Matt’s plan

1. Technology - turn Phoenix into the most technologically advanced city in the country and start making decisions from data.

2. Focus on treatment, mental health, and rehabilitation.

3. Create a community work program for homeless so they can earn money and help clean up the community.

4. Once rehabilitated provide training so they can earn an income and support themselves.

5. Partner with organizations with proven track records.

6. Increase law enforcement and stop panhandling.

7. Have a united front with the County Sheriff, board of supervisors, and state legislatures. We have to all come together and address this at every level.

8. Address the fentanyl crisis flooding our streets.

9. Prioritize affordable housing.

10. Create “Neighborhood Safety Teams” assigned to each of the 8 Phoenix districts that will proactively clean up our streets and engage the homeless to get them into rehabilitation programs. You will see city staff deployed throughout our streets on a daily basis.

11. Clean up the hot spots. We will aggressively cleanup the intersections on the I-17, QT’s, and other known hot spots around the Valley. We will have a heat map that residents can explore to understand the scope of the issue in each neighborhood.

Detailed overview

1. Technology - As a senior DevOps engineer, I will leverage my technical skills to address the homelessness crisis in Phoenix by creating tools that collect vital data and build user-friendly dashboards. This will help us increase transparency and accountability in our approach to homelessness, ensuring that every dollar spent is directed toward effective solutions.

   Currently, the annual Point-in-Time (PIT) count is the primary method we use to measure homelessness in our city. This count takes place on a single night each January and relies on a set of volunteers who fan out across the community to conduct a literal headcount of homeless individuals. These volunteers survey different areas, including shelters, streets, and parks, to tally the number of people experiencing homelessness. While this effort is well-intentioned, it has significant limitations.

   Since the PIT count only captures a snapshot of homelessness at one specific moment in time, it doesn’t accurately reflect the full extent of the issue. Many individuals may not be counted because they are temporarily staying with friends or family, living in their cars, or are in hidden locations. Additionally, the count can be influenced by various factors, such as weather conditions or public awareness on the day of the count. As a result, the data collected often underrepresents the true number of homeless individuals in Phoenix.

   Because of these shortcomings, the city has wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on programs and initiatives that don’t effectively address the problem. Without accurate data, it becomes challenging to understand the actual needs of the homeless population and to measure the success of existing solutions.

   By implementing real-time data collection and ongoing assessments, we can move beyond the limitations of the PIT count. This data-driven approach will allow us to make informed decisions about resource allocation, helping us identify what strategies work best and ensuring we invest in solutions that truly make a difference in our community.

   Some example dashboards