At the Oct. 2 Phoenix City Council meeting, an amendment to the ordinance that would provide additional notices for non-camping areas around schools, daycare centers and public parks was passed.
Since the pandemic, the population of people experiencing homelessness in Arizona has risen significantly. The Arizona Department of Economic Security reported that the number of people experiencing homelessness in 2019 was 10,007 and rose to over 14,000 in 2023. This increase in unhoused individuals has led to many frustrated residents and services being overwhelmed.
Over the summer, the City Council of Grants Pass enacted an ordinance banning camping on public property, inciting a legal battle. U.S. Senate candidate Gloria Johnson, with the support of many homeless advocacy groups, sued the city for unfairly criminalizing homelessness since they did not have the resources to properly house them. They argued that arresting and fining people who could not get a home is a cruel and unusual punishment.
With the support of many cities around the country, Phoenix included, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Grants Pass over Johnson and has allowed states to impose fines and detain people camping outside.
For community members, the issue of homelessness has become a problem for public health and safety.
Shane Gore, president of the Shaw Butte Neighborhood Association, lives in North Phoenix, and twice a day, Gore drives by the Cave Creek park where there are always several encampments. Gore supports the bill because he worries about drug paraphernalia and unsafe conditions in public spaces.
“If my 9-year-old needs to go to the restroom, will he be able to?” Gore asked.
Other council members, such as Carlos Galindo-Elvira, support the ordinance as a way to provide protections to those who use public spaces.
“We know we cannot arrest our way out, (but) we also have a responsibility to safeguard and protect families and children who want to be able to avail of park services and other public spaces.” Galindo-Elvira said.
Eric Tars, senior policy director at the National Homelessness Law Center, criticized this bill for making it easier to ticket and arrest people who are sleeping outside even if they have nowhere to go. According to Tars, bills like this will only “make homelessness worse.”
“It’s not that we want to protect the right of people to sleep on the streets,” Tars said. “We want to make sure that nobody has to sleep on the streets in the first place. But we can’t get to the honest conversation that we need to have around solutions, elected officials can kind of take this easy way out.”
The amendment passed by City Council will go into effect Nov. 1, and people sleeping in public places will be given citations, told to move on, and fined with no more than $100. Cities around the nation have been putting these laws into place to force people off the streets, but the results may only backfire.
Edited by Shi Bradley
