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Multiple Tucson agencies partner to help provide resources to homeless

TPD, TFD, TMC hand out COVID-10 supply kits
Posted at 6:56 AM, Aug 06, 2020
and last updated 2020-08-06 09:56:45-04

TUCSON, Ariz. — Multiple agencies across Tucson have teamed up to help the homeless.

Six months ago, the Tucson Police Department created a new homeless outreach unit to help bridge the gap between the homeless and resources available for them.

"Society has kind of deemed it a criminal problem, but it is more of a societal problem because these people need help," Sergeant Jack Julsing, TPD Supervisor for Homeless Outreach, said. "It’s a complex issue. Not an easy quick, fix, solve. It requires several different resources collaborating together."

They're working with the Tucson Collaborative Community Care Team, or TC-3, to hand out COVID-19 supply kits.

There are 250 bags, each with hand sanitizer, multiple masks, water, snacks, socks, toilet paper and a flier with resources in the community.

"Initially, we started acting like a couple months (the pandemic), but now we realize that we could be here a lot longer than anyone expected," Captain Chris Don with TFD and TC-3 said. "We wanted to come up with creative ways to keep people as safe as we can in the long term."

The money for the kit were funded from a 12,000 dollar grant given to TC-3.

TPD and TC-3 are always taking donations from the community to help keep their programs going.