(The Center Square) – A new report from the Common Sense Institute of Arizona determines that spending on homelessness in the Grand Canyon State is roughly $1 billion.
The think tank analyzed data from both the public and private sectors to see how much was going toward the issue, and the vast majority of the spending, $678-807 million, was directed toward Maricopa County in recent years.
In addition, the report pointed out that “point-in-time” homeless counts have been increasing since 2017, but the number of shelter beds has not kept up with the rise, whereas “permanent supportive housing” appears to be the bigger focus.
“We can’t dispassionately prove this based on research we’ve done today, but it does correlate well with sort of the opioid epidemic,” CSI Arizona’s Director of Policy and Research Glenn Farley, said at a media briefing on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the report says that the number of homeless
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