An Evidence-Based Approach to Tackling Homelessness in Phoenix: The LATCH Partnership
A five-year innovation and learning partnership with the City of Phoenix’s Office of Homeless Solutions to create durable solutions that make homelessness rare, brief, and nonrecurring.
At a Glance
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Focus areas: Housing Stability; Workforce Pathways; Economic Opportunity; Data-Driven Decisionmaking
Community Partners: City of Phoenix Office of Homeless Solutions (OHS)
Timeline: October 2025 – December 2030
Project Stage: Active implementation / Learning Phase
Communities across the United States are facing record levels of homelessness driven by rising housing costs, income instability, and limited access to housing assistance. These pressures are even stronger in rapidly growing cities such as Phoenix, Arizona. City leaders in Phoenix are seeking new, evidence-driven approaches that move beyond emergency response toward durable, long-term solutions.
The Learning Accelerator for Tackling City Homelessness (LATCH) is a five-year, place-based learning partnership between AIR and the City of Phoenix’s Office of Homeless Solutions (OHS). With support from the AIR Opportunity Fund, AIR is working with OHS to design, pilot, and evaluate innovative housing and workforce strategies, such as master leasing, shared housing, rapid exit, and prevention strategies for individuals experiencing episodic or chronic homelessness.
AIR will evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies while strengthening the city’s capacity to use return-on-investment and outcomes data to adapt programs and prioritize resources for programs that work.
Rachel Milne
Director, Office of Homeless Solutions
We’re grateful to partner with AIR because their support will make a real difference for our community and the people we serve. Their work will help us invest where it matters most, launch our new Master Leasing program so more people can have a home of their own, and provide new workforce opportunities that open doors to employment for people to help end their homelessness. It’s great to have partners with expertise across so many fields who truly believe in this work and help us do it even better.
Rachel Milne
Director, Office of Homeless Solutions
LATCH blends rigorous research, technical assistance, and rapid-cycle learning to help Phoenix strengthen pathways out of homelessness today—and to generate actionable insights and tools that can inform homelessness responses in other communities nationwide.
Project Goals
- Design effective solutions together with community leaders and people with lived experiences of homelessness so solutions are tailored to what works locally.
- Advance innovation in housing solutions by piloting evidence-informed models that expand housing options beyond traditional subsidies.
- Introduce new workforce supports into homelessness response systems by piloting workforce interventions that improve work-readiness and employment and earning outcomes.
- Provide technical assistance and use both rapid-cycle learning and longer-term evaluation to support the success of pilots.
- Build decision ready ROI and outcomes data by using AIR’s data analytics and cost benefit expertise to assess the value of current investments and inform future ones.
- Equip the city for long term learning and scale by developing tools, evidence, and capacity that Phoenix can use to refine programs and sustain progress over time.
Supported by the AIR Opportunity Fund
The AIR Opportunity Fund invests in community-led efforts to expand opportunity and improve lives. Through Priority Places, it supports projects like this one with funding, research, and hands-on partnership—helping communities build on their strengths, strengthen what works, and inform future efforts in other places. Learn more.
