Maricopa County nixes affordable housing grant to Scottsdale, 'ghosted' city leaders

Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this article should have said Maricopa County's Human Services Department gave preliminary approval to use the county's leftover federal pandemic relief cash to help Scottsdale fund the housing project. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors did not vote on the funding deal with Scottsdale.

Scottsdale is losing out on nearly $7 million and dozens of affordable housing units after Maricopa County leaders reneged on a tentative funding deal with the city.

The move infuriated Scottsdale officials who say the county never explained its decision and "ghosted" city leaders when they reached out for information.

The project was called The Residence at Paiute and would have been built either atop or alongside the Paiute Neighborhood Center. It would have included 28 low-cost apartments, which city staffers wanted to use in order to help the nearly 450 seniors who are on Scottsdale's affordable housing waitlist.

Maricopa County's Human Services Department preliminarily approved using millions of the county's leftover federal pandemic relief cash to help Scottsdale fund the project, after which the City Council took a vote of its own to accept the funds. The only step left was for the county to finalize the deal, which city leaders said is usually a rubber stamp decision.

But that never happened.

The final vote was abruptly pulled from the Board of Supervisors' agenda last fall. County staffers told Scottsdale in January that they would not follow through on the grant and were instead sending the funds to communities in the West Valley, all but killing The Residence at Paiute.

Scottsdale Mayor David Ortega said he received no explanation from the county even though he tried to reach out and address any concerns. He laid the blame on District 2 Supervisor Thomas Galvin, who represents most of the East Valley.

“There isn’t a day when someone (doesn’t) mention to me that housing affordability is a crisis," the mayor said. "Supervisor Galvin basically defunded this effort. He defunded the effort to provide housing that we were certainly due.”

"I became aware that the county was dragging their feet and we (contacted the county). We did not get any response from Supervisor Thomas Galvin," Ortega added. "Supervisor Galvin actually ghosted us ... He did not represent the people of Scottsdale."

Ortega and Galvin have locked horns before. Last year, they publicly feuded over the city's refusal to continue providing water to an unincorporated community just north of Scottsdale called Rio Verde Foothills.

Last year's county-city feud: A community without water: What to know about Rio Verde Foothills

Galvin was one of the main players trying to force Scottsdale to turn the taps back on. Ortega, on the other hand, was the city's most outspoken opponent of such an agreement, citing concerns about conservation and the numerous warnings Scottsdale gave Rio Verde Foothills before the city stopped sharing its water.

Scottsdale City Councilmember Barry Graham said lasting bad blood from the Rio Verde spat may have played into the county's decision to abandon the affordable housing deal," describing it as "part of a pattern of a strained relationship that we have with the county."

Galvin told The Arizona Republic he "asked for the agenda item to be withdrawn after looking at the cost and receiving feedback from members of the Scottsdale community." Aside from that, he shared only a vague written statement about his decision to walk away from The Residence at Paiute.

“The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is tasked with allocating (federal) funds and does so with a mindset of determining what provides the best value for County taxpayers. The Board invests in projects based on need and maximum impact for the community as a whole,” Galvin's full statement read.

Councilmember Graham was one of only two city officials who voted against accepting the county funds last year. He objected over concerns about non-Scottsdale residents being housed at the site and the city's lack of solid design plans for the building.

But even he was critical of the county's withdrawal, saying, "You would expect this sort of (county) approval to be perfunctory. And so for them to divert it, it's just not a good way to govern."

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Councilmember Solange Whitehead laid some of the blame for losing the county cash at the feet of Graham and Councilmember Kathy Littlefield, the other "no" vote when the funding deal came up at a City Council meeting last year.

Whitehead suggested that their opposition may have given the county an excuse to give the grant to another Valley community.

“I think that not having a unanimous vote enabled the county to take our tax dollars — and have no doubt about it, these were our tax dollars — and send them to the West Valley," Whitehead said. "Now we’re guaranteed that Scottsdale residents will not be helped."

Scottsdale's City Council unanimously voted to kill The Residence at Paiute project on Feb. 20 after Judy Doyle, the city's community services assistant executive director, announced the development was not viable without the county's cash.

Whitehead described the situation as one that's robbing Scottsdale of cash it deserves and kneecapping city efforts to house the hundreds of elderly residents who are being priced out of the city's pricey housing market.

"We know that the number one group that is falling into homelessness are our seniors," the councilmember said. "I’m deeply disappointed that we lost this opportunity. I’m deeply disappointed with the county Board of Supervisors for giving Scottsdale tax dollars to other cities and leaving our seniors high and dry."

Reporter Sam Kmack covers Tempe, Scottsdale and Chandler. Follow him on X @KmackSam or reach him at sam.kmack@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: County cancels $7M housing grant for Scottsdale without explaining