Phoenix faces suits over homeless crisis

PHOENIX — Phoenix is facing dueling lawsuits as it tries to manage a crisis of homelessness that has converted its downtown into a tent city, housing hundreds of people as summer temperatures soar.

The city was ordered by the local Superior Court to clear out the downtown encampment because it is considered a “public nuisance.” But Arizona’s American Civil Liberties Union argued in a federal lawsuit the city is violating the constitutional rights of unhoused people by slowly clearing the area known as “The Zone.”

The dilemma faced by Phoenix is an example of the balance municipalities across the United States now must strike when trying to satisfy the demands of residents and business owners while respecting the rights of homeless people.

Seattle faced a similar situation in 2020 when a woman sued the city, alleging a sweep of the homeless encampment where she lived would violate her rights.

In New Mexico, as the city of Albuquerque worked to prohibit panhandling along roadways, the ACLU fought for that right.

U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow on Friday declined a request by the ACLU to declare Phoenix in contempt of a ruling he issued in December that ordered the city to refrain from enforcing camping and sleeping bans against people who cannot get shelter. He said he would not bar the city from further cleanups at the encampment site pending another hearing set for next month.

Amid the back and forth in court, Phoenix area advocates have scrambled for more shelter space for homeless people as the hot season begins.

Shelter space in an old motel came online Friday, but with just 52 beds, it’s hardly enough as Arizona’s largest county announces the first four heat associated deaths of the year.