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PHOENIX

Makeshift Housing Gives Way to Smarter Growth

South Phoenix is bursting at the seams. With 400,000 residents, half of them under twenty-five years old, the community is helping to fuel the growth of one of the nation’s fastest growing cities.

But there are problems. About 30 percent of the South Phoenix population lives in poverty. Quality housing is in critically short supply. Most homes were built by homeowners themselves using adobe and wood, materials that fail to meet building codes. Low property values make it unattractive for lenders to finance home improvements.

Persistent community development corporations (CDCs) are rising to the challenge, with support from the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Living Cities, and other nonprofit organizations. Over the last decade, these CDCs have attracted HUD funding as well as commercial investments, and change is becoming evident.

The Espiritu Community Development Corporation, whose mission includes revitalization in South Phoenix, is one example. Established in 1990, the faith-based group builds affordable housing but has a higher overall objective: to build community spirit by developing leadership ability in families. It carries out that objective by operating a charter school for several hundred students, sponsoring additional youth programs for the neighborhood, developing new retail facilities, and building family-oriented housing (the first new housing in the neighborhood in almost two decades).

In January 2003, Espiritu was one of four nonprofit community groups chosen to receive a portion of a $5 million grant pool from the Phoenix office of LISC and the newly founded Arizona Family Housing Fund (AFHF), which helps families earning between $18,000 and $36,000. The funding will assist Espiritu as it expands its reach and develops additional housing.

Rich in history, South Phoenix’s mix of ethnic and racial groups has always made for a vital community. Now it has begun to attract the development and housing that it needs to provide for its young, growing population. With federal grants and tax incentives, this coalition of public and private sectors has the support to take its future into its own hands.