Reflections from the front lines serving people experiencing homelessness at the transition point of weather, government, post-holiday season, and the Gregorian calendar.

Yes, it’s now 2025. We usher in the new year in lots of ways. After the December holidays ending with a big bang on the 31st, it can feel like a deflating balloon. The anticipation of whatever holiday you may celebrate, the work that leads up to it, the hopes you might have for celebrating, and/or the nostalgic and possibly sad feelings the season can bring up means that December is filled with A LOT. And then, it’s over.

For Keys to Change, December also means holding the I am Home Breakfast. And we successfully completed the 20th event on December 13. Thanks to all who supported us! We will announce final results within the next week or two.

For me, the I am Home Breakfast signals the start of the holidays. It’s after the breakfast when I can make sure I completed all my gift shopping and shipping, and I start baking. For the second year in a row the husband and I planned a vacation, leaving on the 25th. This is probably the best decision we have made in our lives! It’s a great time to get away, decompress, and reset for that turn of the calendar. We spent our time in Puerto Rico, and upon our return to Phoenix felt the “winter” chill and the lack of sunlight hours. And I am not complaining! We are fortunate to live in a desert that doesn’t face blizzards.

This change of weather is another transition point for the organizations serving people experiencing homelessness. As in Summer and dealing with extreme heat, we look for creative ways to bring people inside, and we ask community to support us with blanket and coat drives. It’s too cold to sleep outside. A sleeping bag, even if it is in a tent, is not enough. It may be easy to look from inside the warmth of a car, driving by people who are unsheltered and think “a tent is better than nothing.” Well, maybe better than nothing, and it’s still not shelter, and it is neither safe nor healthy.

The other transition point I mentioned is the government. I won’t be partisan or political here. I do ask everyone to pay attention. At all levels of government the response to homelessness is anticipated to escalate farther along the lines of “criminalization,” enforcement of no camping ordinances, and seeking more spaces to create sanctioned encampments to force people to use. Rather than pursue ways to have more indoor capacity for emergency shelter and to create more housing, we will hear messages that punish people without homes and challenge organizations that are stretching every last dollar and cent to serve as many people as possible.

Is homelessness bad? Yes.

Is it unsafe and unhealthy for people to live outdoors, unsheltered? Yes.

Does homelessness impact neighborhoods and businesses? Absolutely.

Is it helpful and solutions-oriented, with data to back it up, to invest more dollars in public safety/ law enforcement that target homeless people and to build campgrounds? No.

I implore you when you hear or read things that make it sound simple to address homelessness, that sound like creating tent cities or camps is humane, please pause and look back at Keys to Change newsletters. Read about what is happening in your local community that is working. Talk with service providers in your neighborhood. If you are able to offer help, ask what organizations need.

At Keys to Change we will continue to posit that to end homelessness we must collectively work across community to keep more people housed (prevention), have sufficient shelter and service capacity for those who are homeless (interventions), and add housing options that are affordable for everyone. It’s a three-legged stool and all legs must be fortified, not sequentially, all at the same time.

I will continue to speak positively about the Safe Outdoor Space that the City of Phoenix opened with Keys to Change as a lead operator just over one year ago. The Safe Outdoor Space is a type of campground, one that was designed and is funded to provide onsite services. It is a choice for people who are homeless to enter a program that has safety, meals, hygiene services, case managers who focus on housing plans, and more.

People who are espousing benefits of sanctioned encampments are NOT describing a safe outdoor space. They are talking about prescribed areas where homeless people will be directed to go, maybe pitch a tent, and law enforcement will leave them alone. This is a way of moving and hiding people with no housing plan for their long-term success.

The idiom “sweep it under the rug” is exactly what sanctioned encampments do. Government officials and others who don’t want to see homelessness also do not want to implement real solutions across prevention, interventions, and housing. They want to literally sweep people off the streets and hide them. And while monies would be spent to do this, the number of people who fall into homeless would continue, people would be unsheltered, and the problem of visible homelessness would continue. Sweeping under the rug does not break the cycle of homelessness.

When we do a quick house cleaning, maybe stuffing items in closets or drawers, or pushing dirt on a floor to a corner or under a piece of furniture, we have not really cleaned the house. The problem of messiness and dirt isn’t solved, it’s hidden.

When we think of addressing homelessness by moving people around on a temporary basis, we are not solving individual or system homelessness. We are hiding it.

Let’s make 2025 the year that we shine the light more brightly on homelessness and proven solutions. Ignoring root causes and failing to tackle long-term systems change prolongs the pain and suffering of people and stretches any safety net to the point where it is ineffective.

From all of us at Keys to Change, we wish you easy transitions, success, and joy in this new year.