Events: Arizona - Phoenix - Scottsdale

The Human Services Campus (HSC), a 13-acre collaborative of 25 nonprofit agencies providing services to men and women experiencing homelessness, will host the inaugural Awareness Walk to End Homelessness, a 2-mile walk to bring awareness to the issue and the campus on Saturday, March 16 beginning and ending at the Campus at 9th Avenue and Madison.

            Participants can enter the staging area at 15th Avenue and Harrison St.  The Awareness Walk to End Homelessness is sponsored by Serafina Coffee Roasters. Additional sponsorship opportunities are available by calling HSC Development Director Steve Davis at (602) 229-5155.

            There is no fee to participate, but online registration is encouraged at www.tinyurl.com/hscphx.  A limited number of t-shirts will be given away. Donations are appreciated, but not expected.

           On-site registration begins at 7:30 a.m. with the walk getting underway at 8 a.m. to be followed by post-walk activities from 9-10 a.m. 

            Walkers will exit the Campus and travel along a route heading east on W. Jackson St., north on 9th Avenue and east on W. Jefferson St to 3rd Ave., north to W. Washington St., west along W. Washington St. past the Arizona State Courts building, east on W. Jefferson to 17th Ave. and back to the starting point.

            “The Human Services Campus opened in 2005 as a compassionate response to a community problem as well as an economic response to an increase in homelessness in the downtown Phoenix area,” said HSC Executive Director Amy Schwabenlender. “We want the community to see first hand and understand how the Human Services Campus and our 20 collaborating nonprofit agencies are addressing the ongoing challenge of homelessness. The 2018 Point in Time Count showed that approximately 6,000 homeless men, women and children live in shelters, cars, unsafe buildings or on the streets in Maricopa County every day.”

            Of the nearly 7,000 unduplicated homeless individuals who visited the Brian Garcia Welcome Center at the Human Services Campus this past year, more than half initiated a strategy to achieve self-sufficiency.  Since 2005, thousands of men and women have received shelter services and moved to transitional or permanent housing.  Over 5,000 homeless U.S. veterans have been served and connected to resources designed to end their homelessness.

            HSC works closely with the Phoenix Police Department, which has reported a significant reduction in crime in the neighborhood immediately surrounding the campus as a result of the collaborative services being used to end people’s homelessness.

            For more information, visit www.hsc-az.org.