Donna Bleyle the State Homelessness Coordinator at the Arizona Department of Economic Security who spoke with the ADI indicated homelessness has been dropping in Pima County and particularly in all of Arizona. She also told the ADI that 72% of homeless are single adults while 28% contain families.
But Roy E. Tullgren, III the executive director at the Gospel Rescue Mission doesn’t believe the numbers in Pima County are really changing much saying to the ADI, “The numbers may have dropped, but Pima County has to show they drop. I’m just giving you a non-government funded, (non) HUD funded slant. I work with all of them on these coalitions, developed the new intake process… They all have to claim it is improving and the numbers have to show or they are not going to get HUD funding. Because it is going to be Tucson is not addressing the problem properly and so they start cutting funding.”
Veterans, an often chronic homelessness segment, have seen a 15% decrease in the last year and double digit decreases in the homeless veteran population over the last three years according to the report.
But in Pima County the homelessness epidemic is frightening. In 2013 one out of every 131 residents experienced homelessness. That is above the national average and the highest in the state.
Tullgren said when asked about homelessness in 2013, “We have waiting list at both men and women programs to get into the program or shelter. The other shelters are the same. Then when you call up these organizations the behavioral health companies… that have funding from Department of Housing and Urban Development to do this placement of housing of people who are homeless. Call them, same thing waiting list 30, 60, 90 days if at all.”
When it comes to younger homeless the annual report states they are the most difficult subpopulation to quantify, but 246 youth were reported as living on the streets and 394 in shelters at their 2013 point in time survey.
Tullgren also believes the struggling economy has played a role in youth homelessness saying, “We are getting younger people. We are getting people 18-25 years old where it use to be 35 to 50 kind of range was the majority. It is not that the younger ones are the majority yet, but we use to hardly ever get somebody under 30 and now we are getting women and men 20, 22, 25. Younger people are coming here. Some of those people can’t find jobs. They aren’t able to find a job and they don’t have other alternatives.”
Without more shelters and programs that get at the core of the problem of homelessness like substance abuse, jobs, and mental illness the simple taking people off the streets into housing will not likely turn into a long term solution for the homeless.
“Even though the government is kind of shifting emphasis from shelters to housing placements of people. Giving people an apartment or home to stay in there are not enough of either and I believe we are still going to be dealing with the homeless for years to come,” Tullgren said looking to the future.
Read the full DES report here:
https://www.azdes.gov/InternetFiles/Reports/pdf/des_annual_homeless_report_2013.pdf