Al Pesqueira led a team of volunteers to count homeless people in South Tucson. "The homeless see that they do count, that they matter to these volunteers and to the different agencies in Pima County," he said. Homelessness in Tucson is down sharply from a decade ago, and an annual count of people without homes showed a continued decline this year, with the exception of the number of unsheltered people.
Volunteers counted 381 people sleeping on Tucson's streets and in alleys and washes this year - 18 more than in 2015.
"A lot of the folks that are living in the streets are out there because they are unable to get into traditional shelter because they have significant mental illness, or are still using alcohol and drugs and a lot of the shelters require that you have to be clean and sober that day before you can come in," said Tom Litwicki, chair of the board of directors for the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness.
Litwicki said for first time this year, the city is funding a shelter that accepts people that are intoxicated as long as they do not use on site. It is also is a place where couples can go together and people can bring pets, which are not usually accepted at shelters.
Litwicki said the goal is to expand that shelter’s capacity.
The annual count showed the number of people sleeping in shelters dropped from 1,500 in 2015 to 1,384 this year.
The count was conducted Jan. 26.
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