Maricopa County taxpayers will pay up to two months of rent for those facing eviction for nonpayment.
Maricopa County has partnered with the city of Phoenix to launch a pilot program aimed at preventing evictions. The county allocated $800,000 from its fiscal year 2027 budget to pay for the pilot program, and the board of supervisors approved it in May.
Board Chair Kate Brophy McGee said the program was modeled after the Texas Eviction Diversion Program, a pandemic-era relief program established via emergency order by the Texas Supreme Court which ended in 2023.
“For three straight years, Maricopa County Justice Courts have processed more than 80,000 eviction filings. That’s 80,000 individuals or families on the brink of homelessness each year, at a time when that population is already high,” said Chair Kate Brophy McGee, District 3. “This pilot, modeled after a successful program in Texas, aims to address our eviction crisis head-on with interventions that are sustainable and effective. They are a hand up, not a hand out.”
Eligible residents may receive as much as $3,000 to cover two months of rental arrears; those with rental arrears exceeding three months past due and those with rental arrears exceeding $3,000 don’t qualify. Should every program participant qualify for the maximum relief amount, approximately 265 individuals would receive rental assistance.
Residents must reside in zip codes 85008, 85040, 85041, 85042; have citizenship or lawful permanent residency; have experienced a temporary emergency or financial setback; and can demonstrate ability to pay monthly rent moving forward.
Proof of ability to pay rent in the future includes an individual’s last two pay stubs, employment verification letter, Social Security income verification letter, a job offer letter, “other income verification,” or self-attestation.
The program also accepts on self-attestation from a resident to indicate financial hardship impacting their ability to make future rental payments. Verifiable evidence of the nature of the professed temporary hardship must be provided: terminated employment, reduced work hours, business closure, short-term illness or disability, medical bills, funeral expenses, car repairs, natural or manmade disaster, victimization by crime or domestic violence, or a self-attestation describing the temporary hardship.
Further, the program requires property owner participation. Property owners must provide documentation of the rental agreement, a tenant ledger, and other forms to include a W9.
“A key condition of receiving financial assistance includes the property owner agreeing that the amounts paid by the program fully satisfy the covered rental arrears and eligible charges,” stated the county press release.
The county’s application link sends users to an email with a domain name for HOM, an Arizona-based housing assistance and social services organization with operations in Colorado and Los Angeles, California.
On its website, HOM advertises as having assisted with the distribution of more than $9 million in monthly housing assistance, provision of monthly assistance to more than 6,900 households, and provision of housing subsidies for more than 3,000 properties.
AZ Free News reported earlier this month that the city of Phoenix is also considering the continuation of eviction legal services. That pilot program began in January 2025 with $1.2 million sourced from interest accrued from American Rescue Plan Act funds. City leaders say they would like to continue the program beyond its scheduled end date in June 2027.
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Teachers’ union activists were once again dealt a serious blow after the Arizona Supreme Court issued an order effectively removing an initiative from the ballot that aimed to undo the state’s universal school choice program.
Nearly four years ago to date, a similar initiative was removed from the ballot for failing to have the required number of signatures. Katie Hobbs, secretary of the state at the time and now the governor, held out on invalidating the ballot initiative.
The court’s order to recalculate the signature totals using the trial court’s formula, issued on Tuesday, is projected to have brought Proposition 212, the Protect Education Act, below the required signature total following a legal challenge filed by the Goldwater Institute in Clark v. Fontes.
Protect Education Accountability Now, the political action committee (PAC) behind the Protect Education Act, confirmed that the Arizona Supreme Court order meant their initiative would not qualify for the ballot.
The PAC blamed “big money in partnership with Republican lawmakers and the anti-public education lobby” for the initiative’s demise.
A spokesperson for the PAC stated that the initiative should have been included on the ballot regardless of the invalid signatures.
“This does not reflect what Arizona voters want. It does not reflect the overwhelming support of educators, parents and public school advocates across the state who volunteered their time and demanded a voice in reforming a program that abused taxpayer money and pulled funding from their neighborhood public schools,” said the spokesperson. “Instead, the hard-earned resources educators raised to fund this were buried under a mountain of big money, political power, and a system that consistently sides with special interests.”
— Protect Education Ballot Initiative (@ProtectEdAct) August 18, 2026
Activists submitted around 420,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot. Pending a review incited by the Goldwater Institute’s court challenge, the number of valid signatures will fall to a projected total of approximately 245,000. The initiative needed approximately 256,000 to qualify for the ballot.
Nearly 70,000 signatures were invalidated due to their discovery as duplicates or having been collected by legally ineligible circulators, like felons. The court also upheld the trial court ruling which invalidated entire sheets of signatures due to the petition circulator providing an address at which they weren’t living.
The ballot measure would have rolled back the universality of the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program by imposing an income cap.
The union-backed Protect Education Act appears to have fallen short of the valid signatures needed to make the November ballot.
In this special Keep Arizona Free Update with @Darla4freedom:
➡️ The campaign submitted roughly between 416,000-421,000 signatures, but after trial… pic.twitter.com/l7886cgtT9
The court also agreed with a lower court ruling that the ballot language drafted by Secretary of State Adrian Fontes was false and misleading because it used the term “voucher” to describe the ESA program. Vouchers must be spent immediately and only at certain approved schools, whereas ESA program funds may be rolled over and applied to various schooling types and educational resources.
The PAC behind this second failed initiative to end universal school choice raised more than $7.5 million and spent more than $7.2 million.
More than $6.5 million, or 87%, came from the National Education Association. $810,000, or nearly 11%, came from the Arizona Education Association.
Other major donors included $50,000 from the United Food and Commercial Workers Active Ballot Club, the PAC of a D.C.-based union; and $50,000 from Arizonans for Quality Education, a corporation or LLC based in Phoenix.
The latter entity was formerly known as Friends of ASBA, with ASBA standing for the Arizona School Boards Association, and was registered as a domestic nonprofit corporation, according to Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) records.
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Former U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema revealed more details into her affair with a married veteran who had been her bodyguard while in office.
A new narrative of the affair was made available through depositions filed in the ongoing lawsuit initiated by the bodyguard’s ex-wife under North Carolina’s homewrecker law, which enables an individual to sue the person they believe to be the cause of their divorce.
Matthew Ammel (Ammel), Sinema’s former bodyguard, had been married to the plaintiff, Heather Ammel (Heather), for 14 years. The Ammels had three children together. Ammel began working for Sinema in the spring of 2022.
Sinema admitted in her July 31 deposition that despite knowing Ammel was married with children, she and Ammel had sex for the first time on May 27, 2024, while on a Memorial Day trip in Napa, California. Prior to that date, Sinema denied having ever flirted with him, let alone held or touched him in any way that could be considered romantic in nature.
The former senator is seeking to dismiss the lawsuit on the claim that the affair never took place in North Carolina, physically or electronically.
At one point in Sinema’s deposition, evidence was discussed which reflected that Sinema’s phone registered her location in Southern Pines, North Carolina, when she called Ammel on the afternoon of Nov. 1, 2024. Sinema denied having been in that location on that date and insisted that she was in New York City.
Both Ammel and Sinema admitted to their affair occurring in Arizona, Washington, D.C., and other states — including New York and Colorado — but not North Carolina.
Heather admitted in her deposition that she possessed no evidence that Ammel and Sinema engaged in their affair in North Carolina, and that she didn’t believe they had a sexual encounter in the state. However, Heather stated that she didn’t acquire a computer forensics expert to investigate if there was anything deleted or hidden that would prove otherwise.
According to the latest court filings, Sinema and Ammel often communicated through Signal, an encrypted messaging app which allows for automatic message deletion according to user settings. Ammel stated in his deposition that their messages were deleted after eight hours.
Sinema denied that she caused or directed the Signal messages to be deleted, automatically or manually.
However, Heather testified in her deposition that Ammel and Sinema’s messages weren’t set to auto-delete prior to the discovery of their affair.
Ammel claimed in his deposition that he was a victim of “domestic abuse violence,” and that was the reason for initiating his affair with Sinema and later separating from his wife. Despite conflicting testimony from his ex-wife, Ammel denies continuing his relationship with her following their separation date in October 2024.
Ammel also disclosed in his deposition — which he took from “his home office” in a house in Arizona where Sinema was also present — that prior to sitting down for questions, he and Sinema had prayed together beforehand. Ammel testified that he presently works as a “cowboy” at Cross Creek Ranch in San Luis Obispo, California.
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A new complaint filed this week alleges that Arizona’s governor, secretary of state, and attorney general may have participated in a straw donor scheme.
The complainant, San Tan Valley resident Gary DeBerge, has asked Arizona District Attorney Timothy Courchaine and Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell to look into what he says are “mysterious and unexplained” irregularities in the campaigns of Gov. Katie Hobbs, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, and Attorney General Kris Mayes.
A copy of the complaint obtained by AZ Free News alleges that recent filings by one of the campaigns reflect “repeatedly altered reported receipts by millions of dollars” due to alleged eliminations of prior reported contributions.
Elect Katie Hobbs, the governor’s reelection campaign account, issued 10 amended reports for the 2026 Quarter 2 report, several of which varied by millions of dollars.
Exempt small contributions amounting to less than $100 totaled more than $1.4 million in the original filing and the first amended report, dropped to $0 in the second and third amended reports, then rose to nearly $400,000 in subsequent amended reports.
Total receipts amounted to more than $2.6 million in the original filing, but jumped to $3.1 million in the first amended report, then dropped below $1.7 million in the second amended report, then rose again to more than $2.2 million in the third amended report, and then rose again, back to more than $2.6 million in subsequent amended reports.
Donations under $100 are considered eligible for aggregate rather than individual reporting.
The complaint petitioned investigators to determine whether the millions moved around in amended filings reflected “a calculated attempt to obscure the true source and disposition” of the funds.
As noted by the complaint, Hobbs’ campaign reported much smaller totals of exempt small contributions throughout 2025 and the first quarter of 2026. Exempt small contributions across five quarters amounted to $600,000 in total. Then, in the second quarter of this year, the campaign reported a surge in exempt small contributions that amounted to more than double what the campaign pulled for an entire year and a quarter.
“Elect Katie Hobbs has reported approximately $1.4 million in exempt contributions and then later reported that those same contributions never existed,” stated the complaint. “This should immediately raise questions regarding the accuracy of one, if not all, of the recent filings made by this committee.”
The Trump administration and Republican leaders in Congress have initiated investigatory efforts into straw donor schemes by online fundraising platforms.
An example of this was illustrated prominently in the media earlier this year, when investigative reporters discovered that ActBlue, the primary fundraising platform for Democrats, allegedly misattributed around $100,000 in donations across thousands of individual political contributions over five years to one Elizabeth Waffle, an 88-year-old woman in Michigan living in a trailer with limited income. ActBlue allegedly misattributed more than 13,000 donations that occurred once or multiple times on a daily basis.
The complaint also questioned the number of contributors listed as “not employed” across the three campaigns’ 2026 filings to date.
Below are the total number of instances in which individual contributors were listed as “not employed” for the three report filings due so far this year and the four report filings made in 2025. These instances exclude retirees and may include individuals who contributed more than once.
Candidate
“Not Employed” or “Unemployed” in 2026 Filings
“Not Employed” or “Unemployed” in 2025 Filings
Katie Hobbs
46,335
26,643
Andy Biggs
26
21
Kris Mayes
17,530
13,162
Warren Petersen
0
0
Adrian Fontes
12,640
3,294
Alexander Kolodin
2
1
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The state ceased imposing mandatory guardrails for parent caregiver payouts nearly a year ago.
The year of potentially runaway spending may have wasted nearly half a billion dollars, a new report from the auditor general revealed.
The audit found that the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) and the Department of Economic Security (DES) had failed to implement cost-control requirements to the Arizona Long Term Care Services (ALTCS) program, within which is one of the biggest program costs: the Parents as Paid Caregivers (PPC) service delivery model.
PPC was established during COVID with substantial funding from the federal government, initially with the intent of being a temporary program. However, stakeholders desired permanence for the program when those pandemic dollars ran out. Gov. Katie Hobbs received approval from the Biden administration to make PPC permanent in 2024, which required Arizona to cover more than a third of the costs.
According to the audit, AHCCCS and DES leadership acted contrary to state law in order to implement laws how and when they saw fit, not how and when it was required of them.
One of the main cost-control requirements the agencies failed to implement was the standardized assessment tool.
AHCCCS suspended the tool in mid-October 2025, 16 days after initiating it according to state law. Those assessments made between Oct. 1 and 16, 2025, were reversed.
As a consequence, the auditor general estimated that the agency failed to realize between $133 million and $493 million in potential cost reduction “risking additional cost increases and shortfalls.”
DES was forced to request $83 million in supplemental appropriation from the state legislature for fiscal year 2026 as a consequence.
The threat of legal action reportedly prompted the agency to buck state law.
“AHCCCS reported that it halted implementation due to the threat of litigation and instead of implementing the policies it created it decided to engage in emergency rulemaking,” reported the audit.
The auditor general did assess that the tool lacked the ability to contain costs in the long term, and suggested legislative changes and federal approval.
The audit also reported that AHCCCS and DES failed to fully implement other cost-control measures, including executing processes to ensure parents reside in the state for at least six months prior to becoming paid caregivers, and prohibiting payments for parent-provided services between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. and when the child isn’t home.
Further, AHCCCS and DES were found to have not enforced the 40-hour limit on parent-provided care until April of this year. The agencies were required to implement that limit back in July 2025. The audit found this delay caused DES to overpay some parents.
AHCCCS and DES ignored the law by delaying the limit for 10 months to avoid penalizing parents.
“[D]espite lacking the authority to do so, [the agencies] delayed enforcing the requirement because [they] sought to increase compliance through an educational and not punitive approach,” stated the audit.
The audit also found that DES was inconsistent about maintaining member records and ensuring the accuracy of member assessments. The auditor general warned that the former could result in unsupported service authorizations and impair payment oversight, and the latter could result in incorrect payments, waste, and mismatched service authorizations.
The auditor general issued 11 recommendations:
Implement the required standardized assessment tool
Continue developing a formally documented Extraordinary Care Review process
Develop and implement a procedure to seek legal counsel prior to programmatic changes
Develop and implement all required cost controls and oversight processes to ensure functionality
Update monitoring processes to ensure timely oversight of compliance with contractual and statutory obligations related to ALTCS and PPCG
Require provision of timely access to utilization and vendor payment records
Develop and implement regular assessments of the 40-hour limit
Establish corrective action requirements for lack of enforcement concerning 40-hour limit
Conduct an analysis to identify additional cost-control measures to improve ALTCS finances
Implement any additional cost controls for ALTCS as discovered with aid of governor’s office and CMS
Notify the legislature of analysis results and plan of action
Roberta Harrison, AHCCCS interim director, responded that she disagreed with the auditor general’s findings but promised to implement the 11 recommendations. Harrison cited federal Medicaid requirements, legal and procedural considerations, data limitations, and implementation timelines as hindering agency compliance.
DES agreed with one of the findings, that required cost-control measures weren’t fully implemented, and disagreed with the other three. DES agreed to implement all but five of the 20 recommendations.
The auditor general’s office plans to follow up with AHCCCS and DES in six months’ time.
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