(Photo courtesy of A New Leaf)

The La Mesita Community will have housing units aimed at the chronically homeless and low-income residents of Maricopa County.

As affordable housing continues to be a challenge in the Valley, Mesa nonprofit A New Leaf is opening 30 new housing units aimed at chronically homeless and low-income residents of Maricopa County.

It’s part of the larger La Mesita Community in downtown Mesa, right on the light-rail line, and it represents a shift in the way that advocates approach treatment and recovery for the homeless and mentally ill.

For more on this, I spoke with Laura Bode with A New Leaf. And I asked her about the goal of this complex, which now has a total of 126 units, an Emergency Family Shelter and community meeting rooms.