Phoenix’s new policy aimed at centralizing city relief efforts and addressing homeless encampments gave its three-month update to City Council Wednesday, detailing the program received over 1,000 reports of homeless activity, and connected many individuals with services.
The program, called the Phoenix Community Action Response Engagement Services, or Phoenix CARES, utilizes existing resources from a number of city departments to connect individuals experiencing homelessness, interim Human Resources Director Marchelle Franklin explained at the session.
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In the past three months, Phoenix CARES had a total of 1,073 reports of encampments or homeless individuals. About 563, of those concerned encampments on public and private properties. The program works by allowing people to make reports through call or the website. The Human Services Department processes the reports and works with Community Bridges to send out specialized outreach teams.
Of over 500 encampments, 269 were on public property and 267 on private. Of these encampments, 188 on public property and 215 private property were cleaned up through services like Public Works and Neighborhood Services.
Two encampments near Fourth Avenue and Lincoln Street were part of this cleanup, and Franklin said as part of the effort people affected were connected with information and services.
“There were 16 individuals on site. [Community Bridges] was able to place nine in services,” Franklin explained. “The property owner cleaned up the lot and our public works department cleaned the right-of-way area.”
The other over 800 cases were handled by various Phoenix departments. Over 50 percent of these cases involved human services. The remaining dealt in neighborhood, public works, and police services, with the exception of a handful of cases which required the use of two services or more.
Out of 790 cases of encampments, the 399 individuals at the encampments that were contacted, responded to outreach services. The majority of those contacted identified as being disabled and having some type of health insurance. The remaining individuals identified as veterans or victims of chronic homelessness, meaning they have been homeless for over one year.
There were around 277 services provided to these individuals, which included services such as shelter placement and workforce development. The services provided helped 10 percent of these individuals stay off the streets.
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Another program Phoenix CARES includes in its services is the Misdemeanor Repeat Offender Program, which partners police and social services to try to find the root causes of misdemeanor offenses. Phoenix Police Commander Anthony Vasquez said there were 284 total contacts with squad members in the past three months through the program. Of these, only 21 were referred to the city for misdemeanor charges and 42 to the county for felony charges. The majority, 117 of the cases, were referred to Phoenix CARES.
Phoenix CARES also provided the council with an example of a success story the program had enjoyed.
“After her husband passed away [a woman] was unable to afford the monthly rents on her home and was evicted,” Franklin said. “[Community Bridges] conducted outreach and determined she had numerous health issues, required the use of a wheelchair (and) had her placed in a shelter.”
After reaching the maximum time allowed in the shelter, the woman chose to go back to living on the streets. Two weeks later, Community Bridges found her again and attempted a second outreach.
“We (were) able to get her to accept services which included a doctor’s visit that helped her obtain her permanent disability status… and in January of this year, she was moved into her own apartment,” Franklin said. “This is just one of the many examples of how the outreach system works.”
More information on the Phoenix CARES program can be found here.
Contact the reporter at smedwar7@asu.edu.
Sara Edwards was the executive editor of Downtown Devil. She is a graduate student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Sara has additional bylines in Phoenix New Times, West Valley View, L.A. Downtown News and Boardwalk Times.
Sara is also the co-secretary for the Multicultural Student Journalists Coalition.
