7 July 20th–July 26th, 2023 phoenixnewtimes.com phoenix new Times | cONTeNTs | feeDBacK | OPiNiON | NeWs | feaTuRe | NighT+Day | culTuRe | film | cafe | music | ‘A Legal Tightrope’ In a trial over the Zone, city’s failures in the neighborhood made clear. BY KATYA SCHWENK T he fate of one of the nation’s largest homeless encamp- ments — the Zone in down- town Phoenix — now rests in the hands of a Maricopa County Superior Court judge. Last week, lawyers for a group of prop- erty owners in the area of the encampment made their case before Judge Scott Blaney for why he should give the city a final dead- line to clear out the encampment. Blaney now has 60 days to make a decision, although he suggested that the ruling will come down in early August. The trial laid bare the city’s failure to address the inhumane living conditions of Zone residents as well as the safety concerns raised by property owners who filed suit in August 2022. Now, the city is scrambling to appease the business owners, while hundreds of people in the encampment languish in the deadly Phoenix heat with no available shelter. “If 800 people were displaced by a wild- fire or a flood, the city would provide temporary shelter,” said Steve Tully, one of the attorneys representing the property owners. The city would “start triaging” and take immediate action, he said. By contrast, Phoenix’s unsheltered population has been living on the streets of the Zone for years. Twin legal battles Over the past year, the city has been dragged into multiple legal battles involving the Zone and its treatment of the camp’s residents. The trial was just the latest chapter in a lawsuit — Brown v. City of Phoenix — filed on Aug. 10, 2022 by a dozen property owners in the area of the Zone, which stretches from Ninth to 15th avenues, between Washington and Jefferson streets. The 57-page complaint called the encampment a “public nuisance” under Arizona law that has “irreparably harmed” those who have property or work in the area, and demanded the court order the city to clear it. Residents and business owners regularly suffer break-ins and have had to close businesses due to the expanding encampment, according to the suit. At one point, as many as 1,000 people lived in the Zone, although in recent months the number has decreased to around 800, according to testimony during the trial. During the summer, people who have pitched tents along the streets here have no respite from the sun and limited access to potable water and showers. The situation in the Zone has changed significantly since March 27, when Blaney gave the city a July 10 deadline to clear out the encampment. The city began conducting sweeps on May 10, despite a lack of available shelter beds and an ongoing lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Arizona and the Fund for Empowerment. The suit, which was filed in November, claimed the city had destroyed personal property in previous sweeps. Justin Pierce, an attorney representing the city, said on July 10 that the two lawsuits mean that the city has been “walking a legal tightrope.” Brian Freudenthal, a Phoenix police commander who oversees operations in the Zone, put it this way: “One court is saying we’re doing too much, and the other court is saying we’re not doing enough.” Property owners ask for a deadline During the trial, property owners and the city agreed on some points about the Zone: The city has allowed people to perma- nently camp in the area.The city has cleared three blocks of the encampment since May, but the number of people living there remains the same. (A fourth block was cleared on July 12 after the trial ended.) Living conditions for people in the area are poor and sometimes deadly. The questions of the trial, which emerged as lawyers sparred in their opening state- ments, were more bureaucratic. Should Blaney give the city a final deadline to clear out the Zone, and who should continue overseeing the city’s actions in the neighborhood? For Zone property owners — who are represented by Ilan Wurman, an attorney and associate professor at Arizona State University, and Tully — the city’s efforts are too slow and strictly a result of a March court order. During the “WE ARE ALL IN. WE HAVE BEEN WORKING FOR MANY MONTHS, AND WE ARE NOT GOING BACK.” Katya Schwenk Katya Schwenk Police arrested a man after he refused to leave the Zone during a sweep on May 31. The city has cleared four blocks of the Zone, but hundreds of people still live on the streets in the area. | NEWS | >> p 8
