PHOENIX, AZ — A local nonprofit renovating affordable housing apartments in Phoenix said a string of burglaries has impacted when they can serve families in need.
Nancy Marion is the executive director of the Community Housing Partnership, which works to bring a critical need to the city — affordable housing.
“We need to keep pushing to make sure that every family has a home,” Marion said. “Affordable housing are people that are working sometimes two jobs, have a family and they’re just trying to make ends meet.”
The organization received two publicly funded grants through the Phoenix Rehabilitation Program to renovate 52 of their 114 total affordable housing units citywide.
In January, renovations began at a number of quad-plexes near Monroe Street.
On March 11, Marion said she received a phone call that multiple units had been torn apart.
“They went up through the laundry rooms at the end, went through the attics, chopped the copper wire, not just once but numerous, numerous times,” Marion said.
But beyond wires, the units sustained a large amount of damage during the break-in, with ceilings falling in, electrical boxes ripped off and AC units gutted.
“They’ve left just hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage behind,” Marion said. “It’s awful.”
Marion said she’s working with police and insurance companies but expects not everything will be covered.
She also installed a commercial 24/7 camera to secure the property.
As Phoenix faces a shortage of affordable housing, Marion says the break-ins hit hard, especially knowing that these apartments could have homed 12 low-income families by now.
“Who does this damage? This damages everyone. This damages taxpayers, this damages contractors. This damages the people in our community,” Marion said.
She’s urging anyone in the community who might know something, to reach out to her nonprofit at 480-420-8045 or contact police.
Without a timeline for renovations to restart, Marion said she’s determined to bring the affordable housing units back to market.
“This will just make me sad for a couple of days and then I’ll get back to work,” Marion said.
