PHOENIX — Crews broke ground on a new affordable housing development in south Phoenix Wednesday.
Sunland Flats will make up five, two-story buildings near Sunland Avenue and Montezuma Street. There will be 90 apartment units, with two to three bedrooms each.
The apartments are intended for those making 40-50% of the area median income. Director of TWG Construction Travis Vencel says that’s about $35,000-$41,000 a year depending on the size of the family. He says typical rent will be around $800-$900 a month plus utilities.
TWG was awarded a low income housing tax credit from the Arizona Department of Housing last year to build the apartments and have worked with Phoenix Councilmember Yassamin Ansari on the project.
“A few years ago we started looking at this market. They specifically told us to target south Phoenix as an area where they wanted to bring this type of housing, so we have worked with them through the approval process, the permitting process and the finding process to get their support and have a partnership,” Vencel said.
A recent report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition found fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Arizona is $1,160.
NLIHC says in order to afford that, without paying more than 30% of your income on housing, you’d have to make at least $46,000 a year. That breaks down to $22.30 an hour. The average renter in Arizona is making $18 an hour and Arizona’s minimum wage is $12.15 an hour.
According to ApartmentList.com, Phoenix rent has gone up 3.7% in the past month.
