By admin 
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Local leaders are discussing ways to increase affordability in southern Arizona as they say prices are at an all-time high.
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Pima County supervisors discussed their regional economic plan Tuesday, Sept. 8, focusing on ways to increase job growth and prosperity in the county. Part of the plan includes revisions to grow the manufacturing and tourism sectors.
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero also spoke about the city and county’s joint prosperity initiative.
Claudia Jasso, president and CEO of Amistades Inc., said that she has heard affordability struggles firsthand while working for the non-profit.
“What we see today is harder than what we have ever seen before,” Jasso said. “It used to be that a family would have one acute pressure point – the rent went up, someone lost a shift at work, a medical bill hit. Today, families are walking in with all of that at one time.”
Romero said the issue has been happening for a long time in southern Arizona, which is why the city of Tucson and Pima County created the Prosperity Initiative in 2023 to address poverty, focusing on a few main topics.
“Building affordability, affordable housing, really, education opportunities, and childcare and workforce training and small business development and help,” Romero said.
The city and county focused on affordable housing, with 1,200 units either constructed or in the planning phases over the past three years.
Since then, Romero said poverty levels have decreased from 24% to 18%. Poverty levels remain high, with southern Arizonans struggling to pay rent, fill up their gas tanks, and put food on the table.
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“We’re still abnormally high, and so we’re continuing the work on economic development, on job creation,” Romero said.
Pima County supervisors are also focusing on economic development as they rethink their economic development plan this fiscal year.
“What have we done over the last three years, what was successful, which industries grew, where did we get more jobs, what are the projections going forward in the various sectors,” said District 2 supervisor Matt Heinz.
The plan, outlining development over the next three years, follows seven main sectors, including tourism and manufacturing. Heinz said those sectors should bring the most jobs to the county.
“Our goal is to get us to a place where we’re getting that kind of critical mass in, say, advanced manufacturing just like we already have in defense and aerospace, and then those are already, we know, very well-paying jobs and not going anywhere,” Heinz said.
Heinz said while the plan is an outline for the next three years, the seven sectors could change or be added to in the future.
Those seven sectors area:
- Aerospace and Defense
- Manufacturing
- Health & Health Innovation
- Transportation, Distribution & Logistics
- Advanced and Emerging Technology
- Tourism
- Clean & Renewable Energy
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