Affordable Housing Crisis Explained

As head of housing initiatives for Chicanos Por La Causa, Patricia Garcia-Duarte says the situation is getting worse for low- and moderate-income people who want to become homeowners

Patricia Garcia-Duarte, executive vice president of Chicanos Por La Causa.

Patricia Garcia-Duarte has spent most of her professional life helping low- and moderate-income people become homeowners. In those 38 years, the current situation may be as bad as ever.

The opportunities for home ownership are getting more sparse as Arizona home prices shoot up, federal government support programs dry up, and innovative solutions fail to scale.

Still, she's remains hopeful that solutions exist and can be implemented.

"I ask myself this all the time: why don't we have a national down payment and closing cost assistance program," she told ImpactoAZ. "We have them in regions and states and they come and go but they're not sustainable. We need something consistent that can be there to help first-time homebuyers."

Other barriers to home ownership is the home supply, with builders tending to bypass building entry-level houses. Then, there are the institutional investors who have bought up large swaths of homes since the 2008 Great recession and use them as rental properties. Meanwhile, wages for many are failing to keep up with the rapid rise in home and rental prices.

"For the first time since they've been measuring, Arizona's cost of living is higher than the national average," she noted, citing a recent research paper.

To hear the full interview, with Garcia-Duarte, go here.