The Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness (TPCH) is pleased to announce the release of the TPCH 2025 Draft Strategic Plan for public review and comment.

This plan outlines our community’s collective vision, priorities, goals, and actions to address homelessness in Pima County. Developed through months of collaboration with TPCH members, service providers, local governments, and people with lived experience of homelessness, the plan builds on data, research, and community input gathered throughout 2025.

The draft plan reflects what we’ve learned from our system’s progress and challenges over the past several years and lays out a clear roadmap for how we will move forward — together. It includes strategies to strengthen coordination across housing and service systems, expand access to affordable housing, and ensure that all people have a safe place to call home.

Now, we’re asking for your feedback.
Your input will help us refine the goals, strategies, and actions that guide our collective work over the next several years. Whether you’re a service provider, policymaker, community advocate, or simply someone who cares about creating a stronger, more equitable community, we want to hear from you.

How to Share Your Comments

• Public Comment Period: November 12- November 30

• Review the Draft Plan

• Submit Comments

TPCH remains committed to ensuring that this plan reflects the values, experiences, and priorities of our community. Together, we can strengthen our homeless response system and create lasting change.

Thank you for lending your voice and being part of this effort to end homelessness in Pima County.

Hello partners,

We wanted to share the most recent publication from the University of Arizona Southwest Institute for Research on Women (UA SIROW). Participants experiencing homelessness overwhelmingly articulated the desire to be housed, employed, reconnect with family, and generally have stability in their lives.

These findings provide a direct contradiction to the narrative that people who are homeless choose homelessness or do not want to work to change their circumstances. This article delves into the qualitive study implemented as a part of the 2023 Homeless Needs Assessment, and reviews the following themes: 

(1) people do not want to be homeless, they want stability, and they are
willing to work for it;

(2) relationships are an important driver of goals;

(3) barriers at the individual and interpersonal levels are
diverse and individualized;

(4) stigma and discrimination hinder exits from homelessness, and

(5) hope and despair are both common.

Find the article available for download below.

The Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness (TPCH) has issued a request for proposals in solicitation of a qualified vendor to recruit, train, and coordinate volunteers for the 2026 unsheltered PIT Count.  Secondarily, this request for proposals is seeking an agency that can work coordinate with the Lived Experience Council to plan and execute these quarterly events. These are pro-social events to create community and stability among newly housed individuals.  

Solicitation Timeline

• This solicitation is publicly issued on August 29, 2025.
• Proposals are due on or before September 19, 11:59pm Arizona time.
• Bidders will receive notification of selection on or before October 1, 2025.
• The initial period of service for this solicitation is October 1, 2025 – October 1, 2026 with an option to non-competitively renew for up to four years. 
• Work will begin on both projects in the month of October, so it is important that bidders are ready and able to join planning efforts as soon as their selection is announced.

Proposal Delivery

Proposals will be accepted by electronic mail only and are due no later than 11:59 p.m., Arizona local time, on September 19, 2025. Proposals shall use the subject heading Volunteer Coordination Proposal and be emailed to tpch@tucsonaz.gov on or before the deadline.

Proposal Evaluation

Proposals will be reviewed by a review panel of TPCH board members.  This work group has been granted authority to select a project vendor by the TPCH Continuum of Care Board and City of Tucson Housing & Community Development Department for approval during the week of September 22, 2025.  Bidders will be notified of the selection decision on or before September 29, 2025.

Proposal Evaluation Criteria

Proposals shall be evaluated based on the following criteria:

A.   Prior experience coordinating volunteers for large-scale community events (30 points)

B.   Prior experience planning and coordinating events with up to 100 guests (20 points)

C.    Satisfactory completion of prior work completed on behalf of TPCH (if applicable) and/or on behalf of references provided (20 points)

D.     Quality and appropriateness of proposed plan to perform activities outlined in the solicitation scope of work (30 points)

E.     Budget competitively submitted at or below $21,000 plus match requirement for initial period of service and includes appropriate costs for completion of the desired scope of work (20 points)

Solicitation Details

For full details on the solicitation, please review the full Request for Proposals here.  

TPCH CONTINUUM OF CARE BOARD AND COMMITTEE ELECTION

ALL VOTES ARE DUE BY 11:59PM - Thursday, May 22nd

ELECTION MATERIALS

This package includes:

• Overview of the election process and voting instructions
• Roster of current members of TPCH General Council with voting privileges as of May 8, 2024
• Roster of seated CoC Board Members
• Roster of CoC Board and Committee candidates
• Listing of CoC Board and Committee candidates with disclosed areas of expertise as defined by the TPCH Committee Composition Operating Policy and key diversity goals
• Candidate statements of interest and affiliations
• Overview of CoC Committee purpose and summarized responsibilities
• Quick Reference tool identifying candidates by organization and bodies to which each candidate has applied

Find the Election Materials here

VOTING INSTRUCTIONS

Only one ballot may be cast for each TPCH voting organizational member identified in the membership roster.  Multiple votes from the same organization will not be accepted.

Ballots may not include votes for more candidates than are eligible for election on any voting body. The ballot indicates the total number of votes that can be cast for each voting body.

No individual may serve on more than two (2) elected bodies of the Continuum of Care (CoC Board + 1 Committee, or 2 Committees).

No agency may have more than two (2) representatives seated on any elected body. If an agency has two (2) elected representatives on a single elected body, each representative will have one vote on all actions taken by the elected body.

All ballots must be cast online no later  than 11:59pm Thursday, May 22nd.

Late ballots will not be accepted. Vote here starting Thursday, May 8, 2025. 

This report paints a bleak picture and sends a clear signal that there is an urgent need to improve our local capacity to prevent homelessness. The structural drivers of housing insecurity, including home values, rent prices, and poverty, all remain elevated in Pima County. Elevated housing insecurity is driving increased inflow into homelessness, visible in the 59% increase in the number of unique households seeking homelessness-related services (by completing a coordinated entry assessment) between 2021 and 2023. The capacity of our local system (beds/units) has not increased over this time frame and the proportion of newly inflowing households served in any project type decreased from 39% in FY2021 to 28% in FY2023. This means that in FY2023 72% of households completing an assessment and seeking assistance were not served in any project type (meaning that nothing happened as a result of their engagement with the system). This is a portrait of an overburdened system increasingly struggling to keep pace with rising need. Since 2021 there has been a steady increase in the number of people on our By-Name List considered “actively homeless” and these increases have continued through 2024. We not yet observed any slowing of inflow into homelessness and there is increasing visibility of unsheltered homelessness in our community.

Looking ahead, TPCH’s 2024 Housing Inventory Count report registered decreases in beds/units across all project types, especially Permanent Supportive Housing units, indicating reduced local capacity to meet these challenges. Recent election results have decreased the likelihood of infusions of funds from the federal or state government to address the drivers of the housing crisis or to mitigate current levels of homelessness. While there are multiple serious city and county level efforts currently being implemented to address the shortage of affordable housing, these efforts will take years to substantially impact the local housing stock. These unique circumstances and the increasing prevalence of homelessness indicate an urgent need for more resources directed towards homelessness prevention to reduce the current and ongoing magnitude of inflow into homelessness.

There is motion locally on many of the elements needed to implement a coordinated local/regional approach to homelessness prevention. Substantial reductions in both homelessness and poverty are achievable, and there is a rich evidence base providing guidance as to how to get there efficiently. Building, and sufficiently resourcing, a community approach to homelessness prevention has the potential to reduce ongoing overwhelm of our homelessness response system, reduce harm among households who avoid an experience of homelessness, and better position our community to weather future challenges (e.g. the next recession, financial disruption, or a resurgence of inflation) to housing stability among our most vulnerable community members.

Read the full report here: