Over the past year, more than 13,000 people in Maricopa County became homeless.Among them was Jay Duval, who pitched a tent downtown after his roommate moved out and he could no longer afford an apartment.“They wanted $1,200 a month for a studio. That’s crazy,” Duval said.
At the Lincoln Family YMCA in downtown Phoenix, there’s a common area for the organization’s emergency housing program for homeless youth. Resident DeArrio Lowery is there on the couch, playing a game of chess before heading to his new job pushing wheelchairs at the airport.“I’ve just been going with the flow,” Lowery said. “Working, saving money and seeing where it takes me.”