For one year, it looked looked the Valley was making real progress in curbing homelessness. Then 2025 hit.
On Friday, the Maricopa Association of Governments released data from its annual one-day count of unhoused people in the Phoenix metropolitan area, known as the Point in Time count. The PIT count is meant to give a snapshot of homelessness in the Valley, provide more details about the unhoused community’s demographics and allow local governments to apply for funding from federal homeless assistance programs.
The count was conducted on Jan. 28, during which officials and volunteers counted 9,734 people experiencing homelessness across the Valley. That’s a 3% increase from 2024, when the count found 9,435 unhoused people, a year-over-year decrease. The 2025 total is also roughly 100 people more than the 2023 total, meaning the Valley completely reversed any gains it made last year…