Human Services

headline indicator dashboard Unsheltered Population in Maricopa County

Homeless Street Count Up 20% in Maricopa County

Many agencies serving the homeless report a sharp increase in need as a result of the economic downturn. Nearly 3,000 people can be found living on the streets of Maricopa County according to a recent street count by the Maricopa Association of Governments. This count does not include the nearly 5,000 people sleeping in shelters. Especially alarming is the fact that the number of homeless families increased by 370% from 2008 to 2009.

Arizona Human Services

“ The demand is up, and we are able to help less. ” - Gloria Hurtado, Director of City of Phoenix Human Services Department, as quoted in The Arizona Republic, April 8, 2009

Human services of many types provide an important safety net for Arizonans and help many achieve self sufficiency. Services such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, job programs, child protective services, and housing assistance offer a wide variety of support.

Without the services of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, many Arizonans would face continuing hardships. At the same time, tracking the levels and utilization of assistance helps to inform planning in many other areas.

Morrison Institute - AZ Views

The Arizona Indicators Panel is a statewide representative sample of Arizonans. Panel members have agreed to be surveyed online several times a year across many topic areas. This enables great depth and exploration of topics with the same sample group and solves some of the problems experienced in random sample telephone surveys. The results reported here come from two rounds of panel questions and were collected in May and July 2008.

Featured survey results on government services:

  • When asked how they would distribute funds across a group of good causes, most respondents choose to support them all, but programs for children, affordable housing, and health and services received the most support, and services to immigrants received the least.
  • Panelists were critical of government services
  • Panelists also believe that good community-based programs can prevent some significant social problems

Read the Full Report Adobe PDF [PDF 148KB] or

Read the entire series of panel reports at the Morrison Institute's web site

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