Transiency in Mohave County: When a Growing Social Problem Becomes a Community-Wide Concern

MOHAVE COUNTY, AZ — From Kingman to Bullhead City and communities in between, residents and business owners continue raising concerns about homelessness, transient activity, public disturbances, trespassing, substance abuse and increasingly unpredictable encounters in public places.

One distinction matters immediately: being homeless or transient does not make someone a criminal or dangerous.

Some people are veterans. Some are families who lost housing. Others are elderly, disabled, fleeing domestic violence, dealing with mental-health challenges or simply one financial emergency away from having nowhere to go.

But acknowledging that reality does not mean Mohave County should ignore the problems that can occur when chronic homelessness, untreated mental illness, addiction and criminal behavior overlap.

And residents are increasingly asking: What are we actually doing about it?

Mohave County Is Already Seeing Significant Unsheltered Homelessness

This is not simply a problem residents are imagining.

Arizona's 2025 Point-in-Time count identified 379 unsheltered people in Mohave County from 301 surveyed households. A Point-in-Time count represents only a snapshot of homelessness on a particular night, so it should not be interpreted as the total number of people who experience homelessness throughout an entire year.

Catholic Charities, which operates the emergency shelter and outreach center in Bullhead City, states that more than 200 people experience homelessness in Mohave County on a given night. Its Bullhead City facility can provide temporary shelter for individuals, families and veterans, while also offering meals, showers, laundry, case management and other services.

Mohave County itself operates a Homeless Continuum of Care, bringing together service providers, community organizations and residents with the stated goal of reducing homelessness and improving access to housing and other services.

So resources exist.

The bigger question is whether the existing system is keeping pace with what communities are experiencing.

“Mohave County Just Called to Me”

Another issue The Mohave Insider has heard about is people arriving in Mohave County without necessarily having permanent housing, employment or an established support system.

Some individuals have described simply packing up and relocating to Mohave County, saying the area “called to them,” seemed affordable, offered a chance to start over or was simply where they decided they wanted to be.

Those individual accounts should not be interpreted as proof of some organized migration of homeless people into Mohave County.

But they raise a legitimate question.

What happens when someone moves here without housing, employment, transportation or family support and then discovers that getting established is much harder than expected?

Mohave County already acknowledges that affordable and workforce housing is a major local concern, with officials saying additional rental and housing inventory is needed as the county continues growing.

Someone arriving with very little money can quickly find themselves sleeping in a vehicle, staying temporarily with others or living on the street.

Recent Incidents Are Increasing Public Concern

The issue becomes especially difficult when homelessness or transient activity intersects with criminal behavior.

Recent dispatch calls monitored throughout Mohave County have included disturbances, trespassing complaints, fights, suspicious-person calls and other incidents involving individuals described by callers as transient or homeless.

In one recent Bullhead City incident, emergency dispatch traffic indicated that a woman reportedly used pepper spray during an alleged daytime robbery attempt near a store parking lot after a man allegedly tried to rob her.

The circumstances surrounding individual dispatch calls can change as police investigate, and a dispatch description should never be treated as a final determination of guilt.

But incidents like these understandably get the public's attention.

A resident walking into a grocery store or across a parking lot should not have to wonder whether an encounter with a stranger (who had a violent crime record prior) is going to become violent.

A small-business owner should not have to repeatedly remove people from private property.

Families should be able to use parks and public spaces safely.

And law enforcement should not become the county's default mental-health, addiction and homelessness response system simply because no other solution is immediately available.

Don't Confuse Homelessness With Criminality

There also needs to be some fairness in this conversation.

If someone commits robbery, assault, theft, vandalism or another crime, the criminal behavior is the problem — not the fact that the person may be homeless.

Likewise, a person quietly sleeping in a vehicle because they lost their apartment should not automatically be treated like someone repeatedly committing crimes.

Combining every homeless person into one category makes solving the issue harder.

Mohave County needs to distinguish between:

People temporarily experiencing homelessness who want assistance.

People struggling with serious mental illness or addiction who require treatment and intensive services.

People who repeatedly refuse available assistance but are not committing crimes.

And people committing crimes who should be dealt with through the criminal-justice system regardless of their housing status.

Those are not the same problem, and they should not receive identical responses.

Residents Are Frustrated with the Revolving Door

One of the most common frustrations expressed by residents is what appears to be a revolving door.

Police respond.

Someone is removed.

A report is taken.

Resources may be offered.

Then another complaint occurs.

Residents begin wondering whether anything actually changes.

That frustration is understandable, but solving chronic homelessness requires more than repeatedly moving someone from one parking lot, wash, sidewalk or neighborhood to another.

Mohave County's Continuum of Care says its objectives include emergency, transitional and permanent housing, connecting people with mainstream programs and helping people become self-sufficient.

The county's Housing Authority also operates programs for low-income residents, veterans, people with disabilities and certain individuals needing supportive housing. In 2026, the Housing Authority says it assists approximately 556 individuals and families through its various voucher and supportive-housing programs.

But government programs alone cannot solve every case.

What Should Mohave County Do?

The conversation needs to move beyond simply asking whether we should “help the homeless” or “get rid of transients.”

Neither statement is a serious policy.

Instead, Mohave County communities should be asking:

Are people being connected with resources before they reach a crisis?

Do we have enough mental-health and addiction-treatment capacity?

Are chronic offenders being appropriately held accountable?

Are law-enforcement officers repeatedly responding to people who actually need behavioral-health intervention?

Are services helping people become self-sufficient or simply managing homelessness from one day to the next?

Do businesses have a clear process for dealing with repeated trespassing and disturbances?

Are people being discharged from hospitals, jails or treatment programs without somewhere stable to go?

And perhaps most importantly:

Do Kingman, Bullhead City, Lake Havasu City and Mohave County have a coordinated long-term strategy rather than each community pushing the problem somewhere else?

Compassion and Accountability Can Exist Together

This issue should not require choosing between compassion and public safety.

Mohave County can help the veteran who lost his home.

We can help the mother escaping domestic violence.

We can help someone who became homeless after losing a job.

We can encourage treatment for addiction and serious mental illness.

At the same time, residents should not be expected to tolerate theft, assault, harassment, vandalism or repeated trespassing simply because the offender is experiencing homelessness.

Helping someone does not mean eliminating accountability.

And enforcing laws does not mean abandoning compassion.

Mohave County Cannot Ignore the Problem

Mohave County continues growing, and homelessness and housing instability cannot simply be treated as somebody else's problem.

The county already has service providers, shelters, housing programs, nonprofits, churches and law enforcement working on different pieces of the issue.

What residents increasingly want to know is whether those pieces are actually working together — and whether the results are visible in their neighborhoods.

The goal should not simply be moving a transient person from one street corner to another.

It should be getting people who genuinely want help connected with a path toward stability, getting those suffering from serious behavioral-health problems into appropriate services, and holding people who victimize others accountable for their actions.

Because ignoring the problem helps nobody — not residents, not businesses, not law enforcement, and certainly not the people living on the streets.

The Mohave Insider: Stay Informed. Stay Involved.

This article discusses homelessness, transiency, and public-safety concerns as separate but sometimes overlapping issues. Housing status alone does not indicate criminal behavior. References to recent dispatch incidents reflect preliminary information available at the time and may change following law-enforcement investigation. Individuals are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court. Business Owners Say They Are Reaching a Breaking Point

Another part of the transiency issue is the impact on local business owners and their employees.

Business owners have told The Mohave Insi

der they are increasingly frustrated by repeated trespassing, people sleeping in entryways, property damage, trash being left behind and individuals returning shortly after being asked to leave.

Some have described arriving at work to find human fecal matter near entrances or outside their front doors, forcing employees or owners to clean and sanitize the area before customers arrive.

Others have reported concerns involving:

• Repeated trespassing on private property

• Damage to landscaping, fencing, or business property

• People sleeping in doorways or behind buildings

• Shopping carts and personal belongings being abandoned

• Trash, food containers, and other debris being left behind

• Public urination or defecation

• Drug paraphernalia or needles being discovered near businesses

• Verbal confrontations with employees or customers

• Customers feeling uncomfortable entering certain areas

• Businesses repeatedly calling law enforcement about the same individuals

• Individuals leaving after police or employees intervene, only to return later

For a small-business owner, these incidents are not simply an inconvenience.

They can mean paying for repairs, additional cleaning, security cameras, lighting, fencing, or private security. Employees may also be placed in uncomfortable situations when they are expected to confront someone trespassing or behaving unpredictably.

Perhaps one of the biggest frustrations business owners express is feeling like the same problem keeps returning.

Someone is asked to leave.

Law enforcement may respond.

The individual leaves.

Then, sometimes hours or days later, the business owner says the same person is back.

That creates frustration for businesses that feel they are spending time and money addressing problems that should not continually fall on private property owners.

Small Businesses Shouldn't Become Social-Service Agencies

Local businesses have their own responsibilities: serving customers, paying employees, paying rent, maintaining their property and keeping their doors open.

They should not also be expected to function as homeless shelters, behavioral-health facilities or addiction-treatment centers.

At the same time, employees should not be encouraged to put themselves in danger by physically confronting someone.

When possible, businesses should document recurring incidents, preserve security footage, clearly mark private property and report suspected criminal behavior through the appropriate law-enforcement channels.

But the larger issue remains.

How many times should a business owner have to call about the same problem before something changes?

There Has to Be a Better Balance

Mohave County communities need a response that recognizes both sides of this problem.

People experiencing homelessness deserve access to shelter, food, treatment and assistance.

But business owners also deserve to operate their businesses without repeatedly cleaning human waste from their entrances, repairing damaged property or asking the same person to stop trespassing.

Compassion for someone experiencing homelessness should never require ignoring the rights of everyone around them.

Private property is still private property.

Criminal behavior is still criminal behavior.

And businesses should not be expected to absorb the financial and emotional cost of a larger social problem indefinitely.

The goal should be getting people who want help connected with organizations such as 2-1-1 Arizona, Cornerstone Mission and Catholic Charities, while making sure repeated criminal behavior and property violations are addressed appropriately.

Mohave County needs solutions that protect vulnerable people and the residents, employees and businesses being affected.

The Mohave Insider recognizes that homelessness or transient status alone does not indicate criminal behavior. The concerns described above relate to specific reported behaviors and should not be attributed to all people experiencing homelessness.

Resources Are Available in Mohave County

While Mohave County needs to address the public-safety concerns connected with chronic homelessness, addiction, untreated mental illness and repeat criminal behavior, it is equally important that residents know help is available for people who genuinely want it.

Someone struggling with homelessness should not have to wait until they are sleeping in a parking lot or having contact with law enforcement before learning where they can turn.

2-1-1 Arizona

One of the easiest starting points is 2-1-1 Arizona.

Residents can dial 2-1-1 to be connected with local programs and services throughout Arizona. The service can help people locate resources involving housing, food, utility assistance, healthcare, and other community needs. Phone assistance is currently available from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week, in English and Spanish. (2-1-1 Arizona)

For someone who does not know which organization can help with their particular situation, calling 2-1-1 can be a good first step.

Catholic Charities — Bullhead City

In the Bullhead City area, Catholic Charities Community Services operates the Legacy Foundation Christine Stamper Center for Help & Hope.

The center provides short-term emergency shelter along with a day resource center offering services such as hot meals, showers, laundry facilities, hygiene supplies, computer access, homeless outreach and case management. (211 Arizona)

The Catholic Charities Bullhead City office is located at 1594 N. Oatman Road in Bullhead City and lists 928-758-4872 as its phone number. (Catholic Charities Community Services)

Catholic Charities also provides housing and homeless-outreach programs intended to help connect people with more stable housing and other assistance. (Catholic Charities Community Services)

Cornerstone Mission — Kingman

Kingman also has a major local resource through Cornerstone Mission Project, Inc.

Cornerstone Mission is a faith-based nonprofit providing emergency shelter, food, clothing, and case-management assistance to people experiencing homelessness.

The organization operates shelter services for men through Cornerstone Mission and for women and children through Diana's Faith House. (Cornerstone Mission Project, Inc.)

Cornerstone also offers services including meals, showers, sack lunches and assistance intended to help people move toward employment, housing and greater self-sufficiency. (Cornerstone Mission Project, Inc.)

Cornerstone Mission Project3049 Sycamore Avenue Kingman, AZ 86409Call or text: 928-757-1535 (Cornerstone Mission Project, Inc.)

Resources Only Work When People Know About Them

This is why the discussion about transiency in Mohave County cannot focus exclusively on enforcement.

Residents and businesses deserve safety and accountability.

At the same time, a person sleeping outside who genuinely wants to get off the street should know where to go.

Someone struggling with addiction, unemployment or housing instability should be connected with resources before the situation becomes another emergency dispatch call.

Organizations such as 2-1-1 Arizona, Catholic Charities and Cornerstone Mission are already part of that network.

The challenge for Mohave County is making sure those resources are accessible, coordinated and reaching the people who need them — while still holding individuals accountable when their actions cross the line into criminal behavior.

Compassion and accountability do not have to compete with each other. Mohave County needs both.

Programs, eligibility requirements, available beds, hours and services may change. Residents should contact organizations directly to verify current availability.