Phoenix City Council candidate says ‘homeless belong in jail’

No one asked long-shot Phoenix City Council candidate and former mayoral hopeful Matt Evans to weigh in on what homeless people deserve. But he did anyway.

A week ago, the local nonprofit Cloud Covered Streets posted to Instagram about a proposed new Phoenix police policy to treat unhoused people with more dignity. That includes not detaining them without justification, not citing them for trespassing unnecessarily and not throwing away their belongings — all violations that the Department of Justice found Phoenix police regularly committed in a damning 2024 report.

Then on Tuesday, about a week after the original post, Evans slid into the comments.

“Most of these homeless belong in jail,” wrote the 38-year-old software engineer and occasional Uber driver.

Needless to say, Evans’ comment was not well-received. It received zero likes and profane pushback. Users called Evans a “piece of shit” or “full of shit politician.” Others noted the apparent incongruity with the homelessness positions on Evans’ campaign website, which says the District 2 candidate supports “solutions that show compassion but deliver real results.”

Cloud Covered Streets, which provides a number of resources to unhoused people, also responded. “You are a terrible human being and we will make sure we use our voice to help District 2 elect ANYONE other than you!” the organization wrote. “We wish you nothing but the worst !!!!” On Facebook, the group highlighted the comment in a post, saying that Evans “claims to stand for compassion when dealing with those experiencing homelessness, then comes to our social media and leave (sic) his trash comment.

“Let’s make sure Matt Evans NEVER sits on the Phoenix City Council.”

But how do they really feel?

Walking it back

In a phone interview with Phoenix New Times, Evans attempted to walk back his comment, voicing support for recovery programs and distancing himself from the comment.

“I guess hindsight is 20/20. I was just scrolling and I saw it,” Evans said, adding that it was a “fair point” that his Instagram comment was out of line with his official stance and ideas. “It was just a comment on an Instagram post, I don’t know. I guess, too, I don’t want to back down and say that jail shouldn’t be a deterrent.”

He claimed that he was trying to “incite a reaction,” which he certainly did.

“My campaign is one that is geared towards starting the conversation and to make homelessness a priority,” Evans said. “I argue that it’s more compassionate to take people off the streets and give them a second chance at life than allow them to dwindle away while addicted to drugs.”

The policy ideas Evans endorsed during the call were less draconian and slightly more nuanced than his brash Instagram comment, though they’re still on the conservative side, with a focus on addiction treatment rather than housing.

“If you want to know what my plan is, it’s not to throw people in jail,” he said. “We need modern, state-of-the-art rehabilitation centers. If we have these and people are still refusing treatment, we have to use jail as a deterrent.”

Many unhoused advocates would note that if jail were an effective deterrent to homelessness — rather than an accelerant — the problem wouldn’t be nearly as bad as it is now.

Evans said he knows how bad the problem is. He said he volunteered for the annual Point-In-Time count that is used to estimate the number of homeless people in the Valley. He said a city employee told him that the Phoenix C.A.R.E.S. program has only two team members conducting proactive outreach on a regular basis. New Times has reached out to Phoenix C.A.R.E.S. to confirm that statement, but has not yet heard back.

“If there’s anywhere I want my money to go, it’s to a program like Phoenix C.A.R.E.S. so we can — instead of having two people — we can have 200 people. I want to drive around my city and see people in city staff t-shirts actively engaging people,” Evans said. “I want to see city staff deployed throughout our city. I want to get people rehabilitated. I want to focus on mental health. I want to stop funding these NGOs that are just wasting money and we saw the problem get worse.”

Uphill battle

Whatever Evans’ homelessness positions are, he faces an uphill battle to win election in 2026. Last year, he switched his party affiliation from Independent to Republican to take on Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego — even though the mayoral election is nonpartisan. When he spoke to New Times in September 2024, he described himself as “more conservative” than most Republicans. He lost that election with less than 38% of the vote.

District 2 is a relatively conservative district — really, the only conservative district in Phoenix — and it will be wide open as incumbent Councilmember Jim Waring is term-limited and heading into retirement. But that hardly makes Evans a shoo-in.

Evans previously ran for the seat in 2022, challenging Waring head-on, and finished in third place with about 17% of votes.

This time, he’s campaigning on a slate with two other candidates: Michael Del Prete and Zach Lauer. Del Preste is a real estate investor running against Councilmember Kevin Robinson in District 6, while Lauer is a self-proclaimed “health insurance expert” who campaigned for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign last year and is now trying to succeed outgoing District 4 incumbent Laura Pastor. Both districts are solidly Democratic-leaning, so don’t bet on that slate achieving much.

Evans also faces competition in District 2. Danny Mazza, a lawyer who with longstanding connections to Waring, is also running for the seat. Waring has not officially endorsed Mazza, but Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell and former Councilwoman Peggy Neely have. Julie Read, a former Deer Valley Unified School Board member and ally of District 1 Councilmember Ann O’Brien, is also in the race.