The Daily Agenda: Chasing 'functional zero'

What would it take to end homelessness in Pima County? ... What if money weren't an issue? ... Judge drops out at Tucson City Court.

It’s refreshing when people see a supposedly unfixable problem and say to themselves, “Nah, everything’s fixable.”

For the past few months, we’ve watched the issue of homelessness pop up all over the place. City and county officials decided to turn a motel into temporary housing. They created a tier system for homeless encampments, along with a tool for the public to report them. They debated whether housing or treatment for substance abuse should come first.

And as the November elections approach, Mayor Regina Romero talks about how the city is handling homelessness in nearly every one of her weekly newsletters. Republican candidate Janet Wittenbraker tweets about it all the time, mostly as a critique of Romero.

All of it revolves around efforts to chip away at the problem, which is the only realistic option for local officials facing the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and a crushing housing shortage that’s hitting everybody in the country in one way or another.

After all, local officials can’t wave a magic wand and make thousands of houses and apartments appear out of thin air.

But what if they could? What if money weren’t an issue and they decided they were going to end homelessness once and for all?

The Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness tackled that question in their aptly named report, “The Cost of Ending Homelessness in Pima County.” They asked themselves what it would take to get to “functional zero,” where there is enough capacity to ensure homelessness is “rare, brief, and one time.”

Their report posed the problem of homelessness in a way we hadn’t fully considered: as a solvable problem, not just a sad sign of the times that was doomed to be the subject of endless political debate.

It wouldn’t be cheap, that’s for sure. The low end is $508 million over five years, if officials stuck to providing rental assistance and services. When you add the construction of new housing to the mix, the cost gets as high as $2.26 billion.

So how much money is spent dealing with homelessness in Pima County?

The report estimated somewhere between $50 million and $70 million every year, once you include spending by local, state, and federal governments, along with an array of organizations. That money provides cash for housing, street outreach, child care, food, addiction recovery, and other services.

To hit functional zero, it would cost $135 million to $158 million every year for rental assistance and case management services.

Right now, the Tucson area has about 729 shelter beds and 2,700 units of supportive housing. The TPCH says about 1,400 more beds and 4,900 more units of supportive housing are needed to hit functional zero over the next five years.

But really, it’s just money. If we put enough of it towards dealing with homelessness, which the authors of the report acknowledge isn’t likely, we could end this thing.

And something really does need to get done on a grand scale.

The COVID-19 pandemic, along with the housing shortage, scrambled what had been a steady decline in homelessness the Tucson area. Thousands of people’s lives were upended and the number of people without a place to sleep jumped to levels not seen since the financial crisis.

Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. They take the point in time counts provided by local governments and put them in a database.

It’s worth mentioning that figuring out how many people don’t have a place to live is complicated. The best estimates come from what’s known as a “point in time count,” where local officials and volunteers check in with shelters and go to homeless camps every January.

They couldn’t go to the camps in 2021 because of the pandemic (which is why the chart shows such a small number for that year) and they’ve switched up their methodology over the past two years. Still, the big increase you see in the chart in 2022 isn’t just because officials changed how they counted.

The spike in homelessness over the past few years is a big problem. No doubt about it. But it’s solvable.

And it won’t take magic. Just money.

We’ll leave you with a few words from Jocelyn Muzzin, chair of the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness.

“The cost of ending homelessness extends beyond the realm of fiscal numbers; it encompasses the dignity, hope, and lives of those currently experiencing homelessness in our communities,” Muzzin wrote in the report.

“This report serves as a call to action, an invitation to engage deeply with the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. We encourage you to question, to challenge, and to collaborate as we embark on this collective journey toward a community where homelessness is eradicated, a testament to our compassion, resilience, and progress.”

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Grocery games: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is leaning towards trying to block the proposed merger between Kroger and Albertsons, the Green Valley News’ Jamie Verwys writes. Mayes was in Sahuarita Monday, as part of a listening tour of the state to gather feedback and hear concerns, which have included job loss, price increases, grocery deserts, lack of selection and ease of access.

“We are going to make a decision here in the next couple months and I haven't seen much that would lead me to believe this is a good proposed merger,” Mayes said.

Turning trash into treasure: The Salt River Project is investing $2.6 million in 36 projects at Arizona’s three state universities, with five of the projects housed at the University of Arizona, Arizona Public Media’s Carly Siegel reports. One of the Tucson projects involves making concrete from the plastic coating on old electric cables, with the Salt River Project recycling about 3 million pounds of electrical cables each year.

Teaching the teachers: The UA has been awarded $1.2 million for student research in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands as part of the school’s Hispanic Serving Institution initiatives, UA News’ Kenya Johnson writes. The grant will fund a four-year initiative, faculty fellowship program and program in the UA library called Digital Borderlands in the Classroom. The program will include one-week summer institutes for faculty with workshops and hands-on instruction to help develop assignments and curriculum about the borderlands.

Judgment call: Tucson City Court’s presiding judge removed his name for reappointment consideration prior to the city council’s Tuesday’s vote on the issue, KVOA’s Chorus Nylander reports. The move comes after the commission that reviews judicial performance unanimously recommended the city not reappoint Judge Antonio Riojas Jr. based on concerns that he violated defendants’ rights. Riojas Jr. will remain a magistrate judge until a replacement is found. It’s up to Pima County Superior Court’s presiding judge to decide if Riojas Jr. should remain in his leadership role until then.

Is it a sign?: Campaign signs have become victims in the battle over Vail’s potential incorporation, with both sides saying their signs are being vandalized and destroyed, KGUN’s Andres Rendon reports. Supporters of the incorporation say eight of their large signs have been run over, cut, slashed in half or removed. They also say the opposition is putting up signs that shouldn’t be allowed because the group is anonymous and there’s no organized effort to oppose the incorporation. The opponents say campaign laws allow an individual to purchase signs and other materials as long as they’re spending their own money below a certain threshold.

Celebrating health: The Pima County Health Department and the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona are kicking off their art and wellness series, SaludArte, this Sunday in Green Valley. The free, family-friendly events bring together public art and public health and includes community-inspired art, live performances, food trucks, raffles and health resources. Attendees will be invited to paint community murals and the health department will be providing free health screenings and resources. The events will take place over the next five Sundays in all five supervisory districts.

1,501: The number of people who were unsheltered in the Tucson area when officials did their point-in-time count in January. Another 708 were considered homeless, but were in emergency shelter or transitional housing.