About 20 supporters of Fund for Empowerment, including many homeless people themselves, met at Margaret T. Hance Park on Wednesday in support of homeless rights. Specifically, the rights to sleep without prosecution and the right to property.
At the protest, Arizona Poor People’s Campaign Co-chair Veronica Monge said, “We want the police to look at people like people, not to demonize wanting to rest and sleep.”
Signs were handed out with the message, “We sleep to survive.”
According to Elizabeth Venable, Treasurer of Fund for Empowerment, “People are still being criminally prosecuted for sleeping even though that has been ruled unconstitutional by the courts where there is not sufficient appropriate shelter.”
Venable hoped that people showing up to protest would send a message to Phoenix City Council.
In her opinion, psychiatric care, such as Phoenix C.A.R.E.S. under Community Bridges Inc., is not an effective way to get people off the streets.
“I believe that this is because their programs are restricted, slow, and not culturally competent,” Venable said. “We try to mobilize people who are actually impacted by homelessness, and share their concerns.”
Several protestors spoke on their experiences sleeping without shelter. One protester spoke loudly to the group on personal issues she had encountered being homeless, but asked not to be named.
Another homeless protestor, Lena Stewart-Maynard, said, “I’m in a tent because I’d want to be out there rather than in CASS (Central Arizona Shelter Services.) You cough all night and you cough all day. It’s not the best environment and on top of that there’s fights in there.”
Monge said that the group was focusing on trying to get the city council to enforce the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rulings.
Venable and Monge mentioned their wishes for Phoenix to comply with the ruling on Martin v. Boise (2019), which established that those experiencing homelessness with a lack of appropriate shelters will not be prosecuted for camping. Examples of inappropriate shelter include religious shelters and those where the hours are limited.
She also spoke on the rulings of Lavan v. City of Los Angeles (2012), which prevents the city from taking personal property without notice or the opportunity for the owner to speak on it.
“We’ve even had cases where we’ve had testimonies of people where the police have taken their belongings, their birth certificates, they’ve taken documentation that they need,” Monge said. “We have power, we have voices and we have a lot of people that support this cause.”
Victor Aronow, a Tempe attorney, said, “The people who wrote the Constitution said that the United States government has three functions. The third is secure general welfare. It seems to me that one of the elements of general welfare is having a decent place to live.”
He finished his statement with, “Although we have a small crowd here today, you shouldn’t be disheartened. One spark can cause a prairie fire.”
Stewart-Maynard spoke about her life before homelessness.
“I have a degree, I raised my kids, I’ve had nice houses and I’ve had nice cars. I’ve had all that,” Stewart-Maynard said.
She mentioned that it is not something she had expected to happen, but about five years ago she ended up homeless.
“Everyone looks at homeless people like this is the end-all. It’s not,” Stewart-Maynard said. “We have money coming in on a monthly basis, and not this month but next month, we’ll be able to get out of this.”
Contact the reporter at cparkiso@asu.edu.
