Updates from 'The Zone': Phoenix clears, cleans first block of homeless encampment
On Wednesday, Phoenix began the arduous task of clearing out the city’s largest homeless encampment.
The area, known as “The Zone,” is near 12th Avenue and Madison Street, just a short walk from the Arizona Capitol complex.
Dense rows of camping tents, blue tarps and other makeshift shelters line the sidewalk for blocks. Some people have been staying in the encampment for just a few days; others have lived there for years.
Arizona Republic reporters were on the scene as the city cleared a single block of the area.
Get caught up: The Republic breaks down who lives in "The Zone," why it's being disbanded and what happens next
Finding a shelter that’s a better fit
Barry Hayes, 67, and Daniel Mackey, 62, had left their tent in The Zone on Tuesday in exchange for spots at a city-owned shelter on Washington Street.
Turned off by the intake process there, they returned to their tent.
But on Wednesday, Hayes and Mackey were taken to a transitional men's shelter run by Community Bridges Inc.
Mackey said it was smaller, more "mellow" than the Washington Street shelter. In his view, it was a much better fit.
“It’s gonna work out I think," Mackey said in a phone call from the shelter. "I have high hopes for this.”
— Juliette Rihl
Resident of 'The Zone,' business owner doubtful of cleanup's impact
All that was left were tire tracks and barricades once the city workers were gone.
The cleanup wrapped up around noon, two hours ahead of the city’s schedule.
Eric Solomon, who lives in a tent a street over from the Ninth Avenue block that was cleaned Wednesday, said he doesn't expect that the people who accepted shelter would stay there. Congregate shelters can be dangerous places. Fights break out, he said, and other people steal your things. It’s a hard sell, he said.
Solomon said he doubted that the block cleaning would result in much of a difference other than to make people tense with uncertainty.
Miguel Samaniego, the owner of a tattoo shop near the block that was cleared, also said he had little hope that this cleanup would have any kind of impact. There’s still much more Zone left to go, he said.
People will come back to the street, Samaniego said.
— Miguel Torres
Homeless services leader 'pleasantly surprised' by cleanup
City spokesperson Kristin Couturier said that by around noon, 33 of the 40 people the city engaged with during the cleanup accepted services and were moved to indoor shelter.
Amy Schwabenlender, CEO of the Human Services Campus, a collection of nonprofits that serve people experiencing homelessness that sits at the center of The Zone, said the cleanup went relatively smoothly and was a success.
"It's noon, and it's almost done, so I'm pleasantly surprised," she said. "It shows that the city really put a lot of thought into it."
For the roughly seven people on the block who didn't accept shelter on Wednesday, Schwabenlender said outreach workers will continue to try to engage with them.
"I don't think we can just force people and say, 'This is your only choice,'" she said. "We know large congregate shelters don't work for everybody. What are the other options?"
— Juliette Rihl
Members of Phoenix City Council react to first block cleanup
Newly elected Councilmember Kesha Hodge Washington, whose district is near The Zone but does not include the encampment, visited the cleanup midmorning.
Hodge Washington said she wanted to see it firsthand since she helps direct the policy that affects it.
Most individuals accepted services, she said. That gave her hope. She also noticed the environment didn't feel tense or confrontational.
To Hodge Washington, it was a sign that advanced notice by the city to the individuals probably helped.
While she was there, one man carrying a tote bag ran up to her and asked if he was too late to request services. She connected him to outreach workers.
Hodge Washington said she met another man who intentionally set up a tent on the Ninth Avenue block ahead of the cleanup. He told her he moved there from near the railroad tracks so he could be among the first people to get services, Hodge Washington said.
"We're on the right track," she said reflecting on the experience. "It's not perfect, but it's going to make a difference."
Councilmember Jim Waring, whose district is farthest from The Zone in northeast Phoenix, also visited the cleanup.
Waring regularly drives past the encampment and often recounts the experiences at public council meetings, venting about the worsening conditions and cautioning city staff not to tout supposed success stories when the environment still looks like "anarchy."
He said he's worried about the optics of the upcoming NBA Finals at the Footprint Center arena just a short walk from the encampment. The City Council years ago voted to upgrade the basketball arena, and it still infuriates him. The city should've been proactive with that money, he said, using it to prevent homelessness. He said he first noticed homelessness become an issue a decade ago.
Waring said he is glad the city's cleaning out The Zone. But he said he won't consider it successful unless there's a "dramatic, visible reduction of people, tents, trash. Anything that looks apocalyptic."
Councilmember Yassamin Ansari, whose district includes the homeless encampment, also visited the cleanup.
"We will quickly run out of emergency shelter, and that’s why I will continue to prioritize securing indoor spaces for our unsheltered residents — especially during our peak heat season," Ansari said in a statement. "This strategy may be more time-consuming, but it’s essential that we do not push people into equally unsafe housing just to get them 'off the streets.'"
— Taylor Seely
Observers hand out 'know your rights' material to 'The Zone' residents
Members of Fund for Empowerment, a group that advocates for the rights of unsheltered people, were on the scene Wednesday morning distributing “know your rights” flyers to unhoused people about the legal rules that apply to encampment cleanups.
The group and two of its members, Faith Kearns and Frank Urban, are plaintiffs in a lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona filed against Phoenix in November.
The suit seeks to halt “raids” of unhoused people’s belongings and stop police from enforcing ordinances that the lawsuit claims “criminalize homelessness.”
Kearns was among the group observing Wednesday's operation. She said police have personally seized and destroyed her property in the past, and she worried that the same thing would happen to others on Wednesday.
“All they’re gonna do is come in with a bulldozer and clear everything out. I’ve seen it before. I’ve lived it,” she said.
The ACLU and the city were negotiating a settlement agreement in that lawsuit.
In December, a federal judge issued an order in the case setting guidelines for how Phoenix can conduct cleanups. The procedures outlined in Snow's order include providing advance notice of cleanups, not seizing property unless there's a reasonable belief it has been abandoned and storing property for 30 days before it is thrown away.
— Juliette Rihl
Loaders roll in, scooping up everything in their paths
The city’s street tractor loaders rolled in midmorning. They made quick work of what was left.
Scott Hall, deputy director of Phoenix’s Office of Homeless Solutions, said crews were taking the time to sort through what remained to pull personal items from debris and make sure they were stored.
If they didn’t know to whom something belonged, they would leave a note behind on a post or wall near where the item was found, explaining where it could be retrieved, Hall said.
But to see the loaders in action, it was hard to make out any differentiating work. They rammed all that was left on the street — bikes, beds, containers, chairs, clothes and collapsed tents — into city garbage trucks.
Before the tractors rolled in, Hall said everyone took what they wanted to take. The limits of what people could store with the city as they moved to shelter sites were decided on an individual basis, he said.
By the time the loaders got to work, the only people left to witness it were reporters and a group of advocates who didn’t trust the city’s promise to respect property.
— Miguel Torres
Resident of 'The Zone': Relocation will not be successful
Antoin “Applejacks” Jackson woke up early to move his belongings from the area with his dog, Ruckus.
By 8 a.m., he was already setting up camp on the corner of another block of "The Zone."
“It’s not gonna work,” he said of the city’s relocation effort, adding that he feels a more cohesive plan is needed.
— Juliette Rihl
Police called to gather item found in structure
With gray clouds moving in and the smallest amount of rain, the crews began in earnest to tear down the tents and some of the structures.
One proved more than the small crew could handle. With support beams dug in and cross planks nailed, it was sturdy.
Ten minutes in, Scott Hall, deputy director of Phoenix’s Office of Homeless Solutions, waved everyone off, telling them to “hold on.”
They had found something.
Hall wouldn’t say what they found, but he confirmed that he called police to deal with it.
For the moment, the tent was guarded by private security.
Waiting for officers to arrive, the cleanup workers moved on to smaller tents.
A short while later, two police vehicles arrived. Officers surrounded the structure and pulled out a large rifle with a scope.
They could not confirm if it was an air rifle or an actual rifle.
Once bagged, the officers drove off without much pause. They were gone in less time than it took them to arrive.
— Miguel Torres
Outreach workers taking 'The Zone' residents to shelter sites
Activity slowed on the Ninth Avenue block shortly after a press conference by Scott Hall, deputy director of Phoenix’s Office of Homeless Solutions.
Reporters outnumbered the residents, but piles of tents, clothes, bedding, wood planks and containers still overwhelmed the sidewalks.
Later today, according to the city’s plan, workers with street sweepers and flatbeds will come by to remove debris that’s left, similar to what has happened during cleaning sweeps that have taken place in The Zone since December.
The difference this time is that people won’t be allowed back onto the block after it is cleaned.
Phoenix police officers were visibly absent, but a handful of security guards hired by the city watched over the barricades closing off the street. Mostly they functioned as gatekeepers, opening the street to a series of white cars driven by outreach workers.
The white cars pull up to a person and their belongings, load them up and drive them to one of the shelters or hotel rooms promised.
Some of the shelter sites mentioned by Hall include the Washington Street Shelter, Respiro, Central Arizona Shelter Services and the city’s leased hotel, Rio Fresco.
— Miguel Torres
City plans for 2-week cycle of cleaning and clearing, block by block
The constant rumble of a lone helicopter drowned out the conversations Community Bridges Inc. outreach workers were having Wednesday morning with residents of the Ninth Avenue block for whom the city still has not found a shelter solution.
Some residents were upset. Others were tired and dazed.
Scott Hall, deputy director of Phoenix’s Office of Homeless Solutions, told reporters that they had moved 25 people and still had about 10 left to place.
He offered assurances that they have enough spots for the 30 or so people who lived on the block. But he also admitted that there are not enough places for the 700 or so others living in the rest of The Zone.
That's why the city is approaching the court-ordered cleanup in waves of around 30 people at a time, he said.
The goal, he said, is to advance the process in two-week increments. That means sending workers to a block with a two-week notice that a clearout is coming, starting to move residents and then eventually forcing them out.
— Miguel Torres
Some have already tried relocating, only to wind up back in The Zone
Barry Hayes and his friend Daniel Mackey left their tent in The Zone on Tuesday in exchange for spots at a city-owned shelter on Washington Street. But they found the shelter’s intake process, with its rotating staff and redundant questions, overwhelming, Hayes said.
“We lasted about a half hour. We had to get out of there,” said Hayes, 67.
He and Mackey, 62, were back in their tent shortly after.
Hayes said they would accept a hotel room if offered one, but otherwise will likely pack up and move their belongings to another block of The Zone.
“We just want to be left alone and find a place,” Hayes said, adding that an apartment would be ideal.
— Juliette Rihl
Many tents in 'The Zone' are already gone as cleanup to start
At the start of the morning, already a third of the tents are gone, leaving behind assorted building materials and clothing. The street bubbles with people, mostly outreach workers and advocates.
Some people who live in tents are pulling apart what they need to for moving while others are already packed, their tents and necessities organized and tied up in piles in their area, waiting for what comes next.
— Miguel Torres
Clearing of single block set to begin at about 7 a.m.
The clearing of Phoenix's largest homeless encampment — prompted by a Maricopa County Superior Court order in a lawsuit that claims the area is a nuisance — will be undertaken incrementally.
On Wednesday, a single block of Ninth Avenue, between Washington and Jefferson streets, will be cleaned up and cleared of people.
The block only became part of The Zone in recent months. Roughly 20 to 30 people were living there a week ago.
City officials say they plan to offer shelter space and other services to everyone on the block. Even before Wednesday, city officials were connecting with people living there and had relocated a handful to shelters.
After the block is cleared, residents will not be allowed to return. If they do, they may be arrested or cited.
Between 600 and 900 people live in The Zone at any given time, city reports show.
It's not known how long it will take to clear the encampment block by block. The next block cleaning has not been announced, and the city has said it plans to appeal the court order that directed the clear-out.
Under the order, the city must demonstrate it has achieved "material results" in clearing the encampment when a trial in the nuisance lawsuit begins in mid-July.
— Juliette Rihl
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: 'The Zone' cleanup: Phoenix begins clearing homeless camp
