U of A students research poverty in Tucson

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The University of Arizona partners with the city of Tucson to shed light on challenges in Tucson when it comes to poverty.

The Poverty in Tucson Community Forum took place Tuesday where several U of A undergraduate students displayed their findings on poverty in Tucson.

“These quotes are from people surveyed among residents on 22nd street and they talked a lot about how they would see homelessness around stops," said Emmy Nguyen, a senior at the U of A.

"We’re doing this in partnership and so the data the students have collected are feeding back to the city and the county to help them improve their policies," said Brian Mayer, "the students get to see that they're benefiting the world around them.” Mayer has been running the Tucson Poverty Project for the last ten years.

Athena Kehoe

Pima County has the Prosperity Initiative, a policy that was approved by Pima County Board of Supervisors in December of 2023. Helen Schaffer is leading this effort. In an email statement, Schaffer explained "we’re inventorying all of the County’s activities and programs, and meeting with departments to understand how their work aligns with the Prosperity Initiative’s objectives."

“People that are taking the bus, generally are doing so as a necessity. For anybody who has a car, it’s much more convenient to use that to travel around the city," said Jordan Rodriguez, a senior at the U of A and one of the group members who contributed to the Transportation in Tucson presentation.

Another group member is Hayden Dovi-Smit, a sophomore at the U of A. “I feel like that connection to some sort of community or understanding of people who might be different than you is super valuable and something that I really wish our society would do more of," he explained.

In 2023, all individuals in Tucson experienced higher poverty rates than national rates, except for the Black or African American population.

"We're really trying to have a conversation with the residents of the city of Tucson of what's going on in this world of poverty and how can we do better," Mayer said.