>

In Tucson the job market is essentially call centers or fast food/restaurants. After that it is Raytheon and Military. Raytheon employees can buy any house they want no problem. Military gets free or discounted housing on and off base. The call center/restaurant people - which is like half the city probably - make between $15 - $20 an hour depending on which call center. 3rd party vendors like AFNI or Alorica average around $16/$17 bucks, but the corporate centers like Geico and CitiBank offer closer to $20. Up to $24 if you stick around a long time with them which is hard to do because it sucks. 
Because of this, rent used to be mega cheap. I rented a really cool 700 Sq Ft loft apartment for $660 a month in 2019. Today the same floorplan is going for between $1175-1430 according to their website. This isn't even downtown Tucson, it's north of River Road off Oracle.
Not surprised. You can't go anywhere in Tucson these days without seeing tent villages in washes and on the sides of roads. There's a massive one with like 40 tents right near the airbase. >

It's incredibly sad. The city is being sued right now for homeless sweeps by police to get the homeless folks out of site before the gem and mineral show starts. It does seem like the city is trying to help with the homelessness but it is such a complex issue. I honestly just wish the put half the effort in to it as they did with other projects such as Rio Nuevo. >

Yeah I have no idea what the solution is. I'm sure a substantial amount of people here became homeless elsewhere but are in town because the climate is more suitable for camping this time of year. I'm sure many living in the Rillito and Santa Cruz had a rude awakening this past week with the rain and snowmelt. >

Give them sheds and old trailers/RVs somewhere with facilities so they have a place to live? >

That's basically the same situation they have now. The only way to deal with mass homelessness is to give them what amounts to permanent housing and social services and orient them towards finding jobs.
People will complain about the spending needed to make it happen and the "free ride" but they're the ones currently complaining about having to see them living in squalor, so people need to pick which one they are more willing to complain about. >

In their perfect God-fearing world they'd just kill them all or throw them into the desert to die.  Make no mistake, it's not about spending to them, it's about cruelty. >

These housing prices are beyond crazy. And its basically forcing people to rent at absurd rates corporations should not be allowed to owned multiple properties to rent for profit as well as foreign nationals. Enough is enough >

AZ cost of housing shot up really fast. This is one of the highest correlated items to homeless rates. 
Housing is starting to come down, but slowly, and rent from properties purchased at the height won't. >


“HUD does not believe that couch surfing should be considered as homeless,” said Dawn Bogart of the nonprofit Homeless Youth Connection

I absolutely disagree with this. Couch surfing with different friends and/or family is not permanent secured housing, and people who do this should be considered homeless still. >

If you don’t have a guaranteed place to sleep that night then you are homeless. Did we really go so far backwards that 10 people in a 2 bedroom apartment isn’t a housing problem? >

Yes. In America, the solution to any problem is to just ignore it. >

Wow that's bull shit. It's not like people actually want roommates. More often than not, they rent rooms because it's cheaper than renting an apartment or townhome. If they want to ban that practice, then rent needs to come down by a lot, but of course it's not going to. >

Chances are the ones pushing this want the rent to go up >

Growing up in Phoenix you'd never see this much Houselessness.  
It is beyond unreal just how many unhoused people there are in Phoenix now. I constantly have transients walking by our house and they are Tents being popped up not a block from my house.    
I've never ever seen it this bad before. >

Bottom of the list in education for decades. Is it really all that surprising? >

No, no it’s not. Phoenix seems to care more about corporate interests (especially real estate developers) than anything or anybody else. I lived there for 27 years and it was one of the most bleak, empty experiences of my life thus far. The whole city feels like it’s turned against you either due to its sprawl, extremely poor public transit, awful job opportunities, lack of shaded public spaces, defunded education, utility monopolies, cookie-cutter houses that make you feel like you’re in a dystopian hellscape - I mean, I can go on all day. Phoenix just felt so hostile to humans when I lived there. I absolutely dreaded nearly every day of living there and I am very happy to have left. >

Any escape might help to smooth
The unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
The restless dreams of youth >

I work in social services in Az. Arizona is something like #1 in inflation in the country. I work with adults but many of them have children and damn near every client on my caseload can't afford their rent every month. They run out of food every month. The resources in the community are all stretched to the limit. Subsidized housing waitlists are years long. There are waitlists to get on the waitlist. Our "affordable/low income" housing lists are laughably not low income, rent topping out at $2000/month is not low income.
It's bonkers. It's not sustainable. >

Hey fellow social worker, Colorado checking in. Stay strong, we won't stop fighting for our clients. We fight for those who have no voice. >

It's not a surprise, the republican lead governments here have stripped away basically all support for low income families. Food stamps you have to make a ridiculously low amount of money to get at all, same with housing assistance, they got rid of universal Pre-K a few years back. I'm hoping now that we have a more liberal government here that some of these issues will be addressed. The only way to fight homelessness is to create programs that actually help.these people have a home and a life. This strategy of "make it so uncomfortable for them that they leave" just doesn't work. >

I live in the most liberal city in the second most liberal state and i assure you, liberal policies won't help. They're not helping here. We have the second worst homeless problem in the nation. The feds need to address this because it obviously can't be solved on a state level. >

I also live in a super-liberal city in a liberal state, and I assure you that liberal policies never extend to costs of living. Rent is sky-high, decent housing at a normal price is unavailable, no controls on food prices, and you can forget about medical care. In this issue, the only difference I've seen is that the city turns a blind eye to private or individual initiatives to aiding the homeless, instead of shutting that down. >

Liberal does not mean we abandoned capitalism. As much as certain people would like you to believe that. >

Yeah, I know. At the end of the day, the current implementation of capitalism is what's strangling people economically. It's just that people associate American liberal poltiics with economic justice, and while it is a nice goal, it's simply not true in most real-world scenarios. >

America has zero empathy for the poor >

This right here. Until you've lived it, you don't care about it. >

Sweet! My state is a leader! >

Yay, we're good at something! >

Not just good, the best! >

I was a homeless person In AZ for a while >

GOP had been running the State and essentially outed many youths which may ended up by parents kicking out these children because they were members of the LGBT+ community.   These young adults rarely have the tools to navigate Agencies that can possibly help them.   Imagine the FAR-Right demands for church allegience / activity as a gate keeper.   :-( >

Honestly, that's what some of them want people to do. Go to the churches. More grist for that mill. >

From my experience AZ also leads the nation in trash littering the roadway.
Cool state. >

I wonder if Arizona will show up on the CIA book of countries hostile to Americans...   /s >

It's terrifyingly sad, man..
Society isn't making it easier for ANY human being. Society is ONLY vilifying the poor and homeless whilst echoing 'pick yourself up from the bootstraps.' 
It's much more complex than that! 
If an individual has limited education, limited experience in any field, that individual will NOT be able to live off of a full time MINIMUM wage job and inevitably, will have to live out of a car or in a tent. 
It's even more fkd when that individual has a mental illness, record, several mouths to feed or a drug addiction.
I know society likes to typecast/pigeonhole the homeless as drug addicted vagabonds BUT think of those who are still trying to stay afloat with 2-3 minimum wage jobs whilst living in their car/tent.. they are trying so damn hard but nothing is letting up.
How will they afford a roof over their head? How will they afford food? how will they afford gas, car insurance, car repairs? How will they afford a PO Box to receive mail? How will they be able to take a shower to look presentable for interview/work? how will they afford fixing a broken window bc some jackass saw something valuable while the person was at work?..
Expect homeless youth and homelessness in general to exacerbate in EVERY (metropolitan) city 
Until it happens to you, you won't care 
LAND OF THE FEE, HOME OF THE KNAVE!!! >

It's a planned Voter suppression tactic. >

I believe it. A lot of the homeless I've seen lately are younger than me. >

I just came back from Portland, Oregon and the fact that it has them topped is crazy. >

Note that this article focuses on increase in homeless youths.  It says AZ has 917.  California has over 9000, and this is just youths - it doesn't account for adults.  AZ estimates is has a total of 13,553 homeless in the state.  Los Angeles alone says "hold my beer" at almost 70,000 all on its own. >

So sad. >

Am I biased by Michael Shur's opinion, or is Arizona really that bad? >

Pre covid arizona had very very affordable housing. Thr suddenly we had a lot of rich folks from out of town buy vacation homes, and homes to airbnb, and out right moving here pricing out locals. As well as investment firms buying up houses raising rents in apartments and assisted living places for old people. A one bedroom went from costing $550-$700 to costing $900-$1100- in the span of 3 years. Wages are depressed as with the rest of the country, and our communities are heavily affected by drug use/fentanol epidemic.