RTS Alerts Week of 02/17: Yes In God’s Back Yard

Arizona Legislaturerequest to speak alertsArizonaHousing and Homelessness
Written By Solveig Muus

HB2191 is on the House Government Committee agenda Wednesday (2/19) at 8:00 am. Sign in to the Request to Speak (RTS) system and support this bill.

Why We Care In line with one of our policy priorities, Housing, The Yes In God’s Back Yard (YIGBY) bill aims to expand housing options and opportunities on available land and is a way to combat the housing crisis. The ELCA social teachings on housing and poverty include “Economic Life” and “Homelessness.” The first tells us, “outrage over the plight of people living in poverty is a theme throughout the Bible. The poor are those who live precariously between subsistence and utter deprivation. It is not poor people them selves who are the problem, but their lack of access to the basic necessities of life. Without such, they cannot maintain their human dignity.”

This is one of three bills we supported at Lutheran Day at the Legislature on Monday, February 10.

Thanks in part to our advocacy, the bill gets a hearing before the House Government committee. Solveig Muus, Rev. Katie Sexton-Woods from Arizona Faith Network and other faith leaders and housing coalition partners will be testifying at the hearing. We have asked all Lutheran Day participants who have committee members in their districts (below), to contact their legislators in support of the bill.

The RTS responses have been overwhelmingly in opposition, so we need to show that there is support for this bill!

Support

  • HB2191 - religious institutions; development; allowed use (support). Primary Sponsor: David Livingston. Allows religious institutions to develop single-family and multifamily residential housing on their properties as an "allowed use development," exempting them from local or county zoning ordinances. Developments must meet specific criteria, such as proximity limits to neighboring sites, parking space requirements, and adherence to water and sewer regulations. Height, setback, and lot coverage requirements are specified. Municipalities and counties are prohibited from imposing additional restrictions on allowed use developments, but may require permits and fees consistent with comparable projects. The religious institution is required to record a deed restriction allocating at least 40 percent of the units in the development for low-income households for a period of 55 years. Religious institutions must notify the county assessor when the property no longer qualifies for tax exemption.

YIGBY Bill History in Arizona

Last year, this bill (HB2815) passed through the House Appropriations Committee with a 9-6-1 vote, as well as House Rules, before stalling in the Senate; you can watch a video of the Appropriations hearing, including testimonies from faith leaders (beginning at the 5:16:54 time stamp) to learn what the objections to the bill were,

We did most of our communication on last year's bill through our weekly blog. You can find all of our YIGBY posts here. This article on the bill's committee passage outlines our stance with the most clarity. Note Bishop Hutterer spoke at last year's press conference.

Using your RTS Account

  • Navigate to azleg.gov, click on Legislative Information/Request to Speak)

  • Sign in, click the blue ‘Request to Speak’ button

  • Click ‘My Bill Positions’, enter the bill number, and let the title auto-fill into the field

  • Indicate your position, and click ‘Add’

If you have any questions on these bills, make sure to read the bill texts, available on your RTS accounts! If you still want to know more about how these bills might affect vulnerable Arizonans, reach out to us at director@lamaz.org.

For a tutorial on navigating your RTS account check out our last post in this series!

Solveig Muus
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