USICH Visits Phoenix

May 20, 2024
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Last week, U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) Director Jeff Olivet and USICH Senior Regional Advisor Tamara Wright traveled to the Phoenix metro area and the Tohono O'odham Nation to meet with city, county, state, and tribal leaders as well as homelessness service providers and business leaders. 

Native Americans make up less than 3% of the region’s population but account for almost 7% of the people experiencing homelessness. During their time in the region, the USICH team met with local state, and tribal leaders to discuss the Tribal HUD-VASH Program and to tour units recently developed with low-income housing tax credits as a partnership between Tohono O’odham Ki:Ki Association and the Arizona Department of Housing. The federal pair also visited Phoenix’s Indian Medical Center, which is the center of a regional system that serves 180,000 American Indians/Alaska Natives across 40 tribes. There, they discussed the importance of health and homelessness systems collaboration to serve our most vulnerable neighbors. 

USICH met separately with Mesa Mayor John Giles, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, and the new executive director of the Arizona Housing Coalition, Nicole Newhouse. 

While in Phoenix, USICH Director Olivet spoke at the National Health Care for the Homeless Council (NHCHC) Conference and participated in NHCHC’s “Taking the Pulse,” which brought together government leaders, people with lived experience of homelessness, and academics to discuss encampments. The event also included Dr. Caroline Waddell and Dr. Jessica Sherman from the CDC’s Special Populations Office of Readiness and Response.

The Phoenix metro area is one of several communities across the country participating in the ALL INside Initiative launched by USICH and the White House last year to address the crisis of homelessness in places with high numbers of people living unsheltered. From 2017-2023, according to the annual Point-in-Time Count, unsheltered homelessness in Phoenix more than doubled. The ALL INside Initiative aims to help communities cut the red tape that makes it difficult for people to access housing, health care, and other support to move off the streets and into homes. 

“As one of several areas participating in the ALL INside Initiative, the Phoenix region is working hard to solve homelessness,” said Director Olivet. “I want to express my thanks, especially to Mayor Giles, Mayor Gallego, the people of the Tohono O’odham Nation, the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, and all those with personal experiences of homelessness who shared their stories and wisdom. With these partnerships and open lines of communication, I am confident that we can solve homelessness.”

  

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