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

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.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs, or quick-response fact checks, about trending claims relating to Arizona.

Sources

• Taxpayer Trade Offs: D.C. Occupation vs. Public Housing, Institute for Policy Studies
• Trump’s Invasion of D.C. Costs Over $1 Million a Day. What Could That Fund Instead? National Priorities Project