About Us

ARIZONA HOUSING COALITION

OUR VISION

We're working to create an Arizona where housing stability is universal, and every man, woman, child and veteran has a safe, affordable place to call home.

OUR MISSION

As a collaborative association, we lead the efforts to end homelessness and advocate for safe, affordable homes for all Arizonans.

OUR HISTORY, OUR FUTURE

In the early 1990s, organizations seeking to end homelessness decided to work together to share knowledge and speak in a unified voice to bring more solutions to those who were impacted by homelessness. Over time, organizations focused on bringing more affordable housing to Arizona sought to amplify their efforts and began to collaborate as well. The Arizona Housing Coalition is now the largest housing stability advocacy organization in the state, with more than 200 member organizations, national partners and dedicated volunteers, all working together to provide every Arizonan with a safe, affordable place to call home.

OUR COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION

The Arizona Housing Coalition stands united in the effort to end injustice and vows to remain committed to efforts that advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the homelessness and housing sector. Based on our data, we know Black, Indigenous and People of Color are significantly more likely to experience housing instability and homelessness as a result of historic inequities and structural racism that are deeply embedded within social policies that affect and impact life outcomes. We also know that inequities exist in access to shelter and a place to call home within other marginalized populations, including LGBTQ+ and the disability communities. Housing outcomes are interconnected with various social structures, including criminal justice, health, economic opportunity, employment and education. The Arizona Housing Coalition’s, Staff, Board and Members will advocate, educate and coordinate to address these disparities within our homeless response and housing systems, to deepen the understanding of how inequitable policies cross-sector impact the housing outcomes of Arizona’s residents.

The Arizona Housing Coalition is committed to:

Advancing equitable solutions to housing and homelessness to promote a system whereby disparity in the experience of homelessness and in housing outcomes is eliminated.
Ending inequities that exist within the systems that impact housing outcomes, to drive an end to homelessness.
A collective statewide effort to eliminate l disparity through broadening awareness of social and racial injustice among our membership, by increasing collaboration and coalition building around equity issues and by adopting an equity framework across the three pillars of our work: Advocacy, Education and Coordination.

What is the Arizona Veterans StandDown Alliance? We are AVSA.

The Arizona Veterans StandDown Alliance (AVSA) is a program of the Arizona Housing Coalition which holds annual events and resource fairs in 13 of Arizona’s 15 counties, including the nation's largest event of it's kind, the annual Maricopa County StandDown. These StandDown events and resource fairs allow veterans and their families who are experiencing housing instability and homelessness to get and stay connected to supportive services.
StandDowns are held in different counties throughout Arizona with the largest, serving 1,858 veterans and their families at the 2019 Maricopa County StandDown.

3,900+ CONNECTED TO SERVICES

In 2019, 3,902 veterans and their families received assistance at a local StandDown event or resource fair in 13 of Arizona’s 15 counties.

2,100+ VETERANS PERMANENTLY HOUSED

Since January 2015, AZHC has played an active role in the coordination of permanent housing placement for approximately 76 veterans per month in Maricopa County, housing 2,183 veterans in total.

ENDING CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS

As a result of lessons & processes learned through AZHC's past coordination of the Project H3 Vets initiative, 929 chronically homeless veterans have been housed in Maricopa County since 2015.

THE STAFF

Joan Serviss

Executive Director

Sylvia Waynick

Membership and Development Director

Linda Jensen

Education Director

Joanna Carr

Research and Policy Director

George Campbell

Veteran Initiatives Manager

Ashleigh Towse

Events Manager

JoAngel Armijo

Administrative Coordinator

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The Arizona Housing Coalition is led by its volunteer Board of Directors, a group of experts within their respective fields covering a wide range of talent from the private, public and nonprofit sectors across the state. Board Members have a fiduciary and governance responsibility to the organization and set the mission, vision and strategy of the organization. Many of our strongest leaders in affordable housing and ending homelessness are serving or have served on this distinguished board.

BRAD BRIDWELL
CHAIR