Information about proactive homeless contacts made by Mesa Police as part of Homeless Outreach Project (HOP). The "Homeless Outreach Project" involves a proactive contact made by police during an outreach effort in which services are offered to people experiencing homelessness by a nonprofit partner in partnership with Police.

Contacts = Number of individuals contacted by officers and confirmed by self-admission or other means to be homeless. Not all contacts were involved in a citeable or arrestable criminal offense or accepted humanitarian service of shelter, medical, or mental health assistance.
Service Resistance/Arrests = Individual is arrested, cited, or a long form complaint is filed. Individual was contacted in commission of a crime or citable offense. If it was a felony or a warrant individual was arrested. Any minor misdemeanor or city code offenses individual is offered services of housing, CBI, etc. in lieu of a cite or being arrested. Individual declines services and is arrested or issued a citation.
Service Acceptance = No crime or criminal activity is occurring. Individual is contacted and is offered shelter, medical, or mental health services and accepts placement into one of these services. Individual is transported to CBI by officer, Navigators are called and transport individual for shelter, or fire transports subject to an appropriate facility.

See https://www.mesaaz.gov/residents/community-development/reducing-homelessness/help-for-the-homeless for more information about Help for the Homeless.

Detailed results from the 2022 Point-in-Time (PIT) count of unsheltered individuals identified and/or interviewed in Mesa on the morning of January 25, 2022. Aggregated and summarized regional data available at https://data.mesaaz.gov/Community-Services/Unsheltered-Point-in-Time-PIT-Count-Phoenix-Metro-/jagk-fkkw
The PIT count is conducted annually in January. See the attached 2022 PIT Unsheltered Count Form for more information about questions asked. See also the Maricopa Association of Governments to learn more about the Point-in-Time Homeless Count program: https://azmag.gov/Programs/Homelessness/Point-In-Time-Homeless-Count

**No longer updated: see current data at https://data.mesaaz.gov/Community-Services/Unsheltered-Point-in-Time-PIT-Count-Phoenix-Metro-/jagk-fkkw **
Unsheltered Street Count by Municipality (2014‐2018), also known as Regional Homeless Point in Time Count. All communities participate in the unsheltered homeless count conducted during the last week of January. Numbers for all communities with the exception of Phoenix are a direct census of individuals interviewed by volunteers, law enforcement, and outreach workers. The City of Phoenix conducts a survey using an extrapolation method by which areas are designated “high density” or “low density” areas. Direct counts in those areas are then extrapolated to estimate the number of individuals experiencing homelessness in unsheltered situations within the City of Phoenix geographic boundaries.

Aggregated and summarized information collected from the Point in Time count of the number of persons experiencing homelessness in the Phoenix-Mesa metro area as of the survey date. Detailed results for Mesa Only at https://data.mesaaz.gov/Community-Services/Unsheltered-Point-In-Time-PIT-Count-Details-Mesa-O/efjd-c5mi
Due to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approved the Maricopa Regional Continuum of Care to opt out of the unsheltered Point In Time (PIT) Homeless Count for 2021. Every January, volunteers and outreach teams from local communities collaborate to survey and count the number of homeless. persons in their respective locations. With the information provided by the PIT Count, the Maricopa Regional Continuum of Care and local communities can determine how best to address homelessness. For more information see https://www.azmag.gov/Programs/Homelessness/Point-In-Time-Homeless-Count. NOTE: The HUD definition of chronic homelessness is: (1) a person who lives in a place not meant for human habitation, Safe Haven, or Emergency Shelter, (2) has a disability, and (3) has been homeless continuously for one year OR four or more times homeless in the last three years, where the combined length of time homeless is at least 12 months.