Reflections from the front lines serving people experiencing homelessness, feeling grateful, cycling through Phoenix temperature changes, and speaking up for solutions.

Temperatures in the Valley are keeping us all on our toes. One day it’s 100 degrees and the next it’s 75. It’s easy to be lulled in to thinking Summer is far away. According to the Weather Channel it will be 100 and 102 degrees this weekend, with another drop to the 80s next week. And then a bounce up again. We are left happy on one hand that the days of 120 degrees are not here yet. And we are anxious on the other hand that when the heat hits, it will hit hard and last through the Fall.

To prepare for the inevitable heat, Keys to Change and its partners kicked off the annual Thirst Aid heat relief drive this past weekend. We know water will be necessary and in high demand. The number of people served on Key Campus remains high, more than 1,000 people are seeking services daily and close to 900 people are sheltered with us every night. Thirst Aid also benefits our Street Outreach team who amongst other things, offer water to the unsheltered. This morning the Outreach team counted 162 people living outdoors near the Key Campus plus 794 in an expanded area around us. This total of 956 is 120 higher than one month ago.

Also one month ago, I wrote about our chiller situation and asked the community for help. I am GRATEFUL that the call was heard, and donations continue to come in. We were able to order parts and schedule the service for one of the two compressors. And with commitments made this week, we are so very close to having all of the funds necessary for the second compressor. We are still seeking about $21,000.

Grateful. I keep reminding myself there is much to be grateful for, while inhaling slowly and exhaling vehemently.

It’s challenging to maintain a state of grace and gratitude as we read the Federal news about the President’s proposed budget. Although a budget needs to be approved by Congress, the proposals show us the direction that the Administration’s policy is heading. And it is not a positive direction. It’s a regressive, uninformed, senseless direction. It rips apart the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), eliminating life-sustaining services.

For fans of the show “Stranger Things” it is the Upside Down. It’s not a plan, it’s an alternate reality that thrusts people who will only survive with assistance into an unhealthy, violent abyss.

And I am not exaggerating.

The proposed budget reductions would eliminate funding for Coordinated Entry which is the program Keys to Change operates Valley-wide for single adults to ensure people can begin the process for housing assistance at more than 45 locations. It also removes funding for Permanent Supportive Housing which is the intervention that ends homelessness for those who have been chronically homeless.

Without this funding we will see the loss of rental assistance for formerly homeless people in Maricopa County of approximately 3,300 people ($3M in rental payments) [source: Maricopa Association of Governments, azmag.gov/homelessness].  Once they can’t pay rent, where will they go?

Today there are 8,190 adults are on the By Name List, homeless and waiting for housing. Of those 2,113 are chronically homeless and in need of Permanent Supportive Housing. Another 744 need Rapid Rehousing – funding of which is uncertain.

I have been suggesting, without data and evidence, that homelessness will double in the next 12 to 18 months. These budget cuts will create the data and evidence.

In February I speculated: “Should funding that is already paying rents and emergency shelter expenses, for example, suddenly stop, it would be like a line of train cars crashing. We’ve most likely all seen a train crash scene in a movie or two. The first car is urgently stopped with no slowing down, and all of the cars behind crash or derail. Should landlords of subsidized apartments not be paid, people are evicted and become homeless. Meanwhile if shelters can’t pay staff and operating costs, shelters close, and people who are homeless are also now not in shelter. If we see 516 people on the streets around the Key Campus today, imagine that number tripling and growing from there. A human train wreck.”

The 516 from February is now 956 in May without systemic funding elimination.

Hi, it’s me waving the red flag….. we need everyone who cares about “the homeless” and who wants to do something, to contact your Congressional representatives today and often. Share the information from above. Invite them to read more at endhomelessness.org

You can call, write, show up at Town Halls. Find your representatives here: congress.gov/members/find-your-member

This is not a Keys to Change-only issue. It’s not only a Phoenix issue, nor only an Arizona issue. This is a national issue that requires national attention. If action is not taken, you will see the effects in your neighborhood, where you live. For me it’s as inevitable as hot weather during a Phoenix summer.