Agility, lifelong habits help Joan Serviss on quest to end homelessness in Arizona

Joan Serviss says she stumbled into a career focused on ending homelessness and addressing housing affordability. Lucky for Arizona she quickly found her footing to become one of the state’s leading lights in that sphere. 

Her new role as director of affordable housing and homelessness at the Arizona Community Foundation adds a philanthropy lens to her longtime policy and advocacy focus on a critical social and economic issue. Prior to joining ACF in January, she was director of the Arizona Department of Housing and executive director of the Arizona Housing Coalition, formerly the Arizona Coalition to End Homelessness.

“When you talk about homelessness,” Serviss said, “you can’t not talk about housing. I hope to have my career always be focused on the full housing continuum — from our unhoused population to keeping people stably housed in their home — whether that be an apartment or a home.”

Serviss may not have known decades ago that ending homelessness would be a career focus, but it seems clear in hindsight that advocacy on behalf of others would be at the core of who she is personally and professionally. 

In her youth, local policy and local politics were kitchen table conversations; advocacy was a family value. Childhood birthday celebrations at Phoenix parks may have been an early clue of who she would become. “Many of our birthday leftovers were distributed to our unhoused neighbors who frequented those parks,” she said.

An opportunity to do more for unhoused neighbors and the organizations that serve them arose in 2010. Serviss had done advocacy work for the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans and the County Supervisors Association of Arizona before she caught wind of an executive director job opening up at what was then the Arizona Coalition to End Homelessness, before the merger with the Arizona Housing Alliance. The tip came from her mother, Eddie Sissons, who served on the coalition’s board and who also has a legacy of advocacy, particularly in health policy.

“She said you’d be a good candidate for it,” Serviss said. “I said sure, but you have to get off the board first. You can be my mom but not my boss.”

Serviss sees housing as essential to community health. It’s also “very personal,” she said. 

“Everyone has a housing story, even our unhoused neighbors,” Serviss said. “The unfortunate thing is we’re starting to see generational stories of unhoused families.”

“Housing has become a lot more amplified because of COVID,” Serviss said. “Housing became not just a home. It was our work spaces. It was our classroom. It was a place to recuperate and recover from the virus. So, housing is foundational. Housing is healthcare. Housing is educational backbone.”

And at a time when housing seems more important than ever, the public regard for those experiencing homelessness is coarsening. 

“There’s been a tone and tenor shift around our unhoused neighbors and I hate it,” Serviss said. “I don’t like it all. It’s not fair. They are experiencing a housing crisis. They are not defined by that. We just need to recognize the humanity and work on the dignity and how we can connect them to the help that they need.”

Serviss’ years of policy advocacy work for Arizona-based nonprofit organizations made her a familiar face at the political rough and tumble place that is the State Capitol. But her nomination by Gov. Katie Hobbs in 2023 to lead the Arizona Department of Housing stalled during a particularly intense period of political vitriol between the executive and legislative branches of government. “Housing hero falls short of Senate approval” is not the headline dozens of bipartisan leaders who endorsed Serviss for the position wanted to read in the “Arizona Capitol Times.”

“Joan Serviss is a highly qualified leader and passionate public servant who has a proven track record of making housing more affordable and combatting homelessness,” Hobbs said in a statement Feb. 25, 2025, prior to the Arizona Senate rejecting Serviss’ confirmation on a party line vote. 

“Director Serviss is more than just capable; she is extremely effective,” Hobbs said in the statement. “She quickly, skillfully, and successfully implemented historic investments -- $165 million in the Housing Trust Fund and $60 million in the Homeless Shelter and Services Fund. Under her leadership, the state funded and broke ground on more affordable housing units than any other two-year time period in our history, dramatically expanded capacity for transitional housing and shelters, and created economic opportunity by making first-time homeownership a reality for more Arizonans. Director Serviss has been central to the strides we have made to make housing more affordable in Arizona.” 

Serviss continues to be at forefront of Arizona homelessness and affordable housing policy. She serves on the board of directors of the Arizona Research Center for Housing and Economic Solutions, which is co-located at Arizona State University Morrison Institute for Public Policy and the University of Arizona Drachman Institute. She’s also been a member of the LISC Phoenix Local Advisory Committee for several years, a position that Serviss said has expanded her “portfolio of knowledge to affordable housing development.”

“I’ve always trusted and relied on the generosity of spirit from LISC Phoenix,” Serviss said. “There is no dumb question. Terry (Benelli) and staff have always been willing to offer their expertise and support. It’s been lovely.” 

At Arizona Community Foundation, where she oversees the foundation’s Impact Investing Program, Affordable Housing Fund, and Metro Phoenix Housing Collaborative Fund, Serviss will continue to burnish her housing hero bona fides.

ACF, which made a significant contribution to nonprofit affordable housing construction with a predevelopment loan fund, is exploring ways to be responsive to the changing affordable housing development market in Arizona, Serviss said. ACF’s influence is not just through the power of the purse, Serviss said, adding that she is exploring ways the foundation can advance work on the issue through convening, bringing folks together, technical assistance and other actions that address how to prevent folks from ever entering homelessness.

“How can we support the existing homelessness system, the shelter providers who are having a lot of uncertainty? How can we help support them because we are always going to have to have shelter, because people will have hard times at times?”

A little alliteration runs through Serviss’ mind as she moves forward on her quest to end homelessness:

“How do we prevent? How do we protect? How do we produce? That’s where ACF has its loan products. How do we preserve our affordable housing? How do we address our priority populations, whether they be seniors or tribal members, veterans or what other population there seems to be political will, community support or funding for?”

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