"This is a crisis": Arizona sees 20% jump in homelessness
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
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.