Arizona saw the largest increase in the number of homeless youth in the nation last year, at a time when other large states were seeing those numbers decline.
The December report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development said 284 unaccompanied youth under age 25 were added to the rolls of homeless people in Arizona between 2020 and 2022, bringing the total in the state to 917. And advocates say that number may actually be an undercount of the real problem.
The numbers came from part one of HUD’s Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress, which is based on the annual point-in-time survey of homelessness taken on one night in late January in communities across the country. It was a mixed bag for Arizona, which finished between fifth and seventh place among states in several categories, including total number of homeless people, numbers of families and veterans and overall growth in the homeless population. Overall, Arizona had 13,553 homeless residents in 2022, the report said.
While the increases in the report were not surprising, Williams said it is “an issue of increased concern in our community.” “What’s happening is they’re having to stick around longer, which means that our waitlist continues to get longer,” Urquizo said of youths in his organization’s shelter. “And instead of sometimes identifying their own housing, sometimes they’re having to roommate up, which we really don’t encourage.”
Attempts to help were complicated by the pandemic, when schools were forced to shut down. Bogart said that left her organization, which partners with 130 high schools, without one of the main ways it can identify and reach out to youth in need.
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