TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – The city of Tucson has been experiencing an affordable housing crisis for years.
Sugar Hill on Stone, the city’s newest affordable housing project, is a complex meant to go up in the Sugar Hill neighborhood near downtown. On Wednesday, Aug. 27, the city hosted a groundbreaking ceremony to ring in the start of construction on the project.
Jack Anderson has lived in Sugar Hill for more than 60 years. He grew up and raised his family there, and now serves as the president of the Sugar Hill Neighborhood Association.
PREVIOUS AFFORDABLE HOUSING COVERAGE
While Anderson is all for affordable housing, he wonders how the project will change his community.
“My only concern is what’s this gonna look like in 10 years,” Anderson said. “Is it still gonna be a positive thing? Is it gonna be a negative thing? Because I’ve seen housing projects go up and turn into drug dens.”
He said he knows affordable housing is needed and sees the need firsthand.
“I’m hoping, especially like single families, single-mother families – that kind of thing, you know,” Anderson said. “Because I know quite a few – not quite a few but I know enough – and have some in my family, that could use that.”
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero said serving families is the whole point of the city’s new “Sugar Hill on Stone.”
“Access to housing is a human right, and the reason that it is so important is because it stabilizes children, it stabilizes families, communities, and our country,” Romero said.
Romero acknowledges the city’s ongoing affordable housing crisis and said she’s dedicated to investing money and time into solving that problem.
“It really started happening because of the lack of investment in affordable housing and housing development for decades now,” she said.
Anderson said he hopes that after construction is complete, the city doesn’t forget about his community.
“I’m hoping that we can maintain what we got going on here,” Anderson said. “Don’t just build it, but maintain it and keep it and support it as we go.”
The project is in partnership between the city and the Housing and Community Development’s nonprofit, El Pueblo Housing Development.
Thirty-seven of the new 66 units at Sugar Hill on Stone will be reserved for current Tucson House residents who might be temporarily displaced due to upcoming renovations there.
All units are reserved for households earning up to 50% of the area median income, and are meant to remain affordable for at least five decades.
Construction is scheduled to be finished by October 2026.
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