Mesa shelter for homeless families closes amid $500K shortfall, federal funding uncertainty

The organization A New Leaf this week closed its Mesa emergency shelter for homeless families. The organization faces uncertainty over federal funding. The closure comes as homelessness in the Valley is on the rise.

The shelter, La Mesita, for decades had offered 16 units where homeless families could stay for up to 120 days. It was one of only a few apartment-style shelters in the Valley where parents and children could stay together.

But the organization that ran the shelter, A New Leaf, was facing a budget shortfall of about $500,000, said spokesperson Tanner Swanson.

“We’re facing unprecedented crises around federal funding and so we’ve had to make some really tough decisions,” Swanson said.

Swanson said federal funding makes up about 70% of A New Leaf’s budget.

Homelessness organizations across the Valley had seen a major influx of funding in recent years from the federal pandemic relief package, the American Rescue Plan Act, known as ARPA. But those ARPA funds have begun to dry up and all remaining ARPA funds expire in 2026.

Swanson said A New Leaf also anticipates further losses as the Trump administration makes cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“We’re dealing with delays in payments on federal contracts because of staff reductions, and people being uncertain about where funding is allowed to go based on directives from the federal government, so it’s a huge combination of factors,” Swanson said.

In addition to that, Swanson said the nonprofit is facing higher operating costs due to inflation.

“This shelter was one that had private, apartment-style units where kids and their parents could lock a door, feel safe and have their own living space, and that’s not a very common setup,” Swanson said. But, he added, “that’s more expensive to run.”

A New Leaf also runs a 100-bed men’s shelter and domestic violence shelters. Swanson said those will remain open.

The La Mesita shelter was located inside a 110-unit affordable housing complex also managed by A New Leaf. Swanson said the 16 units that had been used for the family shelter will now be converted into apartments for rent, like the other units in the building.

Swanson said A New Leaf has connected all of the families that had been staying in the shelter units with new housing options.

A New Leaf is just one of several Valley nonprofits facing budgetary concerns amid federal funding losses. The Maricopa Association of Governments reports about 1,000 shelter beds Valley-wide were lost in 2024. Meanwhile, people in the Valley are becoming homeless at nearly twice the rate homeless people are getting into housing, according to MAG.

“We’re at a time in our community that donating, volunteering, getting involved is more important than it’s ever been,” Swanson said.