Join us for our monthly Phoenix Housing Lab webinar series.

Phoenix Housing Lab

A public education initiative of Urban Phoenix Project and Valley Urban Action Alliance.

The Phoenix Housing Lab is a comprehensive public education and outreach program that helps Phoenix residents, employers, media, and decision-makers understand how housing policy, zoning, and development rules shape affordability, opportunity, and quality of life in our city. The Lab is a joint initiative of Urban Phoenix Project (UPP) and Valley Urban Action Alliance (VUAA), bringing together researchers, practitioners, and community voices to build a shared, evidence-based understanding of Phoenix's housing landscape.

What the Lab Does

The Phoenix Housing Lab is more than a webinar series — it's ongoing infrastructure for housing literacy in our region. Programming includes:

• Monthly public webinars featuring local practitioners alongside researchers from institutions like ASU's Morrison Institute, the Terner Center for Housing Innovation, the Urban Institute, and the Brookings Institution

• Plain-language policy materials — one-pagers, fact sheets, zoning maps, infographics, and short-form video that translate technical land use concepts into accessible content

• Multi-channel communications across email, social media, paid digital, and earned media

• Spanish-language outreach designed for Phoenix's Spanish-speaking communities in coordination with regional media partners

• Coalition convenings bringing together nonprofit and for-profit housing developers, advocacy organizations, faith communities, and civic groups

• Expert forums that connect Phoenix's housing conversation to national research and best practice

Why It Matters

Phoenix is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, but its land use code was largely written for a different era. Most residents — and many decision-makers — don't have a clear picture of how local rules shape what gets built, where, and at what cost. The Phoenix Housing Lab fills that gap. It creates the shared knowledge base that good housing policy depends on, with particular attention to workforce housing: the case that Phoenix cannot sustain its economic growth without homes the people who power our economy can actually afford.

Topics We Cover

Missing middle housing · Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) · Parking reform · Single-stair reform · Transit-oriented communities · The Phoenix General Land Use Plan · Heat-resilient development · Workforce housing · Vision Zero and street design