Elaborate Lego structures and gem art adorning her apartment, Debbie Cook sits with her little dog reminiscing about all the adventures, twists and turns her life has taken. She used to sing and perform with a folk band at local venues such as the Elks Theatre, but now she uses oxygen and struggles to maintain her blood-oxygen level while walking around her small apartment. She has lived in Yavapai County for decades, formerly worked in planning and zoning for Camp Verde, and before that with Intel.
“There are a lot of different names for people experiencing homelessness, the current most common names are Grandma and Grandpa.” — Allison Lenocker, CCJ
Unfortunately, extensive professional experience and a wide range of skills and knowledge did not prevent Debbie from losing her housing. She enjoyed work and talks with pride about all she did. But she had a string of serious health problems arise that took her out of the workforce and led to the situation she is in now. “I didn’t plan to have these types of health issues,” she said. “I didn’t plan to not be able to work.”
Debbie has been in her current apartment, in a senior complex, for about a year. The apartment where she had been living previously sold and the new owners raised the rent by about 44%, an increase that was unaffordable on her fixed income. For a year she depended on friends to let her couch-surf because she had no place of her own. Emergency or temporary housing could not take her because of her health condition. She started at number 24 on a waiting list for affordable housing, and was finally accepted.
A growing problem
Debbie’s story is not a rarity. She and others in her complex fear being unable to pay the rent if and when another raise goes into effect, as has happened three times in two years. Allison Lenocker, executive director of the Coalition for Compassion and Justice, has seen a drastic change in the population staying in the organization’s overnight emergency shelter in Prescott: now about half the clients are 65 and older or disabled. CCJ personnel frequently receive calls from seniors who are being priced out of their housing and need rent assistance. “There are a lot of different names for people experiencing homelessness,” Lenocker said, “the current most common names are Grandma and Grandpa.”
Nationwide tens of thousands of seniors have become homeless for the first time since 2022. Those born in the later years of the postwar baby boom (1955-1965) are pushing the rise in the 65+ cohort. This, in addition to inflation and rising costs for housing and rent, has been leading to disaster. While likely to vary by location, a study by Professor Dennis Culhane of the University of Pennsylvania has documented a rapid rise in seniors experiencing homelessness, projecting that this population will triple by 2030. Says Culhane, this “gray wave” of homelessness is on track to meet that projection.
Just last month the state’s first emergency shelter specifically for seniors opened in Phoenix. With US Census data from July 2024 showing about 35% of the Yavapai County population is over 65, the need for assistance and services specific to seniors is critically important. For now, nonprofits like CCJ are struggling and often unable to meet the need. More rural areas of the county like Cottonwood and Paulden have even fewer or no resources to draw from.
Seniors like Stephanie and Mayra (not their real names) are embarrassed by their situations and fear facing the stigma associated with poverty and homelessness.
Stephanie has lived in Prescott for thirty years. She has been educating herself about the housing problem since she started experiencing housing insecurity and heard stories from her neighbors. “I’d say that 90% of people in my building are women,” which, she argues, correlates with why so many of them are housing-insecure. Women in the Baby-Boom generation frequently stayed at home to care for children. When they did work outside the home, they were paid less than men in the same jobs. Consequently they don’t have as much savings and retirement income to draw on as seniors.
Mayra, almost 65, has lived in Prescott her entire life. She lived on the streets for many years. To get into her apartment she stayed at a women’s shelter, which helped her get a priority spot on the waiting list for affordable housing. Since moving into her apartment two years ago the rent has gone up three times, from about $500 per month to about $700 now. Despite health problems and a lack of reliable transportation Mayra holds down a job, but still will be unable to pay her rent if there is another increase. She has been reaching out to all the area services she can think of, but has not found anyone who can help.
Compounding problems
Having a strong support network can sometimes be the buffer between staying housed and becoming homeless, but with age those support networks often dwindle. Family and friends age and pass away. Chronic health issues can keep people from getting out as much and connecting with faith communities, senior centers and other places that might be willing and able to help prevent a crisis. All the seniors interviewed for this story have no family nearby able to help. Adult children and relatives are spread from California to Arkansas and Florida, making it difficult for them to provide support. The only one who does have family here, Mayra, has an adult son who lives in Prescott Valley. He has severe cognitive disabilities that prevent him from living on his own, and he needs her help. Mayra has tried to make arrangements for him to live with her, but because he is not yet 62, he is not eligible.
In 2022 Arizona State University published a report on housing insecurity in Yavapai County. Its findings state that a renter living on unemployment would not be able to afford even a studio apartment. Someone living on Social Security with the average monthly benefit of $794 would only be able to afford $238 in monthly rent, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anything that cheap in the county. Some of the reasons for the lack of affordable housing here include how the County and City governments have handled the problem, an abundance of short-term rentals, a shortage of available housing stock, and the absence of a County-based housing authority.
In 2021 Yavapai County received nearly $46 million from the American Rescue Plan Act, part of the pandemic recovery fund. Other counties in the state allocated portions of their ARPA funds for affordable-housing development, rent and mortgage assistance, and case-management services. The Yavapai Board of Supervisors, however, did not invest in any of those things. The funds were used for other services, including broadband service, water and sewage infrastructure, and infrastructure projects, but excluded anything to address the housing problem.
The City of Prescott 2025 General Plan includes plans to improve workforce housing, but fails to mention housing for seniors or those experiencing homelessness. Some of the ideas considered could address housing overall, but are limited in their effectiveness and likelihood of implementation. The plan mentions that in neighborhoods outside the city center there are “opportunities for moderately affordable housing.”
With regard to zoning, the establishment of Medium-High Density Residential Areas could increase housing stock by allowing more housing units, including duplexes and apartments, in smaller areas. Disappointingly, even within this zoning category, Low-Medium Density and Very Low Density Residential Areas would also be allowed, defeating the purpose of a zoning designation that could help create more housing. One proposal that could help, if implemented, is to amend City code to allow accessory dwelling units (small detached housing units on the same lot as a house) to be used as long-term rentals. Short-term rentals, like those you can find on Airbnb, mean fewer long-term rental units available to residents. These can be financially beneficial investments for owners, but they have negatively effected the larger community. The ASU report shows Airbnb listings in the county increasing by 370% between 2016 and 2020.
This has got the attention of State Representative Selina Bliss, who represents most of Yavapai County. In 2016 the State passed a bill that preemptively prohibited local governments from regulating short-term rentals. Bliss is trying to amend this through her House Bill 2131. Last year it was assigned to committee, but the chair decided not to hear it; this year it didn’t even make it to a committee. The bill would have kept in place a prohibition on municipalities limiting or banning short-term rentals, but placed additional requirements on owners operating them. The thinking is that the extra requirements — notifying neighbors, maintaining liability insurance and a local permit, and more — would have increased the work required to operate a short-term rental, thereby reducing the number of owners willing to take on the job.
A stack of letters Bliss has received from constituents documents the large number of seniors being priced out of their homes. Without greater support in the Legislature however, the bills Bliss has introduced to help with the housing crisis “aren’t getting traction,” and keep failing to make legislative progress. She recommended that constituents write more letters to her and other legislators so she can have weighty proof of the extent of this problem and increase pressure on lawmakers to take up this issue.
The insufficient housing supply, especially in long-term rentals, has had a severe impact on county residents. Mayra and Debbie faced long wait times to get into housing because there simply is not enough. “I was basically waiting for someone to die so their apartment opens up,” Debbie said. In the 2020 US Census data Yavapai County had a rental vacancy rate of just 4.2%, compared with 8.46% for 2013. On top of that, with such low stock and high demand, owners can charge higher rents and be more selective of applicants.
Collectively this results in more renters being cost-burdened, officially meaning that 30% or more of their income goes to housing. A 2020 survey by the Morrison Institute for Public Policy found that for Yavapai County, 44% of renters fall into this category. With her Social Security and work income combined, Mayra is right at spending 30% of her income on rent. If the rent rises, her car breaks down, she gets sick or has her work hours cut, she will be in a desperate situation.
Combined with more available emergency rental assistance, something that can be done at the county and municipality level is to establish a housing authority. This was stated in Prescott’s 2015 General Plan as a way to address the housing issue. Ten years later, however, it still has not begun. The 2025 plan again mentions it as an effective tool to “influence the balance and affordability of housing.” The ASU report also recommends creating a housing authority, asserting that the lack of one is detrimental to the community. A housing authority “could be helpful in establishing an organized hub where residents can receive support,” as well as bring together public and nonprofit agencies to pool resources and develop more affordable housing.
Keeping seniors housed
Micheal McInnes with the Prescott Chamber of Commerce oversees the funding for its Minor Home-Repair Program. He has seen many seniors whose homes are “one disaster away from being unlivable.” Water heaters going out is a common problem. One woman lived without hot water for several years before getting assistance from the home-repair program. Another project McInnes recalls was for an elderly couple who had lived in Prescott since the ‘60s. A problem with their gas line was tagged by the gas company and their housing was on the line. With the repair program the problem was fixed within two months. Later, “The wife came in to thank the Chamber because her husband was now on hospice and could be at home because they had heat.”
The Minor Home-Repair Program is not limited to seniors, but eligible persons have to be residents in the City of Prescott. The maximum grant per home is $5,000. Eligible repairs and more information can be found on the Chamber website (prescott.org) or by calling 928-445-2000. Currently the chamber has about $95,000 in available funds provided by the City through a Community Development Block Grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Nonprofit organizations are doing their best to address the crisis. CCJ hopes to have the first few homes for low-income, fixed-income and working families available in Paloma Village by the end of the year. Other organizations assist people in filling out housing applications, provide free meals or food boxes, and furnish utility assistance. Community-resource specialists at the Prescott and Prescott Valley public libraries can answer a wide range of questions, connect people with services, make referrals and more. Bliss refers those in need of housing assistance to the Arizona Department of Housing (housing.az.gov; 602-771-1000).
Beyond these resources our local and state authorities can do a lot more to proactively address housing needs before people are in crisis. Our neighbors, our elders, are struggling. They are veterans, retired city workers, grandparents, artists. The one thing Debbie wants others to understand is that “we all need to be treated with dignity.” To treat people like Debbie, Stephanie, and Mayra with dignity means to take seriously their situations and work to prevent homelessness. Tragically, Mayra says that “unless a miracle pops up,” the looming disaster is only getting closer.
