Facing budget uncertainty from federal grant changes and the failure of Proposition 414, Tucson fast-tracked the opening of a new 70-bed emergency shelter — offering relief but far from meeting the area’s growing need.
The Tucson city council discussed the status of the new low-barrier emergency shelter in the Amphi neighborhood at its study session Tuesday.
The city manager’s office asked the housing department to establish an emergency shelter with a capacity of at least 70 beds before March 1. In turn, Tucson’s Housing First program accelerated the opening of the Amphi Housing Resource Center, a former fire station on King Road, to meet the request.
“We likely need more beds than what we’ve created, but in three short months we went from an empty fire station to a low-barrier shelter,” City Manager Tim Thomure said during the meeting.
The 70 additional beds make only a small dent in 1,367 emergency shelter beds needed to address the area’s shortfall, according to a 2023 report from the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness.
The gap widened last year as the collaboration reported a 6% drop in the county’s emergency shelter beds since 2023 in its 2024 gap analysis report.
Brandi Champion, director of Tucson’s Community Safety Program, reported that 17 adults are already staying at the shelter with more to come. Unsheltered individuals in the Amphi neighborhood will have priority and she noted that children will not be allowed at the shelter.
Mutual aid group resources
Several mutual aid groups also organize regular and free food, hygiene supply and clothing distributions. Here are some regular events:
- Where: Santa Rita Park
- When: 4 p.m. Saturdays
- Where: Armory Park
- When: 7 p.m. Wednesdays
- Where: Amphi Park
- When: 2 p.m. Saturdays
- Where: Downtown route starting on Fourth Avenue and ending at the Ronstadt Transit Center
- When: Sundays, 12:30 p.m. and typically arriving to Ronstadt around 2 p.m.
- Where: Santa Rita Park
- When: Every two weeks
Low-barrier shelters provide temporary housing with fewer restrictions such as sobriety requirements, an important option for those with substance use disorder.
“We have another group of unsheltered individuals that find themselves in the throes of addiction and just want to be left alone,” Mayor Regina Romero said during the meeting.
Romero said they’ve discussed putting detox facilities near low-barrier shelters, hoping the proximity will facilitate the journey to recovery.
Lane Santa Cruz, of Ward 1, noted that the opioid crisis and housing are separate issues and entangling them may convolute the conversation.
“Yes, there’s a little bit of overlap and we hyper focus on the overlap and then we’re missing the rest of it,” she said.
The shelter’s opening came at a time of uncertainty after Prop. 414, a ballot initiative that would have increased local sales tax by half a percent to a total of 9.2%, failed to pass by a significant margin. The city received 76,480 ballots, 25% of eligible voters in the area, with 53,350, or 70%, voting against the measure. Another 23,084 voters, or 30%, voted yes.
The proposition — while widely criticized by mutual aid groups for allocating a large portion of its revenue to law enforcement and by the local GOP chapter for increasing taxes — would have directed almost $3.5 million annually over the next 10 years for establishing and operating low-barrier shelters and funding for the city’s Housing First program.
Mayor Romero said the city has money through Fiscal Year 2026 but losing the Prop. 414 money only adds to the mounting uncertainty over state and federal funding.
“We don’t know about the impact of the flat tax or any federal executive orders or budgeting or lack of budgeting from the Trump administration and Congress. There are so many uncertainties that we don’t know,” Romero told Arizona Luminaria after the meeting.
The Tucson Pima County Collaboration to End Homelessness report says between $50-$70 million annually is spent addressing homelessness in Pima County.
But far more is needed. Current models suggest it would require “additional financial resources totaling approximately $104.3 million annually in addition to the cost of constructing new units of affordable rental housing to support increased voucher demand in the community,” according to the report.
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