Where is the Phoenix homeless camp called 'The Zone'?
For the past several years, an urban encampment in downtown Phoenix commonly called “The Zone" has been home to a fluctuating group of people, sometimes going as large as 1,000 residents.
The area is the focus of a lawsuit against the city, Brown v. City of Phoenix. In the suit, neighboring businesses and residents claim the camp is a public nuisance. Because of the lawsuit, Phoenix has been clearing people out of The Zone block-by-block. The clearing process began in May.
On Sept. 20, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled that Phoenix must clear The Zone of people by Nov. 4. While the order does not tell the city how to clear The Zone, it requires the removal of all tents and makeshift structures by the deadline and demands public property be kept clean.
Where is The Zone exactly?
In the lawsuit, the encampment referred to as The Zone is defined as roughly taking up the city blocks between Seventh and 15th Avenues and between Van Buren and Grant streets. Most of the people who live in The Zone are between Washington Street and railroad tracks that are just north of Buchanan Street.
The area is about a 20-minute walk west of the Footprint Center and Chase Field. Walking farther west from The Zone, it's roughly 20 minutes to the Arizona Capitol.
The Human Services Campus, which is directly in the middle of The Zone, is home to more than a dozen nonprofits that offer a variety of services to people experiencing homelessness in the city.
The Zone: What does it take to count everyone living in Phoenix’s largest homeless encampment?
How many people live in The Zone?
The population of the area fluctuates each day. People experiencing homelessness move frequently. The number of people living there is counted each week by the Human Services Campus outreach team. At the beginning of the summer of 2023, the number of people living there was around 800, but counts have shown that the population in the area had fallen by mid-September to around 500.
How to help
The Human Services Campus offers shelter and resources to people living in The Zone. The nonprofit accepts donations year-round, as do many other homeless service organizations in Central Arizona.
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: Where is 'The Zone' homeless camp in Phoenix?
