a short amount of time that competent and focused leadership in our state government can work with community partners instead of rich corporate special interests to make a positive, tangible, and immediate impact addressing the most critical issues of our time.