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Wednesday, Sep. 10, 2025

Could Arizona shelter its entire unhoused population for less than the daily cost of deploying troops to Washington, D.C.?

Tallulah Anne, Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
yes

Deploying National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., costs more than three times the daily price of housing all Arizonans experiencing homelessness, according to a recent analysis from the Institute for Policy Studies, a public policy think-tank.

The Institute estimated public housing costs about $20.15 per person per day. With nearly 15,000 unhoused Arizonans as of August 2025, that amounts to almost $300,000 daily.

In contrast, the National Priorities Project reports that it costs about $530 per day to deploy one National Guard soldier to Washington. With more than 2,000 troops currently deployed there, the daily price tag exceeds $1 million.

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The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is the state’s only independent, nonpartisan and collaborative nonprofit newsroom dedicated to statewide, data-driven investigative reporting. AZCIR's mission is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable by exposing injustice and systemic inequities through investigative journalism.

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