In a special meeting of the City Council Tuesday at the Tucson Convention Center, Mayor Regina Romero highlighted recent gains in housing, homelessness response and public health while laying out a suite of next steps that put treatment, shelter and housing production at the center of her agenda.
“My vision for Tucson is of a safe, just and sustainable city that provides economic opportunity for all Tucsonans,” Romero said, opening a speech that praised the city’s progress over the past six years while warning that “we still face tremendous challenges.”
Romero framed much of the progress as the product of coordinated action across city departments, nonprofits and regional partners. She pointed to concrete results in homelessness response: “In the past year, our housing first emergency shelters, street outreach workers, and permanent supportive housing resources have served over 2,000 people that needed a safe place to call home. That’s really something to celebrate,” she said…