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Reflections from the front lines serving individuals experiencing homelessness in the Phoenix monsoon, in the aftermath of a disheartening Supreme Court ruling, and the questions of consequences from a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation of the City of Phoenix.
At Key Campus we continue to shelter about 900 people nightly in four different spaces. The immediate neighborhood is sparse when it comes to tents and structures. At times sixty to eighty to one hundred people are counted by our Outreach Team in the morning, the folks that can't get in to shelter or aren't ready for shelter. Beyond the Campus area the Team is engaging more than 600 people who are spread out in alleys, along canals, anywhere they can hunker down and avoid being seen.
The DOJ released its report on June 13 with several conclusions, including "PhxPD and the City unlawfully detain, cite, and arrest people experiencing homelessness and unlawfully dispose of their belongings." The report states "between January 2016 and March 2022, people who were homeless accounted for over one-third—37%—of all PhxPD misdemeanor arrests and citations."
It's not in my purview to fact check the DOJ findings. Most of anything I could say in response is solely my opinion.
What I can say for a fact is that the City of Phoenix did create an Office of Homeless Solutions between the data point referenced above and the release of their report. And that Office did create a dignified way to remove the encampment of at times 800 to 1,000 people around Key Campus. I cannot speak to what happens anywhere else in the City. I can also say that the Phoenix Police Officers that I know do not want to be monitoring the unhoused ...read more...
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