TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — A Tucson community organizer is asking city leaders to support or partially sponsor a city-sanctioned encampment.
Armed with a stack of visual guides and possible programming lists— one for each councilmember— community organizer Victoria Devasto stepped up to the podium at Tuesday night's council meeting to introduce her STAR model for low-barrier transitional housing.
“We need all hands on deck," she said. "Every player in homeless services right now.”
Devasto defines STAR— Serving Together and Rebuilding— as a resource encampment where Tucsonans experiencing unsheltered homelessness have a safer place to camp with access to city and mutual aid resources.
She's asking the city to help sponsor the project and allow them to operate on city land.
The 2024 'Point In Time' or PIT count tallied up 2,102 people living in shelters and transitional housing or living in places not meant for human habitation like cars, tents or parks.
The STAR model aims to help those not in shelters find low-barrier transitional housing through a small tent community.
The proposed site lines up 25 tents around a few basic bathrooms, trash and water facilities and a resource tent.
That resource tent is key to the STAR model. Devasto says it would have On-site staff who do daily health and safety checks.
while other agencies rotate through offering detox, mental health, housing or medical services.
She adds the sit could also serve as a stop for already existing government-sponsored and nonprofit services like shower trailers.
"Within each participants first week they enroll in an agency of their choice,"She said. "These agencies will be on-site and coming to them."
Devasto emphasized STAR model housing is transitional and no concrete deals or deadlines have been made,shes received interest from nonprofits in and around Tucson.
“There are so many players in homeless services right now and we all have something different we can bring to the table," Devasto said. "The more of us we get together to really put our hands in, the better.”
Her pilot model is aimed at young women and gender-nonconforming adults under ages 18-30, a group Devasto says is sometimes overlooked in homeless services.
The proposal has "just passed it's infancy, adding she's speaking with potential grants and private and nonprofit donors to help fund the project, which she estimates will cost around $100,00-$200,000 dollars.
Devasto said she had some "initial meetings" and asked for "additional meetings with the Mayor and City manager regarding budget, location and realistic next steps."
If the city passes on participating, Devasto says she'll focus more on those private donors for funding and land, but she doesn't plan on giving up the project.
“We need to be thinking outside the box in general," she said. "We need to thinking of solutions.”
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Alex Dowd is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9, where her work combines her two favorite hobbies: talking to new people and learning about the community around her. Her goal is to eventually meet every single person in Tucson. Share your story ideas with Alex via email, alex.dowd@kgun9.com, or connecting on Instagram or X.
