8th block of 'The Zone' homeless encampment in Phoenix cleared out after storm
The city continued clearing Phoenix's largest homeless encampment known as "The Zone" on Friday morning, in the aftermath of a severe storm that raged the night before.
Many people living on the block had already left by Friday. The process was finished earlier than normal, and the street reopened to traffic before 9:30 a.m. In the weeks prior, the city interacted with 23 people on the block and 20 of them accepted resources. All 11 people the city interacted with on Friday accepted shelter, according to city spokesperson Kristin Couturier.
This was the eighth block cleaned since Phoenix began clearing out "The Zone," following a court order in a state court lawsuit, Brown v. City of Phoenix. The lawsuit was filed against the city by nearby residents and business owners claiming the encampment is a public nuisance. A final decision is still pending to determine what changes, if any, will be made to the preliminary order.
The block cleared was 10th Avenue from Jefferson Street to Madison Street, where many elderly people lived. The Justa Center, a nonprofit organization providing supportive resources for seniors experiencing homelessness, is located along the same street.
Aftermath of monsoon storm
'The Zone' was hit hard by Thursday night's monsoon storm. Many tents had tarps or other barriers ripped off of them and high winds scattered some people's possessions. A group of around four people were narrowly missed by a fallen palm tree, after it struck their tent in the high winds.
Donte Walker, who was sitting on a couch inside the tent when the tree fell, said he would have been crushed if it had fallen one foot in the opposite direction. While no one was hurt, the tent was no longer usable, and his bike was broken.
"It almost hit our toes," he said.
Walker was looking for a place to stay on Friday after he said the storm kept him from getting any sleep the night before.
Stephenson McCoy said he didn't have a place to shelter from the rain until Antoin “Applejacks” Jackson offered to let him and several others stay in his tent to wait out the storm. McCoy said he was grateful to have people looking out for him.
'The community is here for them'
Early Friday morning, several community groups gathered to host a breakfast stand for people needing food, water or clothes. A table with coffee and breakfast casserole was available to those passing by and the many people in line to enter the Justa Center.
One organizer, Nick Anderson, said many of the people involved are at "The Zone" each week helping those who need it.
"We wanted to come out and show them the community is here for them," Anderson said.
In last week's sweep, two people were detained by police when Ninth Avenue south of Jackson Street was cleared. One, Sophia Dancel, is an advocate for people experiencing homelessness. Police booked her on suspicion of trespassing and resisting arrest after they said she refused to leave the block during the clear-out.
Dancel is the second person to have been arrested since the clear-outs began in May. She has not been formally charged in court.
Multiple activist groups are calling for those misdemeanor charges to be dropped, citing an ongoing U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the police department into retaliation and the use of excessive force. While Dancel is still awaiting possible charges, she is now allowed to be in "The Zone," something that was previously not permitted under her release guidelines, she said.
After weeks of mostly stagnant population counts in "The Zone," recent tallies have shown a slight dip in the number of people living there. At the start of August, around 700 people lived in and around The Zone, according to data from the Human Services Campus. Over the last three weeks, the number fell to around 550 people. That number could still fluctuate in the coming weeks.
Helen Rummel covers housing insecurity and homelessness for The Arizona Republic. Reach her at hrummel@gannett.com.
Coverage of housing insecurity on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Arizona Community Foundation.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix sweeps 'The Zone' homeless encampment for 8th time
