Northern Arizona employers aim to house own workforce amid housing crunch

Taz Lewis moved to Sedona about 15 years ago and she stayed in her last apartment in the city for nine years. When her rent was suddenly raised by $600 a month two years ago, she was priced out and eventually ended up living in her car for a bitter winter. 

Lewis works for Wild Thyme Restaurant Group, which operates six businesses in Sedona. When her boss, Wild Thyme’s owner Heinrich Stasiuk, learned of her situation he stepped in to help. 

“They cannot afford (Sedona) so we’re driving good people out,” Stasiuk said. 

At the time, construction on a Cottonwood building Stasiuk bought to house his employees was still underway but one unit was finished enough for Lewis to move in and become the home’s first official resident. 

“That was the greatest thing in the world,” Lewis said looking back. “I felt so loved and cared for by this company.”

“Just knowing that he was willing to care enough about his employees to take me personally and put me into the situation where I could watch the house grow was just amazing,'' she said. 

The median home value in Sedona now exceeds $900,000, more than $400,000 greater than the typical price of a home elsewhere across the state. The city also falls well below the average number of rental units, at just 4% compared to 16% statewide. 

Historically, about 75% of homes in the city are owner-occupied, which leaves few homes remaining to rent to locals.

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Stasiuk said in 2019 he was starting to see the housing costs in Sedona “getting out of hand” for the 165 employees he has in the city. He said he’s watched his employees be priced out of Sedona, settle in the surrounding areas until they can’t find housing there and continue to expand the radius. 

In late 2020, Stasiuk bought the building in Cottonwood and remodeled it to house about a half-dozen of his employees at a very reduced rate. 

That building now houses Lewis, who has become house manager, and her six housemates. 

“Everybody just gets along and it’s just a beautiful setup for all of us,” she said. 

Stasiuk is continuing to explore more affordable housing solutions in Sedona and the surrounding areas with both the city, private developers and other business owners. He said he hopes to provide at least 30 more affordable units for his workers. 

“It’s getting so bad that it’s hard to retain or hire good employees because there is nowhere for them to live,” Stasiuk said.

To try to combat the increased cost of housing, Stasiuk has repeatedly raised wages but in return has eventually had to raise prices to offset the impact on the overall bottom line.

Right now, many of his employees are forced to share smaller and smaller spaces, he said. For example, he knows of three of his workers sharing a one-bedroom unit. 

“It’s just not common — people having their own apartment. Not common at all,” he said.

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Not only is this housing crunch impacting his employees, he said, but it’s hurting the entire community as employers face worker shortages everywhere from grocery stores to classrooms. Moreover, businesses are left to fight over the few remaining employees in town, Stasiuk said. 

“A lot of people move back to the Valley because they can’t afford it,” Stasiuk said. “They just cannot afford it."

Almost 80 miles away from Sedona, the Chino Valley Unified School District is working on its own plan to house its employees as they too struggle to find affordable housing. 

Right now, homes are being sold in Chino Valley for a median cost of $418,000, according to data from Realtor.com. Moreover, the median rent in the area is $2,300.

Chino Valley school board member Peter Atonna said he can remember hearing about teachers struggling to afford housing in town and being forced to move elsewhere and commute in every day. 

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Right now, they are in the process of applying for a county grant and other funding sources to construct housing specifically designated for school district faculty. They will be accepting project proposals from construction firms for the next few weeks and they'll move ahead from there when they have a better idea of what the housing would actually look like, he said. 

"It's very exciting for us," Atonna said. "We've got the land, we've got the process and hopefully, cross your fingers, we've got the money."

Contact northern Arizona reporter Lacey Latch at llatch@gannett.com or on social media @laceylatch. Coverage of northern Arizona on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is funded by the nonprofit Report for America and a grant from the Vitalyst Health Foundation in association with The Arizona Republic.