This is Part Three in our Series, Meeting Expectations. Each year, the Pinal County Coalition to End Homelessness (PCCEH) must adopt a Strategic Plan. The strategic plan must align with and address system performance measures established by the Arizona Balance of State Continuum of Care. The PCCEH is pleased to share updates on our annual goals.
This week, we are highlighting the System Performance Measure of reducing the number of unhoused persons. What this means is we will use the annual Point-In-Time Count to determine if our unhoused population has decreased over time as a result of our efforts in housing people. Each year, in January, volunteers go throughout Pinal County to seek out unhoused individuals. We survey them and then share our number with the Balance of State Continuum of Care. This data can be verified at: https://pcceh.com/hic-pic/
The Arizona Balance of State Continuum of Care has set a benchmark that we need to reduce the count by 3% each year. However, in recent years, we have seen an uptick in the overall number, primarily due to the increased efforts our volunteers, outreach teams, and coalition have taken in finding these individuals and families. Unfortunately, the more people we count, the greater the need for housing services. To address this need, the PCCEH has committed to working with member agencies to submit collaborative applications to federal and state agencies to increase our housing services. We are also sharing grant opportunities with our partners to encourage them to submit applications. During our 3rd Annual Reentry Roundtable, we shared resources to build our agency’s capacity through funding. We have established a task force to seek out funding and have developed a template for future requests for information from our agencies to participate in these collaborative applications.
The PCCEH has shown a 1% increase between the 2024 and 2025 PIT counts.