Reflections from the front lines serving people experiencing homelessness, in the middle of an overbearingly hot Phoenix summer, staring down the end date on significant funding, and questioning how to balance the various sentiments on housing development.

The Keys to Change outreach team continues to count unsheltered individuals near and far from the Key Campus. Tuesday morning (August 6) 122 unsheltered people slept in the immediate neighborhood. And 567 additional people were found in an expanded several mile radius around us. That’s 689 souls with no indoor shelter.

The four emergency shelter spaces on the Key Campus continue to shelter a total of 900 individuals nightly. We are full. The Safe Outdoor Space we operate in partnership with the City of Phoenix holds tents sheltering 184 people.

We know from the by-name list that the Keys to Change Housing Match Team manages for the Maricopa County region that 8,134 people are unhoused and awaiting a housing referral.

As I write this around 9 pm, the Weather Channel is advising of a thunderstorm that will likely strike Central Phoenix. The temperature is 99 degrees. Wind gusts may hit 40 miles per hour. The advisory warns “Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects. … PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS… If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building.”

I’m nestled in a climate-controlled home. Wind and rain recently passed over. The satellite TV flickered, causing glitchy Olympic diver performances. I do not take my privilege for granted. I observe pangs of guilt that I have all of this, while 689 + 900 + 184 = 1,773 people may have a cot or a mat or a tent. Or they may be hunkering down outside, unaware of the potential weather threat.

And for months now the tension in my gut is due to knowing that ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) contracts are ending with no replacement funding in sight. This means that three bridge housing programs providing longer term shelter to some 190 people will close. Will we be able to find them indoor shelter or permanent housing placements? Given our region is still bearing witness to the inflow of 18 households into homelessness for every 10 households that move into housing…. I don’t know.

Because we believe that everyone deserves access to housing, and because I am involved with Valley Leadership’s Housing Impact Team, I attended a City of Phoenix Planning Commission meeting last week to speak in support of a proposed housing development in my home neighborhood. The proposed housing is single family, not “affordable,” and it faces opposition from people who have lived in the area for a long time and people who are concerned that desert/ recreation area will be taken over by residences.

I spoke in support because of the numbers above, and because we don’t have enough housing in Arizona for everyone who wants to live here. And we need housing at all levels of affordability. Expanding the number of homes creates the opportunity for movement in the market.

As I listened to the opposition, I heard their concerns. I left with questions of how as a society will we ever balance the infrastructure needs that come with population growth against the lifestyle and environment many of us are used to and have come to expect. I thought about my hometown of Muskego, WI. In my childhood the population was 15,000-ish. Today it is over 25,000. I have not lived there through the growth. I know that when I visit new roads exist, there are many intersections I no longer recognize. Landmarks are gone or covered up by development. I wonder if I still lived there, would I have been accepting and supportive of the growth, or would I have spoken in opposition.

I empathize with those who oppose development. I too do not want to see all desert turned into residences. I want mountain views and wildlife, hiking trails and recreation areas.

And I empathize with the unhoused, the unsheltered, and people who cannot afford homes. I want everyone to have affordable, accessible housing.

Growth is a fact of our American life. What to do, what to do?

As is often the case, I have more questions than answers.

Tonight, tomorrow, and for the foreseeable future, myself and Keys to Change will continue to provide services, partner for short term and long term solutions. We will continue to advocate, educate, and inform. We will continue to question the status quo in order to improve systems for the greater good. And we will remain human-centered knowing that all of those numbers above represent people who deserve homes.