TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN). — The Pima County Board of Supervisors has passed two new policies aimed at expanding outreach and research into poverty and homelessness across the region.
One of the goals is to better understand the challenges people are facing and strengthen the transition from emergency shelters to long-term housing.
Jenifer Darland is the Director for the Pima County Office of Housing Opportunities & Homelessness Solutions. She says the county is working through some challenging circumstances.
“It requires much more of a broad disciplinary approach rather than just simply looking at it from homelessness to shelter to housing, we need to understand that there are other levels of crises that individuals are facing," Darland explains.
She says resources need to be more easily accessible, “Trauma can occur inside four walls, right? And so simply housing folks is one part of the solution but we have to ensure that the resources and support is around those individuals.”
One of the new policies passed is aimed at reducing generational poverty and improving community and individual wealth. The second policy focuses on closing the gap in affordable housing, tackling housing insecurity, and preventing an escalation of homelessness.
Darland says the process to get shelter needs to become less complicated to navigate. “There isn’t one single place to call when you are either experiencing homelessness or if you are an outreach worker and you find an individual who needs an immediate emergency shelter, most of what your case managers are gonna have to do is call many different places to find information on the available beds.”
The county works alongside the city and groups like the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness to provide help and resources.
The number of people experiencing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness on the night of the Point in Time Count was about 2,218 people for this year.
Darland says this is a complex issue, explaining, “We don’t necessarily have discretionary dollars to rehouse individuals frankly, so if it follows HUD requirements, it has to go through coordinated entry, it’s based off priority based off vulnerability factors, how acute is the crisis will mean that a person is more likely to be matched to housing when housing is available.”
Darland says she hopes the county can provide better resources to help individuals transition out of sheltered living into more permanent housing. "They may have a job but they don’t have deep enough savings to go ahead and secure a lease, or maybe they have a negative rental history, right so they have been evicted and landlords are not accepting rental applications because of that history. So these are also small challenges that exist in connecting individuals to housing.”
The City of Tucson, along with other organizations, have began outreach early July at the 100-Acre Wood Park.
Darland admits that it may feel like to some people, that there is always more the county can do, but she says the county is dedicated to pursuing solutions for Tucsonans.
———
Athena Kehoe is a reporter for KGUN 9, she joined the KGUN 9 team in July of 2024 after graduating from Arizona State University. Share your story ideas with Athena by emailing athena.kehoe@kgun9.com or by connecting on X/Twitter.
