10 Nov 28th-Dec 4th, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Rising From the Ashes Razed by arson, affordable housing complex will be rebuilt. BY MORGAN FISCHER J ose Martinez remembers the day vividly. It was May 2022, and in a few months, the Latino-focused nonprofit Chicanos Por La Causa was set to open a new affordable housing development in the Palomino neighborhood of North Phoenix, a small but meaningful effort to address the city’s gargantuan housing problem. Then, on the second to last day of the month, Martinez turned on the TV and saw the project engulfed in flames from a fire that had started the previous night. That afternoon, while people celebrated Memorial Day with hot dogs and potato salad, Martinez visited the site where a nearly 75% completed structure had stood the day before. The beautiful building had turned into a mountain of charred lumber. Everything was black, “just smoldering,” said Martinez, the organization’s vice pres- ident of economic development. The ashen remains were the work of an arsonist, according to the Phoenix Police Department, though the culprit has never been identified. An investigation remains active, though police spokesperson Sgt. Brian Bower told Phoenix New Times that no suspects have ever been contacted. While CPLC has seen footage of the perpe- trator running in and out of the complex, the arsonist is visible only in silhouette. The crime gutted everyone at CPLC. Like Martinez, many staffers woke up to the shocking news that the housing project they had poured their hearts and souls into developing was now burned to a crisp. The project, which had not yet been named, had been 10 years in the making. CPLC purchased the land in 2013, targeting a traditionally low-income area with a notoriously high crime rate. According to Martinez, residents used to call the neighborhood “the Scorn.” CPLC aimed to change that by opening 53 afford- able housing units for needy families. Now it was gone. “It was such a huge setback,” Martinez said on Nov. 15. “This would have already been in place, and families would have lived here.” Now, the organization says, the devel- opment will rise again. Starting over Earlier this month, more than two years after the devastating attack, CPLC broke ground once more on the lot located near 25th Street and Bell Road. Since the 2022 fire, the organization had worked to secure funding from the city and the Arizona Department of Housing for a new development. “What the fire couldn’t destroy was our spirit,” said CPLC President and CEO Alicia Nuñez at a groundbreaking cere- mony on Nov. 15. “From the ashes, Chicanos Por La Causa President Alicia Nuñez and Vice President of Real Estate Development Nic Smith stand next to each other at an affordable housing groundbreaking event on Nov. 15. (Photo by Morgan Fischer) >> p 11 | NEWS | | NEWS |
