Federal judge says cleanup of 'The Zone' homeless encampment in Phoenix can continue
Cleanups can continue in Phoenix's largest homeless encampment, called "The Zone," a federal judge ruled Friday.
After a city block was cleared of people on May 10, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona asked U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow to find Phoenix in contempt of court. As a result, Snow ordered the city to pause the planned block-by-block cleanup of The Zone.
The ACLU sued the city in November over its treatment of people experiencing homelessness. The organization claimed that during the May 10 cleanup, the city violated an order Snow issued in December about how people experiencing homelessness and their possessions should be treated.
But at a hearing on Friday, Snow said that based on the current evidence, the cleanups can continue.
Phoenix planned to clear one block of The Zone encampment roughly every two weeks, starting with the May 10 cleanup. The second cleanup was initially scheduled for May 24 but is now rescheduled for May 31, city spokesperson Kristin Couturier said.
The ACLU claimed that during the May 10 cleanup, Phoenix seized and destroyed people’s property, coerced people into “limited and possibly unavailable” shelter spaces and threatened to cite or arrest people on the block before finding them shelter that fit their individual needs.
The city fiercely refuted those allegations, calling the ACLU’s recounting of the cleanup “not accurate.” It countered that 47 of the 60 people the city engaged with were voluntarily moved into shelter, that no one’s property was destroyed without their permission and that the city is storing five people’s belongings at their request, Couturier said.
The city began clearing out The Zone under a block-by-block plan after a court order in a separate lawsuit in state court, Brown v. City of Phoenix, required it to shut down the encampment. The plaintiffs in that lawsuit are nearby business and property owners who allege the encampment is a public nuisance that has subjected them to violence and damaged their properties.
The city must be able to demonstrate that it's made significant progress on clearing out the encampment by July 10, when a trial in that lawsuit is scheduled.
On Thursday, Judge Snow allowed the plaintiffs in Brown v. City of Phoenix to intervene in the ACLU's lawsuit, despite resistance from the ACLU's plaintiffs, court records show.
Steve Tully, who represents the plaintiffs in Brown v. City of Phoenix, said his clients have no dispute with the result of Friday's hearing as long as the cleanups continue.
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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: Judge says cleanup of 'The Zone' homeless camp in Phoenix can continue
