Evictions Surge In Arizona With Housing Shortage And Rising Prices

Phoenix, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd May, 2024) Wearing a bulletproof vest and with a gun strapped to his waist, Constable Lennie McCloskey opens his folder and looks through the court orders: eleven evictions to be carried out today.

"It's a slow day" in Maricopa County, Arizona, he says.

Maricopa is home to Phoenix, one of the fastest growing cities in the United States, a place where rents have skyrocketed since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, leaving an ever-increasing number of people in trouble.

"I typically do between 19 and 25 (evictions) a day," said McCloskey, one of 26 such officers in Maricopa.

Much of the United States has seen house prices shoot up in recent years, taking rents with them.

At the same time, wages have not kept pace, making housing an ever-larger proportion of a family's costs.

Simply not being able to afford the rent is one of the main reasons behind the shocking 3,000 evictions that take place in Maricopa County every month -- a place expected to be a key battleground in this November's presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

"What's particularly dramatic about Phoenix is how expensive it is and how quickly it's changed," said Glenn Farley of the Common Sense Institute, an economic research firm.

"Five years ago, Phoenix still had a reputation as being relatively affordable; rent was low, housing costs were low. That has pretty much reversed more or less overnight."

Servicing a mortgage in 2019 was viable for someone working an average job for 40 hours a week, he said.

"Today, in 2024 in the greater Phoenix area, you need to work about 68 hours. That's more than 50 percent longer."