'We have to turn more people away': Largest Phoenix shelter loses 110 beds as funding expires

Phoenix’s largest hub for homeless services this week had to reduce shelter capacity for more than 100 people.

Keys to Change is the lead organization on a 13-acre campus in downtown Phoenix where multiple shelters and other homeless service organizations operate. Since 2020, Keys to Change has been using federal pandemic aid to operate a dining hall and a resource center building as overflow shelter spaces, with mats rolled out on the floor every night.

Now, that funding is expiring.

On June 1, the campus closed one of the overflow spaces for overnight use, eliminating 110 shelter beds. Another 170 overflow shelter beds will go away in the fall.

“It’s challenging,” Keys to Change CEO Amy Schwabenlender said. “Because there are more people who are experiencing homelessness, we’ve never had enough shelter capacity in Maricopa County, and we have to turn more people away.”

Because shelters across the Valley are filled to capacity, Schwabenlender said 110 people who had been sleeping in the overflow spaces are now likely going to end up unsheltered.

Keys to Change is not the only organization that has seen federal pandemic aid disappear recently. The annual Point-in-Time homelessness count report, released last week, revealed that the number of people staying in shelters across Maricopa County has fallen 16% since 2024. The report attributes the drop to funding expiring for more than 1,000 shelter beds across the region.

While the American Rescue Plan Act and other pandemic-era funding sources sunset, Schwabenlender said recent Trump administration cuts to social services programs could strain resources further.

“There are so many things that are unknown,” Schwabenlender said. “In a way, doing what we can to prepare for the worst.”