By Howard Fischer
Mail | Twitter: @azcapmedia

Tempe is among six Arizona cities and one county that have immediate plans to house the homeless, and it will receive part of $20 million in state funds to accomplish its goals.

Tempe Mayor Corey Woods said his city, in line for $929,000, is upgrading its city-run shelter and adding new outreach specialists to help people locate permanent housing.

In requesting funding, Tempe officials said the city’s effort to help the homeless has boosted its number of contacts with individuals and its “outreach has increased 10%.”

The request said money would be used to:

• Rehab four fire-damaged rooms and retrofit each room with two full-sized beds.
• Improve plumbing systems in accommodations to add to their capacity.
• Increase security patrols.
• Increase shelter capacity to serve an additional 20 people or families with emergency shelter rooms via hotel/motel vouchers.
• Expand street outreach programs that are already in place.

State Housing Director Joan Serviss said Wednesday the decision to give that money to these communities to the exclusion of others does not represent a judgment about the merits of their proposals.

Some of that, she told Capitol Media Services, is requests totaled more than $46 million, more than double what her agency had available in immediate grants.

That forced some prioritization for the available $20 million. And one of the key factors, Serviss said, is how quickly a community could make use of the funds.

She said also-rans have another shot later at a separate $40 million that will become available later this year.

Arizona has a Housing Trust Fund that received a  $150 million infusion from the Legislature for the coming fiscal year on top of $60 million this year.

Those dollars can be used for a broader array of programs, including helping keep people in their homes and underwriting the cost of construction of new affordable housing.

But lawmakers and Gov. Katie Hobbs, acknowledging the large number of those already on the street, created a separate Homeless Shelter and Services Fund to deal with that problem. And quickly.

What that meant, Serviss said, is those who already were ready to spend the cash got first crack.

“Recognizing the sense of urgency, we really wanted to focus on quick occupancy housing solutions,” she said.