Cloud Covered Streets runs a mobile shower trailer, allowing unhoused people a place to rinse off the grime that comes with a life on the street. Recently, the organization began partnering with the Tempe-based Native Action Program, which assists with obtaining food stamps and housing, to operate in the latter’s Kings Plaza respite center parking lot on McClintock Drive near Apache Boulevard.
At a recent event, about 50 unhoused people were able to shower, change into clean clothes and obtain other assistance. The groups were scheduled to do the same thing on Monday — until Native Action Program received a directive from Tempe to stand down or risk a major penalty. According to a Cloud Covered Streets post on Facebook, Tempe claimed the shower services constituted an “unauthorized event,” an apparent reference to the special events ordinance that the city has used to dissuade residents from distributing meals to unhoused people in city parks.
Tempe spokesperson Kris Baxter-Ging told Phoenix New Times that while Kings Plaza is not city property, the use of a mobile shower in the parking lot is a violation of the city zoning and development code. She added that a nearby business had made complaints about the trailer as far back as April, about the time the groups started bringing it by every Monday. Baxter-Ging did not say which businesses complained when New Times asked.
In a phone interview, Native Action Program’s Dr. Dwayne McIntosh said it “makes no sense” for the city to crack down on “somebody in the community that’s willing to do a free service at no charge to the city or the taxpayers.” Instead, he said, Tempe is making it harder for unhoused people to access services that a nonprofit is eager to provide.
“You’re putting a burden upon them or putting an obstacle in front of them that’s keeping them from rendering the services by charging them a fee for a permit,” McIntosh said.
The organizations decided to back down in the face of a fine and canceled the event on Monday. Jay Allan, the operations director for Cloud Covered Streets, said at least 20 people showed up around 10 a.m. who were denied showers because of the threatened fine. The organization offered hygiene bags and clean underwear instead. “We did have a lot of folks who were hoping to get a shower who weren’t able to,” Allan said.
Tempe’s enforcement is highly unusual for the mobile shower trailer, Allan said. It has been operating around the Valley since 2018 and has not run into similar issues with other municipalities.
“We’ve never had a city say that in Phoenix, in Mesa or Sunnyslope,” he said. “Tempe is the only place we’ve encountered that said we can’t do it.”
A Tempe resident uses public comment to weigh in on a proposed change to the city's special events ordinance that some feel will make it harder for groups that help the homeless to operate.
TJ L'Heureux
‘Building obstacles’
Cloud Covered Streets is hardly the first organization to face pushback from Tempe for working to help the homeless.One of the first to draw the city’s scrutiny was poet and homeless advocate Austin Davis, who was cited with 34 counts of violating the special events ordinance for hosting picnics for the homeless without a permit. After a court battle, Davis accepted a plea deal that banned him from city parks until May 2026. Davis was also arrested and jailed for allegedly trespassing in the parks.
Other community members like Ron Tapscott stepped in when Davis was forced to take a step back, spearheading a similar effort called New Deal Meal. Tempe initially filed charges against him for violating the special events law, but dropped the charges in May “in the interest of justice.” In June, the city agreed not to enforce the ordinance against Tapscott, Davis and Parker while it considers the change to its special events ordinance.
Notably, Tapscott, Davis and and fellow unhoused advocate Jane Parker are pursuing a federal civil rights lawsuit against Tempe for its crackdown on efforts to help the unhoused in city parks. The lawsuit argues Tempe is violating local residents’ civil rights by demanding hundreds of dollars in permit fees to simply feed the homeless and requiring applications 60 days in advance.
On Tuesday, the Tempe City Council is poised to pass a new, updated special events ordinance that will create a complicated system for obtaining permission to use Tempe’s parks. In some circumstances, like birthday parties, smaller fees are required. But for gatherings in public parks that are “functionally open to the public” and will be attended by at least 30 people, an application needs to be submitted two months in advance, approved by the city and paid for with hundreds of dollars in fees and insurance.
Those details have sent a large group of Tempe residents into a tizzy. On June 5, the council opened the floor to the public to comment on the proposal. About 90% of residents spoke out against the changes in an overwhelming display of dissatisfaction, ranging from bitter anger to confused pleading. The councilmembers did not publicly discuss the proposed ordinance, indicating it may have a smooth road to passage.
Critics of the ordinance will hold a rally outside the council’s chambers on Tuesday before the meeting to ask “the city to pause their efforts and instead work cooperatively with a broad group of stakeholders.”
“This is a big decision. Let’s bring in everyone’s voices and develop a plan that makes sense without the repercussions,” John Elvis Taska, a 37-year resident of Tempe and candidate for city council, told New Times. “Would Tempe crumble if we took a step back and assembled a small coalition to dive deeper, to listen more widely?”
McIntosh also took issue with Tempe’s approach toward community service for unhoused people.
“You say you want to save lives, but you’re building obstacles or barriers to people who are willing to do it free of charge,” McIntosh said. “If we don’t have places to serve these people, don’t sit there and give the public a false pretense that you’re out to serve the people when you’re not.”
