Letter to the Editor: The community believes the Flagstaff City Council has a shortage of housing | Letters

On June 1, Mayor Deasy and the city council completed a project to build 140 much-needed housing units, including 20 units for low-income residents. The decision is a loss to Flagstaff residents as more and more people compete for our limited housing supply and annoyingly arrive just months after the city council declared an affordable housing emergency.

That statement, and numerous statements that councilors have since made on housing, were forgotten at the meeting where the council held 30 of the units hostage in negotiations on public access – a tactic that, given the alleged support of the council, none Makes sense for more living space – and eventually killed the project.

It begs the question, how much of the city council’s support for housing is political showing off – that’s it, or they are the worst negotiators in the world. Either way, Mayor Deasy and the rest of the council members have to answer some tough housing questions, starting with how they plan to make up for the 167 unit loss if they want to keep resident support affected by the affordability of housing.

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