By Lisa Diethelm and T.J. Triolo
Residents of Phoenix expect sweltering weather as part of their daily lives, but many never consider what it is like to experience 117 degrees with no shelter or water.
Last December, the Arizona Department of Economic Security reported that among Maricopa County’s homeless, the population of sheltered individuals is decreasing while the amount of unsheltered individuals is increasing.
To meet this need, one of the county’s homeless shelters, the Human Services Campus at 204 S. 12th Ave., is preparing to apply for a zoning permit that would allow them to open more beds.
Six partners, including the United States Post Office and Central Arizona Shelter Services (CASS), make up the Human Services Campus. The partners, along with different nonprofits, all share resources for people experiencing homelessness.
Over the summer, Human Services Campus Executive Director Amy Schwabenlender has been working with The Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the Andre House of Arizona to acquire more beds for the properties. The Andre House provides meals and shower services across the street from the campus.
Because the three organizations each own separate properties, they must apply for the new zoning permit together.
The city granted the Campus’s current permit in 2004. When it was originally passed, there were 425 beds available in the old buildings. According to Schwabenlender, the building for which the current permit was originally intended is no longer a part of the campus. The new permit, however, will allow the campus to increase the number of shelter beds in an existing building.
There are now 470 beds available in the CASS building on the campus and 50 medical beds in Circle the City. The dining area run by St. Vincent de Paul can be transformed into a sleeping area and as a shelter from inclement weather. The new permit would zone for 480 more beds to meet the goal of sheltering 1,000 people a night across the three properties.
“When this is approved, it does not mean 1,500 total beds. It means it will allow us to add the room for 480 in at least two different places,” Schwabenlender said. “It still doesn’t mean 1,000 all of the time. It might mean 830, and the flexibility and permission to do weather relief.”
Ash Uss, the Advocacy & Partnerships Coordinator for Andre House of Hospitality, has been orchestrating community outreach throughout the summer. When people hear about the project, she said, they assume the campus is adding 1,000 more beds instead of 480. In time, Uss hopes to help the communities surrounding the campus to understand what the permit will achieve.
“We are not just showing up with a proposal that people have not heard about,” Uss said. “We have one shelter right now that doesn’t even have enough beds.”
Schwabenlender, along with Uss, hopes to help with the basic needs people experiencing homelessness cannot meet themselves. But, Schwabenlender said, they cannot help anyone without help from the city.
The three properties have filed the amendment for the new permit, and will now have to request to be on the agenda for two commissions to look over before it reaches the Council.
“The City doesn’t drive the timing of the process,” Schwabenlender said. “The applicant files, even if we were starting from dirt and filing to build shelter. Then we go to the Central City Village Planning Commission, then the City Planning Commission and then City Council.”
Uss said sheltering more people can help people achieve some order in their lives.
“There are a lot of inherent barriers that are associated with being unsheltered,” Uss said. “A lot of people … come in and just ask for the time. If you don’t have electronics or if you don’t have a watch, how would you even know what time it is to show up to appointments?”
Schwabenlender sees people being unsheltered as not only a humanitarian problem, but a health crisis as well. She offered the example that being unsheltered can pose a risk for Hepatitis A, which is on the rise in Maricopa County.
Robert Morales, a Human Services Campus client and a volunteer at St. Vincent de Paul, has found that many people get frustrated with the crowded atmosphere in the sleeping areas.
“When they come here, I just say, ‘I got you. Whatever makes you feel comfortable,’” said Morales.
With the amendment to the new permit, Schwabenlender wants to reduce the unsheltered homeless population and start to integrate people back into housing.
“If we can bring inside another couple hundred people, then we are doing some amount of work to shelter more people,” she said. “Once people are sheltered, they can stabilize, they can engage in services to really help them in their homelessness.”
Morales, for example, was born in New York and made his way out to Phoenix. Despite his hardships, he says his work at St. Vincent de Paul is his way to serve not only his faith but also himself.
“Christ died on the cross. I am down here for crunch time. Bring it on,” he said.
The Human Services Campus hosts tours during two Thursdays every month, provides opportunities to volunteer and accepts donations of water bottles and personal hygiene items. The Andre House, if the new permit is approved by City Council, will be open 24 hours a day apart from Fridays.
“We are not going to solve all of homelessness. We would certainly like to. But … we are going to try really hard,” Uss said.
Contact the reporters at ldiethel@asu.edu and tjtriolo@asu.edu
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that the Andre House had shelter beds available and that the Andre house is open 24 hours a day. The article has been updated with the corrections.
Lisa Diethelm is the Politics editor for the Downtown Devil while she studies at The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in downtown Phoenix. She grew up in California and started her journalism career in high school.
