TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Next week, volunteers will fan out across Tucson and Pima County to get an accurate count of how many people are experiencing homelessness.
Volunteers for the annual Point in Time Count gathered Wednesday evening for a training session with the Tucson-Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness (TPCH). They learned how to ask questions in a trauma-informed way while surveying the core needs of those experiencing homelessness.
“It’s definitely not a personal failure if you’re out on the street,” said Guillermo Peña, one of the 400 volunteers signed up for this year’s count.
Peña says he noticed unfair treatment of the homeless population while working as an EMT and now wants to give back. “The way I feel like this population is punished is unfair. And so for me it’s just using what I have available to me to do what I can,” he said.
Peña is assigned to one of 48 sectors across Pima County. Starting early in the morning, volunteers will ask people experiencing homelessness a series of questions on an app and thank them with a $10 McDonald's gift card.
Each volunteer is part of a two- or three-person group. Some of the questions for those experiencing homelessness include asking about gender, sexual orientation, how long they’ve been experiencing homelessness, and their experience with mental illness.
“We ask about their experience with past traumas, substance use, and barriers to staying housed long-term,” said Elaine MacPherson, a project supervisor with the city of Tucson's Homeless System Improvement and a team lead for one of the sectors.
MacPherson explained that asking questions like these can be invasive, which is why there’s a lot of training for volunteers on providing agency and asking certain questions exactly as written on their script.
“If someone doesn’t want to answer a question, that is okay,” MacPherson said. “The intent of offering a gift card is to reward them for sharing this information.”
The data collected helps TPCH figure out core needs and provides data to send to the Department of Housing and Urban Development when applying for funding.
“They need access to housing that’s affordable, income that can help them stay housed, and services that can wrap around to support them with barriers they might be facing individually,” MacPherson added.
Now Peña hopes speaking face-to-face with those who are unhoused could give his family and friends a new perspective.
“This is something that could happen to anyone for any number of reasons, and to be able to have more words to express that, it’s a big thing that I’m looking for,” he said.
By interacting directly with people experiencing homelessness, the volunteers aim to see the person behind the statistic.
TPCH is still allowing people to sign up to volunteer for the annual Point in Time Count on January 29.
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Maria Staubs joined KGUN 9 as a multimedia journalist and producer in July of 2024. Her passion for writing and storytelling stems from anchoring her middle school’s news show and editing her high school’s yearbook. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and mass communication with a minor in film and media production, as well as a master's degree in mass communication. You can email Maria at maria.staubs@kgun9.com or reach out to her on X/Twitter or Instagram.
