They sued Phoenix over ‘The Zone.’ How do they feel now streets are clear?

Joel Coplin walked down a room lined with carefully lit paintings showing scenes he witnessed in a Phoenix homeless encampment once known as “The Zone.”

Rows of people sleeping in the shade, a group of friends laughing together under palm trees, a woman lying unconscious on the pavement as a man holds her hand. All moments he committed to memory before moving them to a canvas, he said.

Now, all the people in the paintings are gone because more than a dozen neighboring business owners and residents, including Coplin, sued the city over what a judge described as a “dire situation” affecting people inside and outside the encampment.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney called the encampment a public nuisance and gave city officials until Nov. 4 to clear the area of the people living there and their structures permanently.

Phoenix met the deadline with three days to spare, making hundreds of new shelter beds available and opening a structured campground for people experiencing homelessness. Officials are expected to return to court on Thursday to show they’ve followed the court order and kept the area clear.

"Get them to a place where they can go the bathroom," Coplin said. "A place with some dignity."

Plaintiffs feel relief over outcome of lawsuit

Coplin has lived and worked at Gallery 119 for about five years and watched as the unhoused population in the area — the blocks south of Jefferson Street between Seventh and 15th avenues — grew steadily.

While he knows continued attention is needed, he is optimistic about what has been done so far for the neighborhood, he said.

“It’s going to evolve,” he said. “We’ll see what happens, and we’ll react to it.”

Joe Faillace, owner of the Old Station Sub Shop at Jefferson Street and 13th Avenue and another plaintiff in the public nuisance lawsuit, said he has been wary of people returning to camp in the area. His concern has lessened since when Blaney issued the order in September saying the city has to keep the area free of urban camping, he said.

Hopeful that homelessness will get more attention

Coplin said he often felt like part of the community within The Zone. He would provide rides or be a character witness for people who needed it, he said. His gallery includes a variety of portraits of the people who lived just outside his doorstep.

Now, it’s unclear where some of them are.

About 585 people accepted help during Phoenix's regular cleanups in The Zone, which started in May. Around half of those people moved to St. Vincent de Paul’s Washington Street Shelter. Others went to other shelters, converted hotels and the structured campground, according to numbers Phoenix officials provided to the City Council earlier this month.

As of last week, about two dozen people had moved into Phoenix's structured campground, but city officials have said it will be able to accept up to 300 people once construction is complete.

Coplin said he’s always excited to hear about people getting a place to live but has run into acquaintances who have found themselves back on the street after being kicked out of a shelter.

City officials have said they are working to determine how many of the former residents of The Zone are still sheltered.

Since the closure of The Zone, some of the people who were living there have moved to streets in other parts of the city. Faillace said he hopes more people seeing homelessness elsewhere in the city will help ensure the issue gets the consistent attention it needs.

“I think that’s just going to enlighten a lot of people,” Faillace said.

Coplin said he knows life changed meaningfully for the people who were in The Zone and are now living in unfamiliar settings.

“They don’t know anybody,” Coplin said of the people who moved. “They don’t know their neighbors.”

Still, Coplin said he thinks the shelter space provided improved many people’s quality of life. He toured the structured campground recently and said he is happy to see a shelter open up that can fit the needs of many people he knows. He’d like to see similar shelter spaces elsewhere in the Valley and larger investments in affordable housing, he said.

Phoenix officials to appear at court Thursday

Phoenix officials will return to Maricopa County Superior Court on Thursday for another hearing in the public nuisance lawsuit. They have been ordered to demonstrate how they have complied with Blaney’s post-trial order and kept the area clear of people.

Most recently, Phoenix was ordered to pay close to $220,000 in legal fees in the case. That adds to the expenses incurred as a result of the lawsuit.

Clearing The Zone cost nearly $20 million, with most of that expense going to providing shelter. The structured campground has cost about $13 million so far.

That's about $56,000 for each of the roughly 585 people Phoenix says it helped as it shut down The Zone.

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: They sued Phoenix over ‘The Zone.’ How do they feel now?