Tucson’s new homeless survey asks who’s at most risk of dying

Tucson outreach workers are using a new local questionnaire to help determine which people experiencing homelessness are most at risk of dying outdoors. The tool is intended to guide decisions about limited housing resources, with a focus on factors linked to heat-related and other deaths.

The survey was developed by the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness and local nonprofits, including Primavera. It replaces the national VI-SPDAT questionnaire, which had been used in Tucson for about a decade and faced criticism over personal questions and concerns about racial inequities.

Local officials and researchers used Pima County medical examiner data to help design the new tool. In 2024, 195 people experiencing homelessness accounted for 10% of the deaths investigated by the office. In 2025, the figure was 201 out of 2,103 deaths, also about 10%.

The questionnaire considers factors such as exposure to violence, domestic violence, serious health conditions, substance use and a person’s ability to reach a cooler indoor space. A pilot involving more than 270 people found that it better identified those considered most vulnerable to dying outside. However, the survey does not create additional housing, and people can lose their place in line if outreach workers cannot locate them after three attempts.