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On Wednesday morning, yellow caution tape closed off a stretch of Ninth Avenue between Washington and Jefferson streets as Phoenix city officials prepared for the second cleanup effort in recent weeks in the Zone.
By the afternoon, though, the one-block stretch of the massive homeless encampment was swarmed by police vehicles and officers in riot gear after one man living on the block refused to leave.
Facing a court order, the city of Phoenix began to clear out the encampment in May. As with the first cleanup on May 10, city workers and social services teams arrived on the block at sunrise on Wednesday. The day began without incident as officials assisted people there with packing up their tents and belongings.
“We’ve been working with people for the last three weeks out here,” Scott Hall, the deputy director of the city's Office of Homeless Solutions, told press as the sweep started. “We’ve had the opportunity to offer everybody here indoor shelter today.” Not all had accepted the services, Hall noted.
Police armed with shields and riot gear descended on the Zone Wednesday when a man refused to leave.
Katya Schwenk
Police presence
Despite a lack of available shelter beds, a March court order has forced the city to evacuate the Zone by July 10. As the sweep progressed on Wednesday, most people on the block allowed their possessions to be tagged and stored. However, one tent on the corner of Jefferson Street and 12th Avenue remained.
By 1:30 p.m., police descended on the area as the tent’s occupant refused to move. The city claimed in a later statement on Wednesday that the man was armed with a knife and had threatened an outreach worker. Officers approached the scene with shields, rifles and other riot gear as a negotiator spoke with the man.
After some time, officers deployed a “chemical irritant” before pulling the man out of the tent, according to the city’s statement. Officers handcuffed him and led him to a patrol car. He did not appear to struggle.
“The Office of Homeless Solutions team spent several hours today working with [the man], offering indoor shelter and providing multiple additional notifications that the block would close to camping today,” the city said in the statement.
The man was arrested and charged with misdemeanor trespassing and threatening.
He was the last of the 40 people living on that block to leave. Some of his belongings were put into the city's storage bins, and some — including parts of his tent — were disposed of in a dump truck.
“The Office of Homeless Solutions is storing that man’s belongings and will continue to work with him to obtain the resources needed to help end his homelessness,” the city said in its statement.
By 2:30 p.m., the block was completely clear. But there are still hundreds of people living elsewhere in the sprawling Zone. It’s not clear when the city will clear the next block — or where the displaced people will go.
City conducts sweep under scrutiny
The cleanup on Wednesday was watched closely as the city currently faces dual court battles over the encampment. One lawsuit, brought by 15 property owners in the area, asked a judge to declare the downtown encampment — which stretches several blocks between Ninth and 15th avenues — a public nuisance.The city also faces a lawsuit brought by the Fund for Empowerment, a local advocacy organization for unsheltered people, and the ACLU of Arizona. The federal lawsuit was filed in November over the city’s alleged practices of seizing and destroying the property of unsheltered people.
During the city's first cleanup on May 10, 35 people were displaced from another block of the Zone. Most accepted shelter. Hall said he did not have information available on how many of those who accepted shelter are still housed three weeks later.
On May 16, the ACLU accused the city of destroying the property of unsheltered people during the sweep and violating a federal court order in the case. The city did not tag all abandoned property that it encountered on the block, despite requirements that it do so, the ACLU alleged. Attorneys for the ACLU asked a judge to hold the city in contempt of court.
The city has said that it had the consent of the people living on the block to seize and destroy the property. And some of the property was simply moved to storage as people were provided shelter beds or hotel rooms, city staff claimed.
In a hearing in the case on May 26, U.S. District Court Judge Murray Snow was unconvinced by the evidence put forward by the ACLU, which included photos from the scene and declarations from witnesses.
“There is reason to be concerned that the city is violating this plan," Snow said. But, he continued, the evidence “may not be sufficient to conclude that there have been any violations at all.”
The ACLU asked Snow to intervene before Wednesday's sweep, but he declined. The judge did agree to hold an evidentiary hearing on the matter, which would allow ACLU attorneys to present their evidence against the city.
“We’re really excited that Judge Snow is going to give us an opportunity to fully present our evidence to demonstrate our clients’ belief that what the city did on May 10 doesn't comport with his order and doesn’t comport with the constitution,” Benjamin Rundall, senior staff attorney with the ACLU, told Phoenix New Times after the hearing.
Marylou Martinez asked to retrieve some items she left in the Zone. The police returned some to her, but she said some were missing.
Katya Schwenk
As city workers swept up what remained of the dozen or so campsites Wednesday afternoon, Marylou Martinez approached the police line and asked for some of her belongings that she said she had left in the area.
At around 8 a.m., Martinez said that she was living in a tent on the block, and New Times witnessed her leave some of her belongings beside a tent in the area.
Later in the afternoon, she told New Times that she believed that some of her belongings had been thrown away while she was away from the area. A few of her things remained scattered on the ground and were returned to her — but not all of her possessions, Martinez said.
In an email, city spokesperson Kristin Couturier claimed that Martinez “does not reside in today’s engagement area.”
“The City does not throw away personal property without first storing the property and providing an opportunity for the owner to retrieve the property,” Couturier continued. “The City stored the limited amount of unattended property found today. The property associated with each campsite from today’s engagement is accounted for.”
Some 679 people currently live in the Zone, according to April data collected by social services agencies, although that number has previously been estimated to be much higher. As of May 18, the four major shelters in the city of Phoenix — Washington Relief Center, the Respiro sprung structure, Rio Fresco Shelter and Central Arizona Shelter Services — had only 48 beds available. For years, partly due to the shelter bed shortage, the city has allowed people to live in the Zone.
Zone resident Tracy Swanson told New Times she was looking for a shelter bed — but so far had been unable to find one. Swanson has been living for the past few months in a tent just south of the block cleared on Wednesday.
“We're waiting anxiously here,” Swanson said, noting that she has a heart condition that is increasingly difficult to manage in the heat and is living with her partner, who also has health complications. “It’s getting worse,” she added.
Swanson added that she was hopeful she would find indoor housing and was happy for those who managed to get shelter beds. “We're trying all different kinds of avenues,” she said.
On Wednesday, Hall still had few answers about when the city might have enough shelter beds available for Swanson and the hundreds of others living in the Zone. “If everybody [in the Zone] was to stand up and say ‘shelter now,’ yes, we'd be in an absolute crisis,” he said. “But that’s why we’re going at the pace we’re going because we continue to stand up new shelter.”
Hall said that the next sweep will take place in “about three weeks.” When the city will clear out the entire encampment, though, remains unclear.
On Wednesday, Faith Kearns, an activist and a plaintiff in the ACLU lawsuit, watched city staff clear out the block. Kearns was formerly unsheltered and now organizes with the Fund for Empowerment. She said she was frustrated by the city’s inaction before the latest lawsuits.
“The city has known for years that there's been a problem,” Kearns said. “And they just kept turning their backs, turning their backs. And look what’s happened.”
