Phoenix to launch hotline for residents to report homeless-related activity
Oct 27, 2017, 4:05 AM
(Flickr/Alan Light)
(Flickr/Alan Light)
PHOENIX — The city of Phoenix will soon launch a hotline that residents will be able to call in order to report any homeless-related activity.
The hotline will be launched through the city’s Phoenix C.A.R.E.S. — an acronym for Community Action Response Engagement Services — program, which will establish a centralized database to increase communication between the city’s different agencies.
“Instead of calling the various departments, this number will be able to track all homeless-related activity – and any related homeless,” said Neighborhood Services Director Chris Hallett.
Once that number is called, Hallett said, an outreach team will be deployed to the area to offer services like transporting individuals to hospitals. They will also log information so the city can track who is receiving which services.
“It’s an active response of coordinated services,” Hallett said. “You could consider it a bit of a consolidation … but it’s really highly collaborative and coordinated.”
Hallett said the program was launched because the city found itself spending a lot of resources dealing with the homeless population — which has increased by nearly 60 percent over the last two years, according to Maricopa County.
The program has been in a trial phase since March and Hallett said it has been successful so far.
“We’ve seen really early on good success,” he said. “I think once it gets out and better, and instituted, we’re really going to see the effects of it.”
At least one outreach team for Phoenix C.A.R.E.S. will also be on call from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. Hallett said many city caseworkers would have handled these, but they only worked from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
