Homeless People Living In Phoenix Parking Lot Will Soon Have Shelter

By Stina Sieg
Published: Thursday, April 23, 2015 - 9:30am
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Hundreds of homeless people now staying in a Phoenix parking lot will soon be living indoors. This comes after a local nonprofit received more than $300,000 from Maricopa County.

The Lodestar Day Resource Center plans to have accommodations for the more than 300 people now living in the parking lot by May 15. Mike McQuaid is with the Human Services Campus, where the center is located. He said the campus is working with many different agencies.

"It’s always been great that we’ve always provided food, shelter, clothing, the basic necessities of somebody experiencing homelessness," he said. "But now, we’re really coming together as a community to address, how do we get people into housing. And that’s been the difference in the last few years, with leadership from the United Way, and the city and the county and the state."

State, local and private stakeholders are contributing almost $3 million to the resource center. That will go a long way toward providing homeless people a more permanent solution to their situation, McQuaid said.