Mayor Regina Romero led the celebration, along with HCD Deputy Director Jason Thorpe, Community Safety Health and Wellness Director Brandi Champion, and MDOT Coordinator Thelma Magallanes. 

In 2024 some 400 volunteers contributed more than 1,000 hours to assemble hundreds of care kits which were distributed to unsheltered individuals, 990 heat relief kits alone last summer. 

Mayor Romero, who along with the City Council have been staunch supporters of Housing First, lauded the MDOT team and volunteers for their commitment by showing dignity to people living in the camps with hope for a better future  

“Housing First focuses on the most marginalized and in need,” she said. 

Herlinda has lived in a mobile home for over 20 years. When she started renting, she and her family lived in poor conditions. The mobile home lacked reliable cooling, had defects, and the property owner did not care. 

Sandra lives in a trailer park and sees many similar problems with her neighbors who face unfair rental practices. Her neighbors, who have no other housing options, live on the margins. This insecurity creates a myriad of emotional and financial problems. 

But that could change. Sandra and Herlinda and others in similar situations are members of Poder Casas Móviles (Mobile Home Power), a group of mobile home park residents and supporters seeking fairness, and healthy and affordable housing. The group’s mission is to educate mobile home residents to defend and expand their rights against unfair rental increases, utility overcharging, and unjust evictions. 

To support Tucson’s mobile home residents, Sandra and Herlinda are participating in the Mobile Housing Task Force, a subgroup of the City of Tucson’s Commission on Equitable Housing and Development. This open group, which was created earlier this year, is working to overcome barriers for people living in Manufactured Housing Communities (MHCs). 

“By bringing together people with extensive experience from multiple angles, we are working to build cross-sector solutions,” said Raye Winch, a member of the task force and a community housing advocate. 

Winch said some of the task force goals include reducing the number of heat related illnesses and deaths among residents in manufactured housing, reducing the number of evictions and loss of home titles, increasing the reliability and affordability of utility services, and increasing opportunities for resident and non-profit ownership of manufactured home communities. 

One of the main reasons for the creation of the task force, said Winch, is that the group will be able to get a much clearer picture of the challenges that manufactured home residents face and to work for a solution together.  

The task force meets once a month on the 4th Thursday from 1 to 3 p.m. Meeting location is posted on the Commission for Equitable Housing and Development website and via the MH Task Force email sign up list. 

Task force participants include mobile home residents, staff from the Pima County Public Health Department, legal service providers, professors and researchers from the University of Arizona, staff from the AZ Governor's Office, staff from local social service agencies that serve MH residents, people from faith communities, and commissioners from the City of Tucson Commission on Equitable Housing and Development and the Pima County Regional Affordable Housing Commission. 

With triple-digit temps, don’t underestimate the desert heat! The City of Tucson is opening six cooling centers daily (including holidays), from noon - 4 p.m. until Sunday, August 31, to help vulnerable Tucsonans stay safe during the hottest hours of the day.