Federal funding makes up close to 70% of the budget for New Leaf, an organization that runs an emergency shelter for homeless families in Mesa, Arizona. As those funds dry up, it was forced to close the shelter, even as homelessness is on the rise in the region, reports KJZZ:
The shelter, La Mesita, for decades had offered 16 units where homeless families could stay for up to 120 days. It was one of only a few apartment-style shelters in the [greater Phoenix] Valley where parents and children could stay together.
But the organization that ran the shelter, A New Leaf, was facing a budget shortfall of about $500,000, said spokesperson Tanner Swanson…