Request to Speak Alert for the Week of 2/20
Happy Tuesday, friends!
Yesterday’s House Appropriations Committee hearing was action-packed and exciting, with the members moving to bring several pieces of legislation to the House floor. Two of these are important housing bills and we hope you will join us and Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest in advocating on them!
All in all, we have identified three bills for you this week, pertaining to housing and water use. We look forward to seeing your names in the RTS system.
Don’t know about Request to Speak? Click here to learn more.
HB 2056— The On Farm Efficiency Fund
Water is one of our policy priorities this session, and the On Farm Efficiency Fund is one of the programs we have been excited to support since we began our research back in October. The On Farm Efficiency Fund supports the Water Irrigation Efficiency Program run by the University of Arizona. The program helps farmers and ranchers around Arizona transition to more efficient irrigation systems, saving them money and the state water, while also boosting crop yields. This money helps offset the costs of equipment and transition, so that more farmers are able to proactively transition to water-saving mechanisms. In 2022, the legislature gave the program $30 million via the fund, and an additional $15 million in 2023 . The program has been hugely successful, conserving hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of water and converting thousands of acres of farm land to sustainable irrigation methods all across our state. LAMA is excited to support this bill! Special thanks to our Tucson community members for identifying this program!
HB2782— Arizona Homeless Protection and Drug Control Act
Homelessness in Arizona is on the rise. One solution to the problem which cities have been implementing is setting aside some rooms in hotels to shelter individuals experiencing homelessness. This allows folks to access shelter, safety, and dignity while working with service providers to improve their situations. Rep. Matt Gress (LD4- R), opposes this solution.He sponsored HB2782 to make it more difficult for hotels to
provide this service to unhoused people. One section of the bill requires a large sign to be posted in front of these hotels stating,
"ALL GUESTS KEEP HOTEL DOORS LOCKED, SAFELY
STORE THEIR BELONGINGS AND REPORT ANY HEALTH
OR SAFETY CONCERNS TO LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT."
Accessible shelter is not linked to an increase in crime rates, in fact, the city of Mesa sites lower-than-average crime rates around their shelters compared to the rest of the city. Requiring this posting will only increase the fear and hostility faced by people already living on the margins of our society, and serves make the conversations around finding solutions more difficult. This bill also includes puntivie punishments that do not directly target, but would likely hurt those struggling with addiction. After discussion at last night’s LAMA Liaison round-table meeting, LAMA opposes this bill.
HB 2815— Yes In God’s Backyard
This bill seeks to ease restrictions on houses of worship that wish to construct affordable housing on their property. It would allow houses of worship to use their land for housing, regardless of its zoning status. This bill has the potential to impact the housing crisis in a big way, as many churches have both the ability and the wiliness to provide housing to their neighbors in need, but are currently stopped by zoning laws. We are so excited about this bi-partisan bill! Read more about Bishop Hutterer’s advocacy on this bill here. LAMA supports this bill and hopes you will too!
How To:
To the best of our knowledge, none of these bills are open for committee comment at this time, which means that the process of recording your stance is a little bit different.
After logging into your RTS account, select “My Bill Positions” from the menu on the left.
Next, enter the bill number and select the piece of legislation you wish to weigh in on.
After selecting the piece of legislation, select your stance and click the blue “Add” button.
After clicking “Add,” your opinion will be recorded, and your stance will be added to the list of bills you have weighed in on.
Thank you for your advocacy! If you feel particularly strongly about any of these bills, or have personal stories related to any of them, we encourage you to also contact your legislator’s offices about them! Public opinion is especially important at this stage of the legislative session, so make sure to let them know how you feel.
