As we reflect on the past year, let us not forget about the extremely difficult times many people are going through due to the pandemic and a growing housing crisis. We are witnessing more and more people living on the streets, and it shouldn’t be something we turn our head away from and try to ignore. This is clearly a systemic problem and not a problem rooted in individual choice, and solutions to house the most vulnerable people in our society do exist.
The following are some statistics we’ve gathered about the grim reality of homelessness in our state right now.
From 2019 through 2020, Arizona had the nation’s fourth-largest increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness.
The number of people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. has increased in the last four years. Arizona’s homeless population increased 23% from 2017 to 2020.
On any given night across the state last year, about 11,000 people experienced homelessness.
Because of the pandemic, annual homeless counts were canceled in 2021, but experts predict that job losses related to the pandemic and the federal eviction moratorium likely will push those numbers up.
