Updated: Wednesday, April 14, 2021 - 4:50pm
A regional network designed to help vulnerable people finds itself in need of help. And lives are at stake.
The Valley’s Heat Relief Network wants to avoid a repeat of last year when 207 people in Maricopa County died due to heat related causes between May and October. That’s more than double the year before when the county health department confirmed 85 heat associated deaths.
“So we see a very direct correlation between the regional heat relief network and the numbers of partners that it has and the amount of support that we’re able to offer and the number of people who are losing their lives to the extreme summer heat,” Amy St. Peter, deputy executive director of the Maricopa Association of Governments, told the Phoenix City Council on Tuesday.
City discusses addressing homelessness with regional agency in policy session
The City Council met for the policy session on April 13, 2021 (John Sanders/DD)
Cities like Phoenix in the state of Arizona are trying to address the widespread issue of
homelessness, and in this week’s policy session the City Council met with the regional agency Maricopa Association of Governments, a group that focuses on addressing problems and insensitive government actions.
MAG has members from 27 cities and towns and three Native nations that are devoted to exploring the issue. It was formed in the late 1960s and since then, its formation has tackled community issues such as the completion of a multi-city sewage treatment plant located at 91st Avenue.
Trash outside tents near Ninth Avenue and Jackson Street on Feb. 5, 2020.
MARK BRODIE: In a few months, the Phoenix metro area should have a comprehensive regional plan to address homelessness. The Maricopa Association of Governments, known as MAG, presented an overview to the Phoenix City Council yesterday [April 13]. KJZZ’s Christina Estes listened in and she joins me now to talk about it. Good morning, Christina.
CHRISTINA ESTES: Good morning, Mark.
BRODIE: So, Phoenix has really been pushing for a plan like this, right?
ESTES: Yes. Over the last year, you and I have talked about Phoenix leaders advocating for a regional approach to homelessness. They feel like the Human Services Campus near downtown Phoenix has become the place where other cities send people rather than offer services and shelters in their own communities.
Good, bad and ugly: Covid-19âs impact on the Valleyâs tourism sector detailed in study
ABC15
Posted at 9:16 AM, Apr 13, 2021
and last updated 2021-04-13 12:16:27-04
While it has been very clear that the Covid-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the Valley s hospitality and tourism industry,
a new white paper published by the Maricopa Association of Governments shows just how bad things actually got.
The paper, which was published this month, also looks at how tourism from Mexico and Canada, which usually is a major economic driver, was hindered and hurt the overall economy.
âIn Arizona, the abrupt cancellation of the Major League Baseball spring training season and other sporting events, business meetings and conventions, along with the closing of restaurants, bars and casinos, resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales,â the report said.
Local campaign aims to reduce pedestrian crashes in the Valley
A hit-and-run pedestrian crash Sunday night left a Phoenix woman dead while the driver sped off. A new campaign aims to reduce the number of similar accidents. Author: Chris Latella Updated: 6:33 PM MST April 6, 2021
PHOENIX Jackie Peloquin was full of hope. Hope that things would be better in the future. Hope that her circumstances would soon improve, making it easier for her to visit her children and grandchild.
That hope ended abruptly when she was struck by a car while crossing Cave Creek Road at Sahuaro Road, in Phoenix Sunday night. Easter night.