The 2026 Arizona ballot, scored for homelessness

Requires government-issued ID to vote in every election, including by mail. People without a stable address are less likely to hold current ID, and Arizona charges $12 for a state ID card for most adults.

Affects voting access, not housing. Scored −1, the cap for indirect effects.

Caps city grocery taxes at 2% and requires voter approval to raise them. Phoenix, Tucson and Mesa have no grocery tax, so the effect falls on smaller towns: lower food costs for low-income households, and less general-fund revenue for local services.

No JLBC fiscal summary exists for this referral; the 2025 fiscal note scored an earlier full repeal.

Requires large districts to spend 60% of operating budgets on instruction or lose Classroom Site Fund money. Counselors, social workers and nurses count outside instruction, and they are the staff who identify and serve homeless students.

No outcome research exists on 60% mandates and homeless students; the score rests on the spending definitions.

Extends the tax that funds county jail construction, operations, inmate programs and probation, about $300M a year. State law also allows the money for programs that reduce jail costs, which can include diversion.

Not scored. No source ties this revenue to homelessness outcomes, and the split between jail operations and diversion is not set in the measure.

Signed statewide casita and middle-housing laws and the record FY2024 housing and shelter budget, and vetoed two bills to ban or remove encampments. Vetoed the 2024 Starter Homes Act, and later budgets zeroed the Housing Trust Fund deposit.

Voted for the 2025 reconciliation law (CBO: about 10 million more uninsured by 2034) and against the ROAD to Housing Act. Voted for a recovery-housing voucher pilot in 2018 and supports permitting reform. No record on encampments.

Proposes easing zoning and permitting for affordable housing and protecting federal mental health and addiction funding. Campaign proposals only.

Limited record.

Sued RealPage and nine landlords over alleged rent price-fixing, and joined the multistate suit in which a court held HUD's $1.3B transitional-housing set-aside unlawful in August 2026. No enforcement actions involving homelessness.

Wrote the referral that became Prop 312, which lets property owners claim tax refunds when cities don't enforce camping laws, and urged the Supreme Court in Grants Pass to address encampment bans. Cosponsored the 2024 middle-housing law and was Senate President for the same state budgets as the governor.

Limited record for all three. Debates centered on election administration and voter ID.

Limited record for both. Norton raised selling state trust land as a hypothetical; no source ties it to housing.

Limited record for both. Neither has addressed homeless students or Prop 320's effect on support staff.

Utility costs affect whether low-income renters keep their housing. Thompson supported annual formula rates and the 8% APS increase (Prevention −1, record). Pratte opposes formula rates as structured and calls for stronger shut-off protections (Prevention +1, stated). Hill questions formula rates given utility profits (Prevention +1, stated). Heap and Cease: limited record. One dimension only, so no overall score.

Voted for the ROAD to Housing Act and against the 2025 reconciliation law (CBO: about 10 million more uninsured by 2034), and introduced a bill to phase housing vouchers into an entitlement for households under 80% of area median income.

Other CD3 candidates (Redkey, Aversa, write-in Parkman): limited record.

Voted for the ROAD to Housing Act and against the 2025 reconciliation law (CBO: about 10 million more uninsured by 2034), and pressed HUD to drop its 30% cap on permanent supportive housing, which MAG estimated put $32M and up to 1,388 Maricopa County units at risk.

Zuhdi Jasser (R) proposes limits on foreign property purchases; Tisha Benoit ties homelessness to prevention and mental health access. One dimension each, so no overall score.

Voted for the ROAD to Housing Act and for the 2025 reconciliation law (CBO: about 10 million more uninsured by 2034).

Bernadette Greene-Placentia (D): limited record.

Shah wants to reverse the 2025 Medicaid cuts and drop work-reporting requirements (Prevention +1, stated). Feely says the law made no Medicaid cuts and has called Medicaid a failure (Prevention −1, stated). One dimension each, so no overall score.

Monica Alponte (L) and write-ins: limited record.

Wants more single-family construction and a homelessness state of emergency with mandated treatment. Wrote that "most of these homeless belong in jail"; later called the criticism a fair point but kept jail as a deterrent for people who refuse treatment.

Wants to streamline permitting to increase supply. No homelessness positions. One dimension, so no overall score.

Limited record. Calls for responsible growth on north Phoenix trust land; did not answer VOTE411.

Proposes a city land bank that rehabs vacant city-owned houses for first-time buyers, selling 2,000+ city lots for housing, and an Office of Tenant Rights.

Wants more shelter capacity, rental assistance, behavioral health services and permanent supportive housing, plus zoning reform for infill.

Running on Housing First, eviction diversion, a renter-landlord bill of rights, civilian crisis teams and upzoning along transit.

Wants more shelter and transitional capacity with real-time bed tracking. The only responding District 4 candidate who said he would have voted for the parks ordinance.

Wants social workers and mental health professionals in public safety response, a regional coalition, and more infill housing.

Proposes pre-approved plans for casitas, duplexes and fourplexes with anti-displacement protections. No specific homelessness proposal. One dimension, so no overall score.

Wants to stop spending on what he calls homelessness failures while pledging mental health support and jobs, and to crack down on encampments.

Limited record.

Voted for the 2026 homelessness plan and the FY2026–27 budget, and for the parks ordinance requiring permits to distribute food or provide medical treatment in parks.

Wants to cut permitting red tape and judge homelessness spending by outcomes rather than dollars. No camping policy.

Pushed the Housing Trust Fund to $15M in total resources, worked to raise flexible financial assistance from a proposed $1.5M to $3.15M, and backed eviction legal services, eviction diversion and master-leasing pilots. Voted for the parks ordinance requiring permits to distribute food or provide medical treatment in parks.

Would require shelter, treatment or arrest and clear encampments, and make treatment and work a condition of aid. Proposes a zero-down homeownership fund and faster casita approvals.

Wants to lower the cost of building homes; no specific homelessness proposal. One dimension, so no overall score.