Arizona Housing Fund Announces Four New Grants

The Arizona Housing Fund (AZHF) has announced four grants, totaling $850,000, which will be used to help fund creative housing projects that serve the most vulnerable individuals and families currently living unsheltered. Founder of the Arizona Housing Fund, Howard Epstein, goes into more detail.

For one of the projects, Arizona Housing Inc. was awarded $300,000 for a 50-unit hotel to housing conversion project at 2900 E. Van Buren Street in Phoenix to serve formerly chronically homeless seniors and veterans.

St. Vincent de Paul also received $250,000 for new housing at Ozanam Manor, a 100-bed transitional shelter with support services to assist veterans, seniors and adults with disabilities.

Regarding St. Vincent de Paul, “It is a long term transitional project meaning that you can stay there for two years and maybe longer. It is needed. Our shelters are overflowing,” said Epstein.

The Coalition for Compassion and Justice received $200,000 for new 25-unit manufactured home park at Paloma Village in Chino Valley. Family Promise of Greater Phoenix was also awarded $100,000 for a 6-unit shipping container micro-community in Glendale. This will serve as the model for similar micro-communities located on church properties.

The overall mission

“We have 13,000 people around the state who are on the HMIS list (homeless management information system) who don’t have housing today who want it- Our state can lead the way to finding the solutions to this problem by building more units. We just can not allow ourselves to become L.A., San Francisco, Seattle,” said Epstein.