Tempe’s latest Point-in-Time homeless street count showed a significant drop in the number of people experiencing homelessness in Tempe – 34% this year.
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Tempe’s latest Point-in-Time homeless street count showed a significant drop in the number of people experiencing homelessness in Tempe – 34% this year.
A reason for this: Tempe has helped more than 1,600 people into housing resolutions during the past two years, a city release stated.
“Once again, we are seeing a significant reduction in the number of unsheltered people in Tempe,” Mayor Corey Woods said in the release. “We have pioneered new strategies and invested heavily in enhancing our homeless solutions. These commitments show in our recent Point-in-Time results.”
Tempe’s 2023 Community Survey shows that reducing homelessness is the top priority for residents.
To address these needs, the city has made investments and innovations to drive this success, such as purchasing two bridge shelters, establishing the 24/7 CARE & HOPE Line for help and creating an encampment reporting tool, the release noted.
As a result of this effort, Tempe has helped more than 1,600 people into a housing resolution in the past two years, also including helping people find their own apartment, reconnect with family or transition to longer-term shelter to address complex needs.
Another innovation designed to help even more people: Tempe has convened its first-ever homeless outreach collaborative with providers serving unsheltered people in Tempe, the release stated. This collaborative identifies areas of need and coordinates direct responses to those areas.
Providers include the Salvation Army, Circle the City, Women4Women Tempe and Native American Connections, each serving a diverse population and a wide range of needs.
By collaborating more closely, Tempe aims to improve how unsheltered people are served to help them end their homelessness.
For instance, the city’s HOPE homeless outreach team is seeing more unsheltered families. In response, the HOPE and CARE 7 teams have made a concerted effort to work more closely with schools to identify families in need and wrap services around them.
The numbers
The Point-in-Time count is held throughout the nation each January, providing a one-day snapshot of homelessness and helping drive federal funding to meet needs. The Maricopa Association of Governments oversees the count for Maricopa County.
“We are grateful to the Maricopa Association of Governments for its continued work overseeing the annual homeless street count. As a data-driven city, this count gives us an important new data point as we track our progress to meet the needs of those experiencing homelessness and our broader community,” City Manager Rosa Inchausti stated in the release.
Results released May 22 by MAG show about the same number of people experiencing homelessness compared with last year, but with significantly more people with shelter and fewer on the street, the release stated.
The count found 9,435 people experiencing homelessness in Maricopa County on the night of Jan. 22, including 4,076 people living on the street and 5,359 people in shelter. See the 2024 report here. The number of unsheltered people in Tempe decreased by 34% from 406 to 266.
In addition to the regional count, Tempe holds its own summer count. This gives the city two street counts per year, creating more data that help guide decision-making.
