By Mark Carlisle
Mail | X: @mwcarlisle

Homelessness officials in the Valley pointed to rising rents as the key reason for skyrocketing numbers of people experiencing homelessness in the region.

Officials with the Maricopa Association of Governments and city of Phoenix presented an update on homelessness and housing data to the Phoenix Economic Development and Housing Subcommittee last week, also highlighting some recent regional efforts to address homelessness.

The subcommittee plans to have a series of meetings to discuss homelessness in the city and the region.

Subcommittee members called for more of a regional approach to the issue, rather than things like emergency shelters falling mostly in Phoenix and mostly in and around downtown.

This graphic shows rising rent costs in the Valley. (Courtesy Maricopa Association of Governments)

Vice Mayor Yassamin Ansari wanted to see more data on the flip side of the affordability coin — whether people’s wages are keeping up with cost increases.

Katie Gentry, regional homelessness program manager for the MAG, showed the subcommittee apartment rent costs in the region.
As recently as 2018, only about 10% of apartments were more than $1,500 per month, and more than half of apartments on the market were under $1,000. Just three years later in 2021, more than 15% of apartments cost more than $2,000 per month and the number of apartments at $1,000 or less had shrunk to about 10%, shrinking further to about 5% in 2022.

“When previously we’ve been described as a really affordable place to live, that is no longer the case because rents have increased so dramatically,” Gentry said.

Phoenix Office of Homeless Solutions Director Rachel Milne indicated people have been priced out of the housing market as the housing supply has not increased on pace with the increasing population.

“The Maricopa (County) region is one of the fastest growing regions in the nation. With that growth has come decreasing availability, increasing rent and mortgages, higher evictions and, as a result, increasing homelessness.”

Gentry displayed data that showed there have been only about 65% the number of residential units completed in the last 12 years, between 2011 and 2022, than there were in the 11 years prior, 2000-10.

These housing trends have led to a lower vacancy rate, from a 12% non-seasonal vacancy rate in 2010 to lower than 5% in recent years.

A healthy market, Gentry said, is about 5% to 10% to allow for turnover as people move. With as low a turnover rate as the Valley has now, it leaves people without many options when their rents go up, leaving them to spend too much on housing and be left without a safety net if hard times hit.

Gentry cited the popular rule of thumb that people should spend no more than 30% of their gross income on housing and utilities. In the Valley currently, 548,000 households spend above that percentage, and 256,000 spend more than 50% of their income on housing and utilities.

That creates a population that could be in danger of becoming homeless, Gentry said.

“That is not sustainable, and those are individuals who are more likely to experience an eviction and eventually potentially experience homelessness,” she said.

According to the Point in Time Count organized by MAG each January, the number of people living homeless in the Valley has increased by 72% in six years, up to 9,642 as of this year.

Gentry and Milne touted several things done regionally and locally in Phoenix to address homelessness, including securing state and federal funding and adding 1,433 permanent emergency housing beds and 1,707 temporary housing beds in the region in recent years.
Milne said she believes with that increased capacity for emergency shelter, it is now time to try to prevent the root causes.

“Now, as we’re coming to a place where we feel like we’ve sort of righted the system with our 790 permanent shelter beds in the works, we’re getting to a point where we can focus on those two aspects that are really going to help us move the system — prevention and affordable housing,” Milne said.

Ansari asked the MAG and Phoenix officials to begin collecting data relating not just to what comes out of people’s pockets but what goes into them. Gentry said MAG inquires about if people in homeless services are currently employed — about 40% are — or recently employed but does not ask about the type of industry or level of pay.

Ansari said that data would be “very helpful” in determining how people fell into homelessness.

“There’s somewhat of an elephant in the room about Band-Aids to address rising homelessness versus addressing root causes,” she said. “And in my view, it seems that wages remaining stagnant or not keeping up with cost of living, not only in Phoenix but around the country, is something that probably has an impact on rising homelessness levels.”

Regional solutions

Both Ansari and Councilor Kesha Hodge Washington said they wanted to see a regional approach to a regional problem.

Hodge Washington noted that, despite MAG data showing both rising rents and people experiencing homelessness across the Valley, that the bulk of the shelters are in Phoenix. She noted about a quarter of Phoenix’s shelter and about half of Phoenix’s city-funded shelters are in her District 7.

“It needs to be a regional approach,” Hodge Washington said. “It is not fair to burden one community or one district with the needs of something that we acknowledge is a regional crisis.”

Ansari asked for any data about where a person’s last permanent residence is when they enter emergency services. Gentry said MAG does keep that data — a permanent residence being considered a stay of at least 90 days — but did not have it on hand and could present it at a future meeting.

We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Mark Carlisle can be reached at mcarlisle@iniusa.org.

Mark Carlisle
Associate Editor | Daily Independent

mcarlisle@iniusa.org

Mark is passionate about accurately informing his readers to what is happening in their community. He also loves reading and writing about sports. Mark has worked for Independent Newsmedia for five years. He married his high school sweetheart, adopted a boxer mix, and awaits his first child.