TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Almost any place where there is vacant space people who don't have a place to live may set up a camp. Pima County spends hundreds of thousands of dollars cleaning up what’s left behind in those encampments; but the amount they’re spending is actually declining. The question is does that mean homelessness is declining too?
Many homeless camps are in the City of Tucson but Pima County has plenty of vacant space where people might live, then leave trash and debris behind.
In Pima County government seven different agencies like Parks and Flood Control may end paying to clean up.
Pima County says in the last fiscal year, county crews or contractors cleared 594 encampments. A single campsite can count as one encampment or a large site where many people lived can count as an encampment.
County documents say Pima County’s clean up cost for fiscal year 2026 came to $683,793.49. But that figure is more than 70 thousand dollars lower than the year before—-a 6.6 percent drop.
“Positive trends are always encouraging, but we will want to see a few fiscal years to determine whether or not it's our strategy that's improving. Proactive strategies, meaning we're in the space before there's a large accumulation of debris, or are we just sort of seeing a one-time decline?
Jenifer Darland leads Pima County’s Office of Housing Opportunities and Homeless Solutions.
She says County workers try to help people get into housing but it’s possible the decreasing costs reflect county departments handling cleanups more efficiently or even a random change.
“A 6% decrease over the prior fiscal year, it's promising, but it isn't enough that we want to plant a flag of victory, and that we're doing a good job. It does tell us who's impacted, and it does tell us where we might need to focus some more future refinements in terms of our protocol response in the future.”
And Darland says the emphasis will always be to get someone out of the elements and into housing.
