Neighborhoods seeking solutions
Phoenix-area homelessness crisis primarily burdens working-class communities
Lilia Rubio and her husband bought two empty lots across the street from Perry Park, near 32nd Street and Thomas Road, about three years ago.
The plan was to build two houses, move into one of them and rent or sell the other. Rubio currently lives in Chandler but teaches at an elementary school nearby in south Phoenix.
But now, with one house almost ready for move-in, Rubio isn’t sure if she should go ahead with her plan.
Large groups of people — most experiencing homelessness — frequently overwhelm Perry Park and have broken into Rubio’s under-construction home several times, once setting fire to some of her building materials in the backyard.
The central Phoenix neighborhood surrounding the park has always been a working-class neighborhood, and people experiencing homelessness have occasionally stayed in the park and nearby alleys.
But since mid-2021, people have set up large encampments in the park and outside surrounding businesses like Family Dollar and a local electronics store. Neighbors say this new group frequently uses drugs at the park, harasses passersby and leaves mounds of trash behind.
“I’m like, ‘Wow I don’t know if I’m going to be able to sell this house and get my money back,’” Rubio said.
Rubio and others who live nearby say they’ve filed reports with Phoenix CARES, the system the city set up to track and respond to homelessness issues. They’ve called the police when they’ve seen drug use and other criminal activity. They’ve attended community meetings and contacted their council members.
But they say their complaints are often ignored and dismissed. The most frequent response from the city is, “We can’t criminalize homelessness,” neighbors say.
“They say it’s not against the law to be homeless, and I know it’s not against the law, but what are they really doing about it? It doesn’t really seem the city is really doing anything,” Rubio said.
At least not in her neighborhood, Rubio said.
Arcadia, one of the wealthiest pockets of Phoenix, is just two miles northeast of Perry Park. There are rarely visible signs of homelessness there.
Downtown Phoenix is about five miles west. There, teams of city workers and police officers clean streets with homeless encampments three times per week.
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether the city violates homeless people’s civil rights because of the encampment sweeps it conducts in that area. City leaders contend that
the sweeps are necessary to maintain health and safety.
When Rubio reported the break-ins at her home, police officers told her to put up a no-trespassing sign and install security cameras. When she’s reported encampments, it takes days or weeks
for the city to respond — and they just reappear the next day.
“(This is) a community with a lot of minorities and they don’t have a lot of money. Is that why this is OK? Is this why they allow this? It’s not OK in other communities,” Rubio said.
Low-income neighborhoods hit hardest by homelessness
Phoenix’s homeless population has swelled over the past five years, with most people experiencing homelessness living outside of a shelter — typically on sidewalks or in alleyways or desert washes.
Metro Phoenix has an extreme shortage of emergency shelter beds, which is why most people experiencing homelessness don’t stay in a shelter. Almost every shelter bed in Maricopa County is filled every night of the year.
Between Jan. 1, 2021, and Oct. 31, 2021, Phoenix residents reported more than 3,700 homeless encampments through Phoenix CARES.
The city took an average of eight days to resolve encampments on public property and 16 days on private property, according to Phoenix data.
When a resident reports an encampment, the city dispatches an outreach team to talk to the people experiencing homelessness and offer shelter or other services, if available. They are required to respond within 72 hours, but the teams usually make it out within 24 hours, said Tamyra Spendley, a deputy
director with the Phoenix Human Services Department.
A police officer is only dispatched if the encampment presents a public safety hazard or if the people at the encampment are engaged in a criminal act, said Phoenix police Sgt. Ann Justus.
In 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit struck down a Boise law that outlawed “urban camping” — setting a precedent that cities cannot criminalize people for sleeping or sitting on public property if there is no accessible indoor shelter option.
The Martin v. Boise ruling pushed many Western cities, including those in metro Phoenix, to scale back enforcement of issues related to homelessness in fear of ending up in court as well.
But some residents interviewed by The Arizona Republic said they feel like the city uses the court case as an excuse to not deal with crime and blight in working-class neighborhoods.
Tristia Bauman, senior attorney with the National Homelessness Law Center, said the Martin v. Boise case only prohibits cities from “punishing homeless people for being in public space when they lack indoor alternative.”
In other words, cities can’t fine or arrest people for sleeping, sitting, sheltering themselves, having possessions or other “unavoidable consequences of being a human being.” Punishment of any criminal behavior is still enforceable, she said.
“We hear that excuse all the time, that ‘Martin v. Boise ties our hands to address homelessness.’ That’s just a lie,” Bauman said.
Where homeless camps cluster in Phoenix
Residents reported encampments all over Phoenix, but the biggest clusters were in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods — south Phoenix, west Phoenix, Sunnyslope, the area near Sky Harbor International Airport and the Interstate 17 corridor.
Residents in these areas said the clustering of encampments mainly in working-class neighborhoods shows the city enforces encampment policies more heavily in some neighborhoods than others.
“You don’t see these camps everywhere. You see them almost exclusively in low-income, minority neighborhoods,” said Morgan Sailor, who lives
near Perry Park.
The 85008 ZIP code, which contains Perry Park, has a median household income of $43,600, with 24.1% of residents living below the poverty level, compared with a median household income of $63,900 and 13.7% of residents living below the poverty level in the whole of metro Phoenix, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
More than 55% of 85008 residents are Hispanic or Latino and 12.1% are Black, compared with 31% and 5.5%, respectively, metro Phoenixwide.
City officials said there’s no difference in how the Police Department, code enforcement or human services workers handle complaints about encampments, blight or criminal activity.
“Our officers are trained to handle calls the same, no matter whether you’re in north Phoenix, west Phoenix, south Phoenix,” Justus said.
Neighborhood Services Director
Spencer Self said the time it takes to clear an encampment depends on whether it is on public or private property. If an encampment is on private property, the city has to work with the owner to clear it, which takes more time, he said.
Spendley said the city deploys homeless outreach teams wherever residents report encampments or people experiencing homelessness.
“We offer a lot of services to the neighborhoods, they just have to reach out. The city is very large. Maybe certain neighborhoods don’t know that they can call a neighborhood specialist who can take a look,” Spendley said.
Councilman Carlos Garcia, who represents south Phoenix and the area around Perry Park, said there likely is a difference in how the city responds to lower-income neighborhoods.
“I do think that people who call more often get more responses, and I think some neighborhoods are more used to calling the police ... than other neighborhoods,” he said.
Garcia said some residents may think it’s unsafe for them or people experiencing homelessness to call police.
He said he hopes the city’s expansion of the Community Assistance Program, a civilian-only program that responds to mental health and behavioral calls, may make people more comfortable calling for assistance and lead to better outcomes for people experiencing homelessness.
He said he’s been working with the community around Perry Park on nonpolice programs that could change the character of the neighborhood and reduce crime, like encouraging activity at Perry Park and creating a mini-park in an alleyway that once was a hub for criminal activity.
“It’s continuing to come together and figure out solutions from the community,” Garcia said.
Sailor said she’s heard that from Garcia’s office and other city officials a lot. And it makes her angry.
“Why did I just suddenly become responsible for society’s failures and now I have to solve this? Why don’t people north of Indian School (Road) have to? I don’t see you asking them to spend their time to solve homelessness,” Sailor said.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego refused an interview request for this story.
Neighborhoods ignored
Sailor moved to a neighborhood near Perry Park about six years ago. She was a waitress and expectant single mother who liked the close-knit community and affordable home prices in the area.
The area’s always had some crime and the occasional homeless person sleeping in an alleyway. But around summer 2021, a new group of people started living in and around the park.
They collected dozens of bicycles and left them on the street corners surrounding the parks. Some of them did drugs in plain sight and harassed women and children as they entered the park, Sailor said. Police helicopters and SWAT teams have descended on her block and the park.
Sailor said some of the people staying at the park come into her neighborhood and stop at houses where she assumes people are selling drugs. People have broken into vacant houses on her street and slept in front yards, she said.
In February, a man experiencing homelessness was shot five times on her street, Sailor said. Phoenix police confirmed there was a shooting and that the victim was expected to survive but could not immediately provide more
information.
Three days later, a man was shot and killed about a block south of Sailor’s home. Phoenix police said it had not identified suspects for either shooting.
Sailor said she recently was unloading groceries from her car with her father when she heard two men fighting. “Put your gun away,” she heard. “I just want to carry my groceries into my house and not feel like I’m gonna get shot. Is that too much to ask?” Sailor said.
Sailor is sensitive to people experiencing hardship. She said she never called the police when she’d run across a person sleeping in an alleyway or passing through the park.
But the new influx of people have threatened her and her neighbors and taken over the park, she said, which is why she decided to use social media to bring attention to the issue and get the city’s attention.
The response was unkind, Sailor said. Many of her fellow Democrats — especially those who live in upper-class neighborhoods and don’t have homeless encampments in their parks — chastised her for speaking out about homelessness.
“People were just really angry at me for not just being like, ‘Hey, let’s just let this happen,’” she said of the response.
Sailor has been canvasing her neighborhood to encourage others to report homeless encampments and criminal activity. She said people often tell her they feel bad for complaining because police officers and city staff have told them they’re busy when they’ve called in the past.
“Phoenix is a complaint-driven city,” Sailor said. “It’s very easy to convince people here that they’re not entitled to the same services as other people. That they’re not important enough. That we’re just not a priority.”
She said she has a phone tree with her neighbors to spread news about crime, noise complaints and other nuisances so multiple people can report the issue. Sailor said it seems like there’s a better chance of police or city staff responding if multiple people complain.
Sailor said people experiencing homelessness set up camps in working class neighborhoods where residents are less likely to report them.
If no one is complaining, city officials can ignore the situation, she said.
Sailor is fatigued by the city’s lack of action on homelessness generally and is calling on city leaders to enact true solutions to the problem instead of shuffling people experiencing homelessness into neighborhoods.
‘There’s a lot of good people out here’
Teresa Lemon, 62, lost her housing three years ago when her husband died of lung cancer.
He took care of the bills. When he died, she didn’t have enough money to pay rent, she said.
Lemon’s been in and out of the hospital for health issues during her time living on the streets. Each time, social workers try to find her housing, but so far they’ve been unable to find her a place to stay other than Central Arizona Shelter Services, the 500-bed shelter near downtown Phoenix. Lemon said she doesn’t feel safe there.
“I just tell them, ‘Bring me back to the park.’ It’s home,” Lemon said.
Perry Park is not the safest or most comfortable place for an older woman, but she keeps coming back because she knows other people who live on the streets in the area, Lemon said.
The city locks the park bathrooms at night, so she uses adult pull-ups and changes them when she can, she said. Lemon said there’s a lot of drug use and violence in the park but she feels “as safe as you can feel” as a homeless woman.
She said police officers don’t bother her and her friends much, unless there are complaints from residents. Lemon said she understands people don’t want violence and drugs around their children, but she gets lumped in with bad actors just because she’s homeless.
“They judge everyone by the bad ones. There’s a lot of good people out here, but there’s a lot of bad people too,” Lemon said.
Many other people at Perry Park refused to talk with The Republic.
One woman, who did not provide her name, echoed Lemon’s claim that police officers usually only bother them if residents complain.
She also said she feels unsafe in the area, saying she recently was shot outside the Taco Bell near the park.
City, county have made big investment
Phoenix is talking about homelessness — and spending money to solve it — more than it ever has.
But promised new shelter beds and affordable housing are still a year or more away and won’t keep up with the anticipated growing need.
Last year, the Phoenix City Council approved a broad list of strategies to address homelessness.
There was no money attached to the plan, but the council has since approved $14 million of federal COVID-19 stimulus funds for the creation of up to four new shelters.
Those shelters won’t be open until next year at the earliest.
Maricopa County also has pledged about $21 million for 350 new shelter beds in and around Phoenix, with a similar opening timeline.
Eva Olivas, executive director and CEO of the Phoenix Revitalization Corporation, said the city needs to come up with temporary measures to support neighborhoods carrying the burdens of homelessness while it works on longterm solutions.
“(The city) is trying to address homelessness. In the meantime, there have been a lot of impacts to the neighborhoods trying to endure,” Olivas said.
Hope after begging and screaming
Olivas’ organization works in the neighborhoods just south of downtown Phoenix, where many homeless encampments are located because of its proximity to the Human Services Campus — home to the largest homeless shelter in the state.
For years, Olivas has asked the city for more support to revitalize these neighborhoods. She said the community is willing to be part of the solution, but needs more help from the city.
“I don’t like that sometimes things feel like it’s residents against the issue. You can’t wrong people for wanting the same thing that people want on 44th Street and Camelback (Road). We want clean neighborhoods, we want safe neighborhoods, and we want people to be held accountable in the same way,” Olivas said.
She’s finally getting what she’s been asking for. The city is assembling a team of employees from the neighborhood services, economic development, public works and police departments to work specifically with the neighborhood to address encampments.
“I’m very, very excited about the physical changes that could occur as a result of that dedicated team,” Olivas said, noting she hopes the team can serve as a model for other Phoenix neighborhoods.
She said she had to “beg and scream” for years to make it happen.
The Phoenix City Council approved similar plans for a stretch of 27th Avenue in west Phoenix and Hatcher Road in Sunnyslope in February after hours of impassioned testimony from residents describing prostitution, drug use and homelessness in their neighborhoods.
Critics of the plan said enhanced policing on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis would not actually decrease homelessness and would only push the problem into other neighborhoods.
“This is not a solution. This is the status quo,” Sailor said.
Neighborhood-led solutions
Retired Phoenix Parks and Recreation employee Jeff Spellman lives in northwest Phoenix along Interstate 17.
In recent years, there’s been a surge of homelessness and drug use in his neighborhood and surrounding parks and businesses, he said.
Spellman said police officers he’s talked to say Interstate 17 is part of the corridor drug dealers use to move illegal substances from Mexico into northern Arizona and the rest of the country. Dealers stop along the corridor to sell drugs, which is why his neighborhood is a hotbed for drug activity and homelessness.
Spellman said he’s spent the past several years organizing neighborhood leaders to push the city to better address criminal activity and homelessness in the area.
“I just knew I didn’t like what I saw going on around me. You’ve got to be willing to listen and learn, but you also have to stand strong for neighborhoods,” he said.
Spellman and other neighborhood leaders pushed Phoenix to create a homelessness task force to all community members input on how to manage homelessness. He also worked with Central Arizona Shelter Services and the city to develop a “good neighbor agreement” for a new senior shelter opening in his neighborhood next year.
The agreement allows the neighborhood oversight of the new shelter and ensures the shelter and surrounding area will remain blight and crime free.
“You just can’t demand it and think the city will take care of it. You have to work together with them,” he said.
Spellman said he recommends other neighborhoods struggling with encampments and drug use continue pushing the city until it finds real solutions.
“We all should have access to clean, safe neighborhoods and feel safe in our neighborhoods,” Spellman said.