Wrangler News: After closing homeless encampments, cities rethink and expand wide-ranging services

The recent dismantling of two large encampments of people without housing, including one in Tempe’s Salt River bed, may have resulted in the scattering of hundreds of individuals to other parts of the Valley. But officials in Tempe and in Phoenix, ordered by an Arizona judge to close a crowded camp near the state Capitol earlier this month, are working to improve emergency shelters, expand services to help the unsheltered transition into permanent housing, and provide vital health screenings and referrals for employment and other basic needs.

Such moves are important because Arizona has one of the worst homeless crises in the country. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the state recorded a 23 percent jump in people experiencing homelessness, according to the 2023 Point-in-Time count reported by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban development.

“The pandemic was just extra challenging — for some people it was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Heather Ross, a professor in ASU’s Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, who teaches health equity and social justice. “But for so many more who were one paycheck away … well, it proved the point.”

ASU research at CASS

1. Ross is conducting research at a large emergency facility in Phoenix operated by CASS (Central Arizona Shelter Services) on the needs of vulnerable people who, for whatever reason, are unsheltered. With Natalie Florence, an architect and ASU doctoral candidate, Ross wrote a recent article advocating for privacy and quiet for those in shelters.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to imagine that, sleeping in a shelter with dozens and dozens of people trying to share a bunk-bed situation, in a congregant setting, you won’t get a good night’s sleep,” she said. “Night after night, this sets you up to have less resilience and less ability to do what you need to overcome the challenges of homelessness — finding housing, finding a job, doing other things.”