After a rare decrease in 2024, the number of people experiencing homelessness is again on the rise in the Valley, with an especially noteworthy increase in unsheltered people, according to this year's point-in-time count from the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG).

The big picture: Last year, the Phoenix area saw its first decrease since 2017, which turned out to be only a temporary alleviation of an increasingly severe problem.

By the numbers: The number of people experiencing homelessness in Maricopa County on Jan. 27, when this year's count was taken, was 9,734.

• That was a 3% increase from last year's count of 9,435.
• It was the highest total in Maricopa County since national tracking began in 2007, breaking the previous record, set in 2023.

What they're saying: MAG noted in a press statement that federal funding for more than 1,000 shelter beds in the region dried up between 2024 and 2025 and said the conditions fueling the region's homelessness, like high rent and limited access to support services, haven't improved.

• Rachel Milne, director of the Phoenix Office of Homeless Solutions, said in the statement the city and other local communities "have been working hard to fill the gaps left by the expiration of temporary federal funds this past year."

Between the lines: Last year was the first since 2019 that more unhoused people were sleeping indoors than outdoors.

• The 2024 decrease was likely due to 820 new shelter beds added in the region over the preceding year, per MAG.
• That reverted this year, with 4,527 sheltered people compared with 5,207 unsheltered, a 28% jump.
• MAG noted that people sleeping in Phoenix's Safe Outdoor Space, a structured campground that opened in November 2023, are considered unsheltered. HUD rejected a request by San Diego's mayor to designate people living in such campsites as sheltered.

Yes, but: Even if the 220 Safe Outdoor Space residents in the count were deemed sheltered, there would still be more unsheltered people.

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If you've driven past Tovrea Castle and wondered what it's like inside, now may be your chance.

State of play: The lottery for fall tour tickets begins Sunday and runs through June 15.

• Winners get the right to purchase tickets for the September-December tour season. Tickets are $22.
• Tours last about 75 minutes and only cover the main floor and basement because of fire code issues and a lack of sufficient exits on the upper floors, per the Phoenix New Times.
• You can also sometimes find last-minute tickets online. Check regularly for availability.

Flashback: The origins of the castle, one of the Valley's most distinctive and visible landmarks, date back to 1929.

• Alessio Carraro, an Italian immigrant, land developer and gold miner, intended it to be a hotel at the center of a resort.
• Then the Great Depression hit, and Carraro sold the property to cattle baron Edward Ambrose Tovrea, who died shortly after. His widow Della lived there until her 1969 death.
• The City of Phoenix bought the site from the Tovrea estate in 1993.

Jim Kolbe and John McCain are gone, but their dreams of eliminating the penny will live on.

The big picture: The penny coin is getting phased out, a cost-cutting move that could ripple through consumer behavior, retailers' pricing strategies and cash transactions.

• President Trump directed the Treasury to stop producing new pennies in February. The U.S. Treasury confirmed last week that the U.S. Mint will stop making the coins early next year.

Flashback: Kolbe, a Tucson Republican who served in the U.S. House from 1985-2007, sponsored several pieces of legislation to abolish the penny throughout his career.

• "The penny has no functional use and is costing the country the country tens of millions a year to make," he told Politico several years after his retirement.
• McCain and fellow Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, of Wyoming, introduced the Currency Optimization, Innovation, and National Savings Act of 2017, which would've eliminated the penny and phased out dollar bills in favor of coins.

State of play: The Treasury told WSJ businesses will need to start rounding up or down to the nearest 5 cents when there are not enough pennies to use in everyday cash transactions.

• Cashless transactions will still be priced at exact change.

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👀 ICE resumed its arrests of people to fast-track deportations outside a Phoenix immigration court on Wednesday, with witnesses reporting people being pulled over after leaving. (KJZZ)

• There were also reports of plainclothes ICE agents at a Tucson immigration court on Wednesday, per the Arizona Republic.

🚀 Hypersonic missile manufacturer Castelion Corporation is considering expanding to Tucson. (Arizona Luminaria)

🚰 Negotiations between Gov. Katie Hobbs and GOP lawmakers over rural groundwater pumping restrictions have stalled. (Associated Press)

🐔 Georgia-based fried chicken chain Zaxby's is looking to continue expanding in Arizona after opening its first Valley location in Queen Creek. (Phoenix Business Journal/ABC15)

Welcome to another edition of "Where in the Valley?"

How it works: We show you something cool. You tell us where it is.

• The first reader who names the spot gets a shout-out in the newsletter.

You tell us: Where in the Valley can you find this firefighter mural?

Catch up quick: Congratulations to Manjula Vaz, the first reader to give us the correct location of last week's "Where in the Valley?" photo.

• The artwork is on a wall along Mill Avenue just south of Broadway Road, outside the historic Date Palm Manor neighborhood.