By Mara Friedman and Taryn Engmark
Mayoral candidates Daniel Valenzuela and Kate Gallego met once again Tuesday night at Steele Indian School Park to discuss some of Phoenix’s most crucial issues: housing, homelessness and healthcare.
Gallego and Valenzuela are both former members of the Phoenix City Council and candidates in the approaching runoff mayoral election in March. While they agreed on most issues during the debate, their opinions differed in some key respects.
For example, the recent $230 million deal to renovate Talking Stick Resort Arena: Gallego has been a vocal opponent of the deal while Valenzuela is a supporter.
“Rather than updating a Suns arena, we should use that tourism money for homelessness,” Gallego said.
However, the forum’s main focus was on the candidate’s views on housing and healthcare, both issues being especially relevant to downtown Phoenix.
According to Mike Trailor, the director of the Arizona Department of Economic Security and a featured speaker at the event, Arizona’s unsheltered homeless population has reached 10,000 individuals, with 62 percent located in Maricopa County. These numbers are the result of a 149 percent increase in unsheltered homeless over the past four years. In addition, an estimated 14 percent of these homeless people have serious mental illnesses.
Both candidates agreed that the development of solutions to homelessness should be a top priority. Gallego and Valenzuela also agreed that building adequate housing is a key element necessary to ending homelessness. They said a lack of affordable housing contributing to such high numbers of homeless has led to safety concerns among the city’s residents.
An opinion that they differed on, however, was whether or not housing developers should be incentivized. Gallego asserted that because the state of Arizona cannot mandate the building of affordable housing, it is important that developers be offered incentives as encouragement. Valenzuela, on the other hand, believed that incentives are not always the answer.
“People are suffering now,” he said. He argued a problem like this requires innovation and creativity.
Arizona has one of the highest eviction rates in the nation. According to Trailor, over 25,000 Arizona families were evicted from their homes in 2017. When the candidates were asked what they planned on doing to reduce this number, Gallego suggested the creation of job opportunities. She alluded to her prior experiences organizing job fairs for those who have been through the criminal justice system and have difficulty finding employment.
Valenzuela, in turn, addressed his own personal experiences with evictions in his childhood.
“I used to be one of those numbers,” he said. In addition, he explained that because there are so many reasons why people can get evicted, there can be no singular solution. He added that it is imperative to get down to the root causes.
Valenzuela credits the struggles he faced as a child, raised by a single mother in numerous homes and his background as a firefighter for his ability to gauge the needs and desires of the people he works to serve.
Gallego argued her knowledge of economic development and entrepreneurial experience help her identify and execute solutions to big issues facing the city.
Audience members seemed to identify the candidates by their advantages. Gallego utilized her extensive education to benefit her, while Valenzuela’s advantages included his familiarity with the city of Phoenix and its residents, as well as his personal experiences with the issues at hand.
Dr. Deborah Gilman, a retired Veteran’s Affairs physician, had never heard Valenzuela speak before the forum. She believes Valenzuela would excel as an associate because “he has a nice way with people.” Gallego’s skillset, to her, seemed more suited to mayoral duties such as deciding how to get and spend money and establish collaborations.
Kala Roy, an attendee seeking to familiarize himself with “what Phoenix has to offer” in terms of mayoral candidates, agreed with Gilman.
“Education is more important than experience because you have to know why these people are homeless,” Roy said.
Sergio Fernandez, married to Charlene Fernandez, the Democratic leader of the Arizona House of Representatives, was yet another audience member who agreed that, while Valenzuela is “passionate,” Gallego presented the issues and her ideas were better.
Brandon Clark, CEO of Circle the City, a nonprofit working to provide healthcare to Maricopa County’s homeless, was also in attendance. He expressed the organization’s view that all people deserve to be treated with compassion and care.
“Our neighbors without doors are our neighbors nonetheless,” he said.
Contact the reporters at msfried1@asu.edu and tengmark@asu.edu.
