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Arizona has one of the worst homelessness crises in the nation, federal data shows

Juliette Rihl, Arizona Republic
Thu, January 5, 2023 

Arizona has one of the worst homelessness crises in the nation, according to new federal data.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in December released its 2022 Point-in-Time Estimates of Homelessness Report, which includes key findings about homelessness nationwide and compares how cities and states measure against one another. While national numbers largely remained stagnant since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the data showed Arizona’s homelessness crisis worsened significantly.

Homelessness across the country increased by less than 1% between 2020 and 2022, the report showed. Yet Arizona saw a 23% jump in its homeless population.

Of the more than 13,000 people experiencing homelessness in Arizona, most were unsheltered, meaning they were living on the street, in a car or in another place not meant for sleeping.

Arizona was one of just four states where more than two-thirds of unaccompanied youth under age 25 did not have a place to sleep.

Arizona is likely an outlier because of its dire shortage of affordable housing, said Tom Simplot, director of the Arizona Department of Housing. While the state has experienced immense population growth in the past two years, its housing supply hasn’t kept up.

“We can have all the money we could possibly use. We could have all the vouchers we could possibly use. But if we don’t have the units to actually house people, that money is basically worthless,” Simplot said.

Joanna Carr, research and policy director for the Arizona Housing Coalition, agreed.

“Essentially, housing and homelessness are connected,” Carr said. “And it’s the huge demands in our housing market that are contributing to homelessness.”

The HUD report's data was collected by local planning entities that count the number of people experiencing homelessness in their community on a single night every year. Experts agree that the numbers are likely a significant undercount because weather, volunteer availability and other factors can make it hard to get a complete count.

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Because Pima County used a different methodology in 2022 to count its homeless population, its numbers last year were inflated compared to other places. This partially skewed Arizona’s population count, though most of the state’s homeless population was concentrated in Maricopa County, not Pima County.

On the same day HUD released its report, the Biden administration announced plans to reduce homelessness by 25% by 2025. The multi-pronged strategy includes increasing the supply of permanent supportive housing and emergency shelter space, providing more employment and education opportunities and expanding access to federal funding for Native American communities.

Arizona's affordable housing efforts fall short

Experts agree: More needs to be done — and fast — to address the state’s rapidly growing affordable housing and homelessness crisis.

The state has recently made major investments to address the crisis, including converting seven hotels and motels to emergency shelters, funneling resources to rural communities and continuing to issue tax credits to affordable housing developers, said Simplot of the Arizona Department of Housing.

Still, he said efforts to build more affordable housing need to be considerably ramped up, as the state isn’t keeping pace with its population growth. There are 375,000 Arizonans with an annual income of $25,000 or less, meaning they can afford to pay only $625 per month for rent and utilities without being cost-burdened, according to the department's research.

“I can tell you right now, there are zero apartments available in Arizona at that level,” Simplot said.

More policy solutions are needed to curb the crisis, such as changing zoning laws to make it easier to build more homes and somehow regulating rent increases, said Carr of the Arizona Housing Coalition.

In November, Gov. Katie Hobbs released a plan to mitigate the housing crisis. The plan includes encouraging local zoning changes, providing legal aid to families facing eviction and investing in the Housing Trust Fund, which funds affordable housing development and assistance programs, among other strategies.

Despite the pandemic, national homelessness numbers hold steady

The somewhat good news: The number of people experiencing homelessness nationwide increased by less than 1% between 2020 and 2022, despite the widespread economic hardship brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic that many experts predicted would cause homelessness to spike.

Shelia Harris, left, volunteer, talks with David King, Dec. 16, 2022, before the City of Phoenix started their enhanced cleanup of the area.

In a statement, HUD attributed the absence of a spike to the “robust federal response” that helped keep people in their homes during the pandemic, including emergency rental assistance, the Child Tax Credit and stimulus payments.

The national inventory of shelter beds also increased between 2020 and 2022, the report said.

Several demographic groups, including veterans, families with children and unaccompanied youth, saw significant nationwide decreases in homelessness over the past two years.

But homelessness rose among other groups, including Hispanic or Latino people, people who identify as Native American or Pacific Islander, single individuals and people with disabilities who are chronically homeless.

The number of Black people experiencing homelessness decreased by 5% between 2020 and 2022, though Black people, along with Native Americans and Pacific Islanders, were still overrepresented among the country’s homeless population.

HUD calculated changes over two years — 2020 to 2022 — because many communities did not count the number of unsheltered people in 2021 due to pandemic safety precautions.

Volunteers are needed to help with this year’s point-in-time count on Jan. 25. Every county has a point-in-time count administrator. The Maricopa Association of Governments website provides information on who to contact to volunteer in Maricopa County. The Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness is coordinating volunteers in Pima County.

Juliette Rihl covers housing insecurity and homelessness for The Arizona Republic. She can be reached at jrihl@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter @julietterihl.

A grant from the Arizona Community Foundation supports coverage of housing insecurity on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Federal report shows Arizona has one of the worst homelessness crises