"This is a crisis": Arizona sees 20% jump in homelessness

While most of the rest of the country saw homelessness hold steady between 2020 and 2022, Arizona's numbers jumped 23%, according to a December HUD report.

State of play: Jeff Olivet, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, says pandemic assistance was enough to stave off homelessness in many states.

• Yes, but: Metro Phoenix's housing boom between 2020 and 2021, coupled with its housing shortage, displaced thousands.

By the numbers: The Valley's 2020 point-in-time count showed about 7,500 people experiencing homelessness in 2020.

• That spiked to more than 9,000 in 2022.

Meanwhile, the median sale price of Phoenix homes jumped more than $100,000 between January 2021 and July 2022, and the average apartment rent soared to more than $1,500 a month in every Valley city.

The bottom line: "This is a crisis. It is a life and death public health crisis," Olivet, who was in Phoenix from Washington for the point-in-time count, says.