Local opinion: Ciscomani's efforts to secure needed infrastructure funding supports housing

A lack of housing is fueling an unprecedented housing affordability crisis in our community and across the country. Anyone in Tucson who has looked to buy or rent can attest to this sticker shock.

A new Cost of Housing Index released by the National Association of Home Builders shows that in the first quarter of 2024, 37% of a typical family’s income was needed to make a mortgage payment on a median priced existing home in the Tucson area. Low-income households, defined as families earning only up to 50% of the area’s median income, would have to spend 74% of their earnings to pay for the same new home.

To bend the rising housing cost curve, we must increase housing supply. There is no single “silver bullet” solution to the challenge of making housing more affordable but lawmakers and members of the home building community are working together to put into place the proper business climate to allow builders to increase housing production.

Congresswoman Kay Granger (R-Texas), former Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, recently noted the efforts of our congressman, Rep. Juan Ciscomani, to secure $26 million for our district and state to fund community projects. “He serves an important role on the Appropriations Committee that allows him to prioritize his constituents and deliver meaningful solutions to Arizona,” said Granger.

Providing funding to put infrastructure investment in place in our communities in the form of roads, parks, and community projects such as a workforce development site that supports building and construction trades education, lays the foundation for home builders to break ground more easily on much-needed home building projects across the Tucson area.

A good example of this, the $2.7 million for Pima JTED is a tremendous boost in preparing students for a career in the construction trades. This will help ensure builders can provide sufficient housing inventory to keep up with growing demand.

And the good news is that building new homes has so many tangible benefits. It not only will satisfy unmet demand and achieve a healthy supply-demand balance in the for-sale and rental markets, but also will generate jobs, enhance the local tax base and create vibrant communities.

For a typical metro area such as Tucson, the construction of 100 single-family homes generates 394 local jobs, $28.7 million in local income and $3.6 million in taxes and other revenue for local governments. Building 100 rental apartments in a local area generates 161 local jobs, $11.7 million in local income and $2.2 million in taxes and other revenue for local governments.

Yet, builders continue to deal with several impediments to increasing the local housing supply. These include excessive regulations that account for nearly 25% of the cost of a new single-family homes, a severe labor shortage that is exacerbating the housing affordability crisis through higher home building costs and construction delays, and federal and local permitting roadblocks that are putting many new home developments on hold.

By working to improve infrastructure to benefit our communities, opposing needless regulatory mandates that increase housing costs, and supporting job training programs that will provide promising careers in the skilled trades, Rep. Ciscomani is helping builders overcome the obstacles that are preventing them from building more attainable, affordable housing.

Members of the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association are committed to doing their part to boost housing production to meet the needs of a growing population in the Tucson metro area and make homeownership and renting more affordable. Having an ally in Congress who understands the needs of his constituents and the important role that housing plays to build strong, prosperous communities is vital if we are to increase the housing supply and provide better homeownership and rental housing opportunities for our fellow citizens in Tucson.