Across the nation, communities participated in the Point-in-Time count for homelessness. Mesa and Maricopa county was no exception. 150 volunteers massed at the Salvation Army located on 6th Street in Mesa at 5:00AM on Tuesday, January 28. The city of Mesa was divided into 26 tracts with volunteers of 3-5 people assigned to each tract. The tracts were roughly 2 miles square. Our assignment – walk and drive these areas to see visible homelessness, then approach the folks and ask for their time to participate in an online survey about their situation. The survey uses GPS technology to GIS the location, questions to identify the root cause of their homeless situation and other demographic data such as race, age, gender, single, family, pets, and if they are new to Maricopa County and Arizona.Major John Giles, Council members David Luna (District 5) and Francisco Heredia (District 3) all participated. Mayor Giles thanked the volunteers, touching on the challenges with the growing homeless in Mesa. He was very proud of the achievement of Mesa Police Department ‘s Operation Mainline. Its goal is to have Mesa PD connect as many homeless people to services over giving citations and arresting them for trespassing. Now police officers bring food and try to assist with services. Major Giles also expressed the need for more emergency, transitional and permanent low-income housing, along with more services for drug addiction and mental health.
Then off we went. My team was made up of Dina, a City of Mesa employee that works in housing services and Rotarian Jacob Cox from the Mesa Club. We had our survey on our smart phones, and hygiene kits made up of the supplies donated by our club and others. The kits included toothbrush, toothpaste, socks, Chap Stick, Band-Aids, tissues, hand wipes and more.
Our tract boundaries were Val Vista to Higley and Broadway to Baseline. We started at the corner of Higley and Broadway. We walked the square mile starting toward the west. It was 5:30 AM, and still dark. Using flashlights, we looked in areas, homeless sleep for the night, storefront stoops, vacant buildings, parks, protected areas near dumpsters, and gutters.
Finally, our first sighting was at the McDonalds at Greenfield and Southern. A lonely shopping cart with sleeping bag, clothing articles, and plastic bags was parked outside the McDonalds’s entry. We took a look inside for its owner. The gentleman was sitting at a table and we approached gingerly and asked for a few minutes of his time. He had been homeless for nearly six months. He was in his late 50’s. He did not like going to shelters. He did not like those people. He did not think with Trump in office anything would change for people like him. He did not want to participate in the survey. We put his location in the GPS/GIS and entered the data that we could observe. We thanked him for his time and moved on.We drove to the southern border of our tract, Baseline and Higley. We started looking by car, as the homeless are usually on the move after sunrise. They collect their belongings and start moving toward places like gas stations, food pantries, and jobs if they have them.
We did find two young men sleeping in a retention basin near Val Vista and Highway 60. We parked the car and walked slowly toward them. They became anxious and started packing up their belongings. We explained we were volunteers doing a survey of homeless persons in the area. They graciously said they would answer our questions. John (30) and Wyatt (23) were brothers that found themselves homeless for the past 5 days. Caucasian, with no pets, they sited their situation due to drug abuse. They had not seeked assistance from shelters and were not ready to go to one. They had never been homeless before and were never part of the foster care system. They resided in Maricopa County last year. Their location was marked on the system app in GPS/GIS. We thanked them for their time and gave them the hygiene kits. They were grateful for the supplies. That concluded our work.
This data will be collected and analyzed by the team at Maricopa Association of Governments. It will then be used to determine how we are doing with addressing the needs of the homeless in our county. The count also allows Maricopa County to participate in Federal HUD programs for services for the homeless. In 2019, Maricopa County experienced its sixth straight year of increased unsheltered homeless, with 6,614 people experiencing homeless the night of January 21, 2019.
This experience gave me an insight to the struggles of those without shelter and reliable food. Also, I got to know and work 4 hours alongside Dina and new friend, Rotarian Jacob Cox.