$4M sought from Gilbert
Have a beery weekend
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An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS................................3 CUSD teacher thought sex ed law applied to these.
BUSINESS................ 23 Schnepf Farm developer discusses built-to-rent.
Arete Prep’s McClelland builds on legacy.
COMMUNITY....................................... 18 BUSINESS.............................................23
SPORTS..................................................28 GETOUT................................................ 30
CLASSIFIEDS....................................... 35
Sunday, February 13, 2022
Economist: Housing crisis threatens us all BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
G
ilbert and the rest of the Phoenix Metro area must build their way out of the current housing deficit quickly or face economic catastrophe down the road, a noted Valley economist is warning local officials. The housing shortage is just not dire in Arizona but throughout the country, economist Elliott Pollack told Gilbert Town Council as part of a presentation he is giving to a wide group of municipal bodies in the Valley. “Affordability is falling but it’s about to plummet,” Pollack said. “There’s virtually no vacancy or available units. Supply has
not kept paced with demand and our success as a community in attracting jobs and people has not been matched by a sufficient increase in the housing supply for those new employees and a continued shortage of housing is going to drive up costs and threaten economic development efforts. “Virtually nobody is going to get a free pass on not having to deal with this.” Pollack belongs to Home Arizona, a group comprising former politicians and industry insiders that is trying to get the word out on the supply-demand crisis confronting the region. The group analyzed housing in 11 Valley municipalities –including Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler and Scottsdale – and came up with
Higley to seek OK for lower bond issue
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
SPORTS...................... 28
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE OF GILBERT) | GilbertSunNews.com
H
igley Unified School District plans for a $77.2-million bond election in November to pay for safety and security, technology, major maintenance and major projects over the next five years. The district, however, is dropping funding for buying land and for paying off a middle-school lease, which were included in the $95-million bond that failed in November. District staff used feedback
from a voter survey in determining the spending categories for the proposed bond that would maintain current classroom conditions and address growth over the next five years. “There’s a misunderstanding of the lease,” Chief Financial Officer Tyler Moore told the Governing Board last Wednesday. “Knowing it’s hurting the district fiscally, at this time we just don’t feel it’s the right time to include in this proposal.”
see BOND page 11
a series of alarming statistics. “The first decade of this century, we overbuilt in both single-family homes and apartments,” Pollack said. “The second decade of this century we way underbuilt and we are now at a situation where the vacancy rates for both single-family housing and for apartments are as low as they have ever been.” For the first decade, the Greater Phoenix area saw 487,000 new housing units and that number fell to 240,000 units in the second decade of this century. At the same time, 880,000 new residents will be moving here this decade. “Phoenix employment is growing rapidly
Helping teachers
see HOUSING page 6
Teachers have helped Basha High School student Jadyn Ocampo learn and now she’s trying to help them pay their bills. She started the Al and Laurie Ocampo Scholarship, in honor of her grandparents, to help them pay down their college loan debt. Read how she’s helped on page 18. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)
