Pima County needs to build more than 38,000 additional housing units over the next decade — 60% of which need to be at or below $96,100 for a family of four — to meet the changing needs of local communities.
Last year, the county passed a policy for a one-year, 3-cent growth in the property tax to bring dollars to build needed housing units and keep people in their homes.
Starting in this upcoming budget, that effort is official: this year, and for the next decade, that 3-cent tax is a line item on the budget, the latest investment by the county to fill a yawning gap in affordable housing in the region.
This coming year, that tax would bring in about $3.7 million in funds toward housing programs; the 10-year goal is to raise $225 million.
That would include a ramp up period in Fiscal Year 2026, and a ramp down period in Fiscal Year 2035, where the tax rate would be 1.5 cents. This year, because of savings already in place in the budget, there won’t be a tax raise related to affordable housing.
Get involved
• June 23 final budget adoption hearing. Board of Supervisors Hearing Room, Pima County Administration Building, 130 W. Congress, First Floor, 5 p.m.
• Aug. 11 tax levy adoption. Board of Supervisors Hearing Room, Pima County Administration Building, 130 W. Congress, First Floor, 5 p.m.
This effort builds on several years of work to steer dollars to closing the housing gap. In the summer of 2025, the board adopted a measure to consider how to shift funds toward efforts to build more housing and keep people housed and the county board approved a 10-year regional housing funding plan in March 2026.
The tentative budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year will total $1.8 billion, an increase of 3.3% from last year.
Because the budget includes an increase in several special taxing districts, Pima County residents will have the chance to weigh in on the housing tax plan, as well as other budget elements, in the formal “Truth in Taxation” hearings set to take place June 23 ahead of the budget’s final adoption.
A regional housing crisis
A 2024 gaps analysis from the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness, the regional authority that oversees federal funds and coordinates homelessness support services, found that 55% of all renters in Pima County spent more than 30% of their income on housing costs. Another one in three county renters spent more than half their income on housing.
One part of the housing crisis is the reality of homelessness in Pima County and Tucson.
Along with an effort to build more housing and keep people in their homes, the county has a 2025 plan called the One Pima Initiative, which has invested in security patrols on the Loop, as well as a new recovery center paid for with opioid settlement dollars that opened its doors in December.
Tucson launched a program called the Safe City Initiative in October 2025, an effort to address three areas: public drug use enforcement and pathways to treatment; transit safety and security; and housing and homelessness emergency response.
That effort has meant, among other things, more arrests.
Tucson police made more than 800 drug-related arrests in the first quarter of this year — a 67% increase compared to the same period over the past three years.
An aging community
Two pieces of the puzzle driving the county’s housing needs are an aging population that is better served with different housing options than the ones they had as working-age adults, and a rise in single-person households, say county documents.
“Part of what we’re responding to is changing and aging demographics,” said Nicole Fyffe, a senior advisor in the Pima County Administrator’s Office, in a news release about the county’s housing program. “So it’s not just about the demand for more units over time, but the types of units as well.”
The target is a 10-year $250 million affordable housing investment, plus $163 million in state and federal resources, for a total of $413 million over the next decade.
One approach the county plans is to offer funding for projects that maintain affordability for at least 30 years — double the 15 years required by the city of Tucson.
The money will be allocated by the board after vetting by the Regional Affordable Housing Commission.
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