 Pima County approves eight projects for 835 affordable housing units
PIMA COUNTY, Feb. 20, 2024 – The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 at its Feb. 20 meeting to award $6.875 million for eight projects with the purpose of developing or preserving 835 affordable housing units.
This is the second batch of approved gap funding from the Pima County Regional Affordable Housing Commission. In June 2023, the Board approved $2.625 million for two affordable housing projects to develop or preserve 203 affordable housing rental units.
The Board had allocated $10 million as part of the 2022-23 and 2023-24 fiscal year budgets toward increasing affordable housing in Pima County. The Board further indicated that they would look at funding future projects at their March 5 meeting.
The Supervisors’ action aligns with their recent approval of Pima County’s Prosperity Initiative, a wide-ranging set of policies designed to reduce generational poverty and increase individual and community wealth.
“This allocation of gap funding makes sense within the budget priorities of this Board,” said Dan Sullivan, the director of Pima County’s Community & Workforce Development (CWD) Department, which solicited the proposals for funding.
“This is local money that goes to local people, and improving opportunities and outcomes for low-income renters and homeowners help stabilize the economy for all of us. The Board, the Commission and the County are moving as fast as possible to turn this funding into results.”
CWD received 21 responses in the second round of request for proposals in three categories: new rental development; new home ownership development; and preservation, renovation, and/or re-use of existing housing.
CWD staffed the evaluation panel, which scored and recommended eight proposals for the Board’s approval.
The following projects were approved by the Board of Supervisors and will allow the County to enter into contract negotiations with these vendors:
New development, rental:
- West Point Apartments II, La Frontera Partners Inc., $1 million
- Belvedere Terrace, LP, Newport SW LLC., $1 million
- Desert Dove Apartments, GHK Properties, LLC, $1 million
- The Safford, Marana Leased Housing Associates, LLLP, Dominium, $1 million
- Emery Park Place, Family Housing Resources and Southern Arizona Land Trust, Inc. $500,000
New development, homeownership:
- Mars Landing Development, Habitat for Humanity, $1 million
Existing – preservation, renovation, re-use:
- Tucson House, City of Tucson, $1 million
- El Camino Affordable Housing, Casa Maria and Compass Affordable Housing, $375,000
The approval of the proposals from both funding opportunities ensures a total of 1,038 units are developed or preserved to include a commitment to a 30-year housing affordability period, with property management ensuring all households are at or below 80% of area median income.
“We received different and creative proposals across the various categories,” Sullivan said. “That’s very promising as we continue to increase affordable housing in our community.”
Applications were open to qualified nonprofit and for-profit developers, builders, government agencies and partnerships.
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