Tucson Standard

An organization that helps feed Tucson's homeless has recently reported an increase of people requesting assistance, according to a KGUN 9 report.

Brian Flagg, director of the Casa Maria Soup Kitchen, has been providing soup to hungry people for 39 years; now, he states that more people are requesting food.

“The soup pot is running out, like real early every morning," Flagg said. “I'm seeing a big huge increase of people on the street, people that are hungry, people that are kind of desperate; there are more people on the street, anybody that's got eyes can see."

The Soup Kitchen provides store-surplus food alongside groceries bought with monetary contributions.

Omar Tapia, who said he has been homeless for the last two years after a difficult divorce, described how most of his day is spent ensuring that he has enough food to eat and expressed his gratitude for the charity's services.

“It’s half a day because I have to walk all the way from Old Spanish Trail all the way over here, then I got to walk back with the food and stuff," Tapia said. "But it’s a blessing you know and we appreciate you coming out and finding how it’s going on."

Tapia also described his difficulties as he waits for a place to live.

“I stay right here at the park or back here by the railroad," he said. "It’s hard, the nighttime, the bugs and the heat, the heat’s what really gets you.”

Flagg expressed gratitude for the local government's assistance with food, although he noted that this assistance is decreasing.

COVID-19 relief money helped governments house people in motels for a while, but that’s scaling back.