Low Income Housing Information
Importance of Renter's Insurance
What Types of Public Housing Are Available in Arizona?
Unlike many other states, Arizona does not offer a lot of state-based housing subsidy programs on top of those available from the federal government. Obviously all of the federal programs that apply to the entire country are available in Arizona, but the state has its own unique take on implementing a lot of the requirements of providing affordable housing to low income individuals and families. The focus has primarily been on the development of new and modern housing that is specifically designed and restricted to qualifying low income beneficiaries as opposed to direct subsidies to people.
Unlike most states, where a state authority administrates the federal subsidy programs like the Section 8 program (or more properly, the Housing Choice Voucher Program), in Arizona this program is generally administrated by the local housing authorities. This decentralized administration of the program means that local authorities have a lot more say in who is allowed to move into housing complexes with a Section 8 program. The official state authority - the Arizona Department of Housing, (ADOH) www.azhousing.gov - only administrates the program in Yavapai County where seventy-five percent of the land is owned publicly. Elsewhere in the state, the county or municipal government administrates Section 8 arrangements. Further, most Section 8 programs in Arizona are project-based, meaning that the Section 8 beneficiaries have to live in particular apartment complexes or residential projects to benefit. Housing Choice Section 8 programs - those that can be applied to any rental property as long as the owner or administrator will accept Section 8 vouchers - are much less common in Arizona than elsewhere.
Instead, Arizona has emphasized the supply side to meet its affordable housing demands. Instead of offering vouchers and subsidies to the qualifying people directly, Arizona relies heavily upon the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) in order to encourage the development of affordable housing in the state. As a federal tax credit, the LIHTC offers a dollar-for-dollar credit against income tax liability of the property owner or developer as long as the property is then rented out to low income persons in compliance with the terms set out by the federal guidelines. Despite being a federal program, the LIHTC is administrated by the Arizona Department of Housing, which allocates the tax credits to developers and property owners on a project by project basis. The dollar-for-dollar nature of the tax credit makes it extremely desirable for many developers, so the result has been the construction and maintenance of a lot of affordable public housing throughout the state.
Most states have consciously put forth an effort to move away from the old idea of segregating low income people from the rest of society by concentrating them in public housing projects. Instead, the trend in most states today is to fully integrate low income people into most residential areas, preventing the creation of high poverty (and thus high crime) areas. However, this has not been the case in Arizona, where people that require public housing can usually expect to be confined to public housing projects administered by often unsympathetic local authorities.