Tucson opens phone line for homeless help

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The City of Tucson has a new resource to help homeless people—or people concerned about homeless issues.

The challenge of homelessness brings a lot of difficult issues together. There’s housing, health and impact on a neighborhood. Now the City of Tucson has put together a specialized phone hotline to help.

Because homeless people have no fixed address it can be hard to connect them with the services that exist to help them.

Now the City of Tucson has opened a telephone helpline to help people get the services they need.

Brandi Champion leads Tucson’s Housing First Program. She says: ”So maybe somebody's family member is homeless or is going to be evicted or what have you so they can call this phone line and get some information on who to call. Someone to be referred to that can assist that person further to find housing resources or to be assessed for housing, shelter, services, or in their domestic violence, all of that type of stuff.”

Champion says homeless people often have phones for their safety or to help them connect to services. The homeless helpline is also for people who have homes but may want to help homeless people or have concerns about matters like homeless encampments.

“They just need to call a phone number and ask for the resource they're looking for. And it's (520) 791-2540 is the phone number. And you know, ask for the resource. If they don't have it immediately available to them, then they'll escalate that call to somebody that can contact the person and give them the correct information.”

And because crises do not respect schedules the phone line takes calls 24/7.

You can also find a variety of resources for homeless issues at this City of Tucson webpage.