XPost: alt.politics.trump, alt.society.homeless, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: shit-bag.democrat@az.gov   
      
   On 15 Jan 2022, "Demented Joe Defeats tRUMP Again!"    
   posted some news:srvtb2$be1d$21@news.freedyn.de:   
      
   > Bradley K. Sherman wrote   
   >   
   >> | All these homeless assholes are drug addicts who belong in prison   
      
   The young widow watched as the helpers wended through the Zone at sunrise,   
   offering what they could: water, a bus ticket or a shelter bed – if one   
   was open.   
      
   Standing beside her tent, Rayann Denny sized up the sprawling camp of 900   
   or so people improvised along sidewalks in downtown Phoenix:   
      
   “It’s a whole nother world.”   
      
   The soft-spoken 37-year-old ended up homeless last year after her husband   
   died and she couldn’t pay the bills alone. This camp, she said, can be “a   
   lot of drama,” with flares of violence. But Denny won’t stay in a shelter,   
   with its rules and a curfew, as she relies on drugs to get through her   
   days.   
      
   “I just try to keep myself high,” she said, “so I don’t have to deal with   
   the pain.”   
      
   Her home base here, though – however scant – soon will vanish.   
      
   In the latest chapter of America’s increasingly polarized approach to   
   homelessness, Phoenix must permanently clear the area that’s become known   
   as the Zone after a judge ruled in favor of neighbors who sued the city,   
   calling the encampment – next to a non-profit social services hub and   
   blocks from the state Capitol and the city’s Major League Baseball stadium   
   – an illegal “public nuisance.”   
      
   Their lawsuit could be a model for those looking to force other US cities   
   to clear similar encampments, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said. But the   
   prospect worries advocates for the unhoused, who say it simply pushes a   
   critical problem out of public view, especially as soaring home prices and   
   expensive borrowing have pushed households to the brink.   
      
   As Phoenix officials prepare to start moving tents out of the Zone this   
   week, they’re also scrambling to create safe options for the displaced:   
   leasing more hotel rooms and vacant buildings to convert into shelters,   
   and building an outdoor campground with security, restrooms and hand-   
   washing stations, the city’s Office of Homeless Solutions director told   
   CNN.   
      
   But those won’t be available right away.   
      
   So for now, the crew of helpers has stepped up its years-old effort to try   
   to get residents off the streets.   
      
   “We have to move fast,” team leader Nette Reed said. “We have to come up   
   with a plan.”   
      
   They sued the city – and won   
   Debbie and Joe Faillace have owned Old Station Sub Shop, next to where the   
   camp cropped up, for more than 30 years. They frequently discover property   
   damage, drug paraphernalia and feces when they get to work, they said.   
      
   “There’s just a complete lawlessness, and it’s getting worse,” Debbie   
   Faillace said. “We want our neighborhood back. We want to feel safe.”   
      
   While more states are passing controversial laws to ban public camping,   
   Arizona’s Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs this year vetoed one such bill,   
   saying it only served to make homelessness “less visible.”   
      
   The Faillaces and others already had sued last year in state court over   
   the Zone, an unofficial nickname that isn’t universally embraced. They   
   claimed the city had allowed its public spaces to violate its own public   
   nuisance laws, with unsanitary conditions, drug use, violence and property   
   crimes, fire hazards and blocked rights of way, court documents show.   
      
   A judge in March ruled in their favor, giving the city a few months to   
   eliminate the nuisance conditions, records show.   
      
   The legal strategy may offer a template to anyone who lives or works near   
   large homeless encampments, said Ilan Wurman, a lawyer for the Phoenix   
   plaintiffs and an associate law professor at Arizona State University.   
      
   “We basically showed a proof of concept to use the courts to force cities’   
   hands to actually do something about the humanitarian aspect of this   
   crisis,” Wurman said. “We hope other businesses, property owners and   
   homeowners take up this fight in other jurisdictions where there are   
   massive homeless encampments.”   
      
   But using such a lawsuit to clear an encampment like the Zone is an   
   oversimplified tactic that not only doesn’t end unsheltered homelessness –   
   but also increases “invisible homelessness,” National Alliance to End   
   Homelessness CEO Ann Oliva said.   
      
   “Of course we’re worried that this is going to be picked up as a tactic by   
   other communities,” she said. “I hope that it’s not a template for how   
   other communities want to address this issue because we know that the only   
   way to actually address this issue and homelessness is affordable housing   
   and the services that people want and need in order to get housing.”   
      
   ‘I don’t want to … walk the streets’   
   The Phoenix area has roughly half as many shelter beds as people   
   experiencing homelessness, a population that’s grown 46% since 2019 amid   
   the affordable housing crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, according to   
   annual counts coordinated by the Maricopa Association of Governments.   
      
   Many who live in the Zone have jobs or get government assistance – but say   
   they still can’t afford rent. By setting up camp outside the non-profit   
   Human Services Campus, they guaranteed quick access to a secure center   
   with roughly 900 shelter beds – full on most nights – plus aid including   
   food, water and health care, all critical during Arizona’s scorching   
   summers.   
      
   As the Zone is cleared, “the farther people get removed, … the harder it   
   will be for them to access services,” Human Services Campus CEO Amy   
   Schwabenlender said.   
      
   “People will be more likely to die,” she said, “or be sick and go to the   
   emergency room.” More than 700 people experiencing homelessness died last   
   year in Phoenix’s Maricopa County – a 23% increase over 2020 that reflects   
   the bump in unhoused people over that period, county officials confirmed   
   to CNN.   
      
   The Zone clearing, due to start Wednesday, will be piecemeal and dovetail   
   with city efforts to come up with alternatives for its residents, said   
   Rachel Milne, director of Phoenix’s Office of Homeless Solutions.   
      
   “The city’s approach will be to take it one step at a time, one block at a   
   time, one group of people at a time, making sure that we are able to offer   
   those 50 or so people in that block a variety of different solutions, a   
   variety of different places to go, all of which have the services that   
   they will need to keep them safe and healthy,” she said. “It’s safer   
   certainly than where they are now.”   
      
   But without a confirmed opening date for the city-structured campground,   
   advocates for unhoused people expect encampments like the Zone to pop up   
   in other Phoenix neighborhoods, they said.   
      
   “It moves people into other spaces where they’re most likely also not   
   going to be welcomed in,” Schwabenlender said. “And if they think a safe   
   outdoor space is going to end homelessness, it’s not. It just shuffles   
   people from one place to another.”   
      
   Indeed, many see efforts now in the works in Phoenix as a Band-Aid on the   
   larger crisis facing cities across the country. “We’ve got to work on   
      
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