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Homelessness, housing and 'housing-first' emerge as centerpieces of Tempe debate
Summary
Candidates largely endorsed housing-first approaches and partnerships with nonprofits, but differed on scale and funding: incumbents highlighted local programs and spending while challengers stressed increased public housing on city land and stronger tenant protections.
Homelessness and housing affordability dominated a large portion of the Tempe City Council candidate forum as contenders weighed immediate outreach against longer-term housing investments.
Several candidates, including Brooke St. George and other challengers, explicitly backed Housing First — removing sobriety and employment prerequisites and focusing public resources on shelter, bridge housing and supportive services. St. George said the city should prioritize public housing on city-owned parcels and pursue 300–400 units of permanent supportive housing to create exits from unsheltered life.
Incumbents described existing programs and results. Jennifer Adams and other current officials cited programs such as Hometown for All, hotel acquisitions, the Hope Team and park rangers; they said these efforts reduced homelessness and connected residents to services. Adams and others presented program spending figures and reduction percentages at the forum (speakers' stated figures varied). For example, one speaker said homelessness had decreased by 46% and another cited an aggregate spending figure on homelessness programs since 2022; those speaker-provided numbers were presented without accompanying budget documents in the forum.
Candidates emphasized collaboration with nonprofits such as TCAA and mutual-aid organizations, and several called for embedding outreach teams directly into parks and public spaces so every contact includes a services handoff. Joe Forte and others urged decentralized outreach nights tailored to different neighborhoods.
On housing affordability, candidates proposed a mix of tools suited to state law: expanding partnerships with mission-driven developers, prioritizing city-owned parcels for permanently affordable homes, promoting more modest condo ownership options and using enforceable developer agreements (for example, cited projects such as Dorsey Station) to secure affordable units.
Arizona law constraints were raised: Brooke St. George noted that rent control is not available in Arizona, so candidates focused on tenant protections, rental assistance and increasing the pipeline of permanently affordable units.
The forum produced policy outlines rather than binding commitments; candidates repeatedly called for regional coordination and funding strategies that combine public, private and nonprofit resources.
