The old adage from the U.S. Management Association is right: What gets measured gets done.

AHCCCS’ latest report highlights some of the basic information about outcomes and social determinants for folks Serious Mental Illness (SMI) designation. The findings paint a challenging picture about homelessness, housing waitlists, and incarceration rates among the 63,000 folks living with a serious mental illness in Arizona.

AHCCCS 2024 Serious Mental Illness Report

Housing & Homelessness

Let’s start with homelessness. The report reveals that 7,812 SMI members experienced homelessness in the last year – 12% of the SMI population. To put that in perspective, Arizona’s general population has a homelessness rate of just 0.2% (14,200 out of 7.5 million according to the latest ‘Point in Time’ Survey).

About half of all individuals experiencing homelessness in Arizona have a SMI designation (7,812/14,200).  That means SMI members are overrepresented in Arizona’s homeless population by a factor of 60.

AHCCCS data also found that half of the SMI population on the housing waitlist had been waiting for stable housing for more than 6 months. That’s a long time for people who need housing stability to manage their health and daily lives.

Justice System

Another statistic from the report: 6.4% of SMI members were incarcerated in the past year. That’s over 10x the incarceration rate for Arizona’s general population of 0.6%. For those with a serious mental illness incarceration often results from untreated symptoms, a lack of housing, and insufficient community support.

Interventions Under Way

So, where do we go from here? Fortunately, AHCCCS is stepping up.

Their new H2O (Housing to Outcomes) initiative aims to tackle housing instability head-on by integrating housing solutions with health care services.

As described in our recent blog post below, H2O is designed to address the root causes of housing insecurity, expand access to stable housing, and improve health outcomes for Arizona’s most vulnerable residents. It’s a promising step in the right direction, and AHCCCS deserves credit for recognizing the urgency of the situation and acting.

AHCCCS Tackling Housing Instability with Their New ‘H2O’ Program

AHCCCS and ADOA are also partnering to build a new facility on the grounds of the AZ State Hospital to provide ‘bridge housing” for persons with a serious mental illness. I’ve been keeping tabs on the construction each time I go down Van Buren – and the facility appears to be coming along quickly.

The facility will have a separate (physically attached) outpatient behavioral health service setting. Residents will not have to be in treatment to access housing services.

According to a PowerPoint from AHCCCS, it’ll have 24/7 shelter staff for supervision & security. Housing & services will be available by referral only (no walk-up services).

New Facility on AZ State Hospital Grounds to Provide Bridge Housing for Persons Experiencing Homelessness with Mental Health Needs

The overall challenges with the lack of housing, the wait for stable housing, homelessness and incarceration continue to be huge problems and far more needs to be done.

But… measuring challenges like homelessness, long housing waitlists, and incarceration among the SMI population brings the scope of the problem into focus.

With initiatives like H2O, there’s hope that future reports will show meaningful progress. After all, what gets measured truly can get done. In my next post I’ll highlight the added measures that will become available next year at this time as a result of the successful passage of SB 1311 last year.