PHOENIX – Yesterday, Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) spent the day with community members, housing experts, and local leaders in Arizona to discuss Arizona’s affordable housing crisis and solutions to lower costs for working families.
Senator Gallego started the day by convening his inaugural Housing Advisory Board, bringing together a diverse group of experts to address the state of housing in Arizona and the ongoing work to make affordable housing a reality. The board will serve asan ongoing forum for collaboration and innovative ideas to tackle housing needs in Arizona.
Later, he hosted an affordable housing town hall, where he heard directly from Arizonans, including ASU college students, about the challenges they face in securing stable, affordable housing.
“What’s happening right now is that because of the lack of housing, and because young people can’t buy houses, we are about to create the poorest generation of Americans since the Great Depression,” Senator Gallego said in his opening remarks. “The average age of the first-time home buyer is now 40. What does that mean? What are you putting off if you’re waiting till 40? Not by choice, by the way, it’s that you have to wait to 40 to actually have the financial security to do it.”
During the town hall, Senator Gallego highlighted that you can’t build a strong economy if people can’t afford to live and outlined his work in Washington to bring down costs by increasing the IRA tax exception withdrawal limit for first-time homebuyers, updating HUD’s decades-old voucher formula, and adjusting the Federal Housing Administration’s outdated multifamily loan limits.
Senator Gallego then joined Chicanos Por La Causa and Vista Village to celebrate the ribbon cutting of the Vista Village Community Center, which will provide veterans, seniors, and survivors of domestic violence living at Vista Village with wraparound services. The motel-turned-housing-development was remodeled with the help of $1.3 million in federal funding that Gallego secured as a member of the House.
The Senator ended his day with a visit to UMOM New Day Centers, Arizona’s largest provider of shelter and supportive services for people experiencing homelessness. He met with CEO Monique Lopez to discuss the current state of family homelessness. In 2024, UMOM was able to remodel and expand its family shelter thanks to $1.98 million in federal funding secured by Gallego as a member of the House.
In January, Senator Gallego unveiled his four-pillar plan to lower housing costs and make the American dream of homeownership a reality. Last month, the Senate passed the Gallego-backed bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which includes several of the Senator’s bills aimed at increasing housing supply and affordability.