CSI discusses another approach to homelessness in AZ, CA

(The Center Square) – Reports on homelessness in Arizona suggest policymakers should approach homelessness in a different way.

Common Sense Institute Arizona, a nonpartisan research organization focused on strengthening Arizona’s economy, came to the conclusion that housing and homelessness are not correlated, according to its most recent homelessness research. To address homelessness, CSI Arizona proposed policymakers in Arizona and other states focus on developing homelessness policies that tackle issues such as mental health and addiction, rather than housing development.

“Starting in the 2000s, we started to see a real rise in Arizona in the number of permanent supportive housing units, but rather than reducing the unsheltered population, it coincides with the rise of the unsheltered population,” Glenn Farley, director of policy and research for CSI Arizona, told The Center Square this week.

In 2020, Arizona reported to have 8,454 permanent supportive housing units and 12,226 Point-in-Time counts, according to CSI Arizona research. In three years, the state experienced an increase in both PSH units and PIT counts, with 9797 reported PSH units, but 14,237 reported PIT count.

Farley acknowledged there is a housing cost crisis in the U.S., but said he believed the housing crisis and homelessness were a coincidence to some extent. Ultimately they are not the same problem, he said.

Farley said policymakers, however, continue to invest more and more money into solving homelessness, specifically in developing more housing, because they believe it is the solution.

“We started investing a lot more money in 2017 in homelessness, and we invested even more money, particularly at the federal level, during the pandemic in homelessness,” Farley said. “Those investments coincided with large increases in the PIT count. So we don’t see a clear correlation.”

Farley said it boils down to policymakers believing allocating more money toward addressing homelessness is the solution.

“So I think our point there is that there is now a disconnect at least in Arizona, my guess would be in California too, with the amount spending and the results we are getting for that spending,” Farley said.

For the money to be more effective, Farley suggested policymakers direct it toward specific sub-issues within homelessness such as mental health and drug use.

Farley said homelessness and crime in the United States began to pick up after 2017, the same time the fentanyl and opioid crisis as well as drug use and drug dependency began to accelerate. The correlation between homelessness and drugs indicates the homeless population has more problems than just affordable housing, he said.

Homeless individuals’ problems seem to be much more severe than simply being unable to afford a house or apartment, Farley said. “Many of these folks have mental health issues and substance issues.”

Farley also said CSI Arizona discovered there are around 200,000 people looking to buy a house who can’t afford one, and around 10,000 to 15,000 people who are homeless.

Investing a lot on housing won’t help solve homelessness because the homeless population is different from the population looking to buy a house, he added.

“These are whole different universes we are talking about,” Farley said. “So homelessness is a relatively small number of people and their problems tend to be much more severe than simply can’t afford a house or apartment. Many of these folks have mental health issues and substance issues.”

Farley also said given the research CSI Arizona found, Arizona and other states should try looking at addressing mental health and drug use among people experiencing homelessness, rather than building more housing if they want to see lower PIT counts.

“Focusing on housing and investing all these resources in housing isn’t solving the homelessness problem because we are ignoring the more fundamental cause,” Farley said.

He said the problem of homelessness, mental health and drug use is national, so he would assume the solutions to homelessness in Arizona are likely to be the same in other states.

Through PIT counts, California, alongside New York, had the highest percentage of homelessness in 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report. The HUD estimated 187,084 people were experiencing homelessness in California in 2024, with 161,445 being individuals experiencing homelessness.

Of homeless individuals living on their own, 74% were unsheltered by the state.

Of the total number of homeless people including families, 66% were unsheltered by the state.

From 2023 to 2024, California had an increase of 5,685 people experiencing homelessness and an additional 5,529 individuals experiencing homelessness, according to HUD. The state also had an increase of 126 families with children experiencing homelessness. Changes in the number of veterans and unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness went down.

Similarly to patterns found in Arizona, from 2023 to 2024, California also experienced a change in the available number of year round PSH beds, increasing from 75,100 to 78,758, according to HUD Continuum of Care Housing Inventory Count Reports.

Overall, Farley acknowledged each state is different, but believes the research done by CSI Arizona can be used as a tool to help policymakers address homelessness.

“I think we are following a larger national trend, more than doing anything special here,” Farley said. “This is more of a national issue. It’s happening all over the place. There is a little bit of variance by state but the general themes are there.”