It's not the cure all of our
housing shortage, but it's one
solution that I think is easy and
it can be very quickly implemented.
Welcome back to Square Off.
Phoenix Vice Mayor Yasserman Ansari
says Casita's small homes and backyards
could be an answer to the lack of
affordable housing in the Valley.
By an 8 to 1 vote last week,
the City Council agreed,
but questions remain about who
will benefit from the smaller homes
and some other things as well.
Joining us to discuss the news
of the week are Democratic state
representative on Elise Ortiz of
West Phoenix and Chips Qatari,
a former capital reporter who's
cofounder of S&amp;C Communications,
a bipartisan public relations firm.
Welcome back to Square Off.
Welcome to Square Off.
Great to have you both with with us.
Representative Ortiz.
You were a strong supporter
of the Casitas ordinance.
You spoke in favor of it.
Realistically,
who is who is this going to help?
How many people could this possibly help?
Look, we need to remember that when we're
talking about these backyard casitas,
we're talking about families like
in my community of Maryvale,
who can put up a casita in the
backyard for their abuela or abuelo
to retire with dignity and be
close to their family caregiver.
Or for the college student who wants
to be close to mom and dad while having
their own private space and saving money,
it will come down to implementation.
I hope that there will be opportunities
for potentially grants and ways to
make it easier and more affordable
for all Arizonans or all Phoenicians
to be able to build these Casitas.
I'm glad you mentioned grants and
affordability because I know from
experience having priced this out,
it cost about $50,000 or
more to build one of these.
A lot of folks don't have 50 grand around.
What about that affordability issue?
I mean I think that's part
of the issue, but I, you
know to take a step back and
go from a 30,000 foot level,
these Casitas I think are just,
you know, they may be a small,
small tool in the toolbox,
but I think what it signals
hopefully is a culture shift.
And that culture shift means affordable
housing can be seen as an asset and
not a liability in communities.
And I think this is just one piece.
You know, we need more financing options.
We need more, you know,
philanthropic organizations to step up.
And I think when you look at, say,
it's a wheel and affordable housing
is in the middle of the spokes are,
you know, you need education,
educational attainment, you need financing,
you need transportation.
Speaking of transportation,
it's huge to have more urban
density so that these folks,
wherever they live in these
casitas or affordable housing,
that people who are essential workers,
you know, hospital workers,
nurses, cops, firefighters,
teachers have that availability
to take light rail,
to take buses.
So I think it's a wheel in the
spoke and that this is just
a small piece of the puzzle.
But hopefully the brilliant lawmakers at
the Capitol like Representative Ortiz here,
will work on a bipartisan
effort to get more affordable
housing. And we'll talk
about them in just a minute.
First, I want to put up with the
Councilman, Jim Waring said.
He was the lone no vote.
Let's listen to his his sound bite
at some point. We don't know what's
going on kind of behind the scenes.
We don't check every construction
site unless we know that it's there.
Questions about permitting for
the Casita's and maybe a Wild
West of Casita's questions about
whether they're going to be used
as Airbnb's by many people.
Because in some areas my neighborhood,
you can't really put in a full,
fully outfitted Casita.
Thankfully the city
listened to those concerns
and they did address that they
have prohibited these casitas from
being used as shortterm rentals.
And it's important to know that this is
not the first time this has been done.
Tucson allows Casitas.
There's other big cities across the
nation who allow these and we can
follow that model and make sure
that it's implemented in a way that
will help working class families.
And to Counselor Waring's
concern at the latest conference,
League of Cities and Towns Conference,
though, there was going to be another push
to have more common sense regulations
and reforms for shortterm rentals.
And I believe the Phoenix City Council
is taking this up in a few weeks.
So I understand its concerns.
It's legitimate. We don't want, you know,
these things to be unregulated.
But I think those hopefully will be
taken care of in the next session,
you know, supposed at the city
level and at the state level.
What about the Airbnb issue?
Because the legislature has come
out against any tinkering, yes,
by the cities with Airbnb's.
It remains to be seen whether
any legislators will, you know,
try to challenge what the action
that the city of Phoenix has taken.
But they have brilliant attorneys,
they have brilliant staff members who
have crafted this ordinance in a way
that I feel is legally sound and will
give them the authority to make sure
that these are being used for people,
not for rentals.
And I have
to say, since the, you know,
we do some work for the town of Paradise
Valley on the shortterm rental issue.
And since this legislation was signed,
I believe in 2016, by then Governor Ducey,
the trend in the sharing economy,
while people still support it,
they want more regulations for neighbors.
They want, you know,
they care about safety.
So I see this issue going a different way.
So I think there could be a bipartisan
solution to have some common sense reforms.
I see it trending that way instead of
how it was just five or six years ago.
OK. So let's now turn to the
great minds of the legislature.
Representative Ortiz,
you worked on bipartisan legislation
on housing this past session.
It went nowhere largely because of
opposition from cities and towns,
right. What?
What did you learn from that that
you think will help you and other
lawmakers as you head into a new
session and craft some kind of
affordable housing legislation? I'm
going to push back on your claim
that it went nowhere. We got very
far with the zoning reform package.
It made it out of committee with
bipartisan support and we got
to the floor with these bills.
Of course, things went wrong in the end,
as they often do at the legislature.
But here's the thing.
We know that we are in a
significant housing shortage,
270,000 units we are missing right now,
and we have 200 new residents
moving to Arizona every day.
This is hitting crisis levels,
especially when we have essential
workers like firefighters,
teachers, nurses who cannot afford
A2 bedroom apartment according
to a recent economic analysis.
So absolutely there is opportunity
and a demand from the public to
find bipartisan solutions on this.
Potentially we will clash with the cities.
Again, I'm not going to say that that is
not out of the realm of possibilities,
but it in all reality,
I'm overjoyed.
The city of Phoenix pass
this casita ordinance,
but it took three years to do that.
And we see other cities that are
very resistant to allowing affordable
housing and other types of housing
typologies in their communities.
So statewide solutions are
urgent and necessary.
So what is the sweet spot here again,
carrying over from the last session to a
problem, a crisis that's not going away.
What's the sweet spot to get something
all the way through the legislature?
You know, I don't know if it's a sweet
spot, but I think it's a necessity and
the urgency of the time and the issue.
That's why I think when you know session
reconvenes, I'm sure you'll be doing
working groups of cities and other,
you know, stakeholders.
I think now is the time that we can't
just throw our hands up anymore.
And I, you know,
I love my cities and towns and you know,
local preemption is near
and dear to their heart.
But hopefully they find a way to
work this out because we just don't
have enough affordable housing stock.
And if it keeps going where we're going,
we're really going to have
the haves and the have not.
So that I think necessity and the
urgency of the matter will demand some
kind of solution hopefully next year.
And I do want to say something.
When we talk about affordable housing,
we're not talking about housing
for folks with lower incomes.
We're talking about housing
for all kinds of people.
That's right, honestly.
Like we need to redefine that word and
maybe use some use another phrase,
workforce housing attainable housing.
Because what we know is that
it is folks across the income
spectrum who cannot afford to rent
or become homeowners right now.
And it creates this trickle
down effect of the worst kind.
You have folks like myself,
30 years old, work fulltime my whole
adult life and college educated.
I cannot afford to own a home.
I renting a unit that could go to a
family that makes less income than I do.
So this is the kind of trickle
down that we're seeing,
which ends up with people living on
the streets or living in their cars.
OK, we're going to end it there. When?