8 July 20th–July 26th, 2023 phoenixnewtimes.com phoenix new Times | music | cafe | film | culTuRe | NighT+Day | feaTuRe | NeWs | OPiNiON | feeDBacK | cONTeNTs | hearing, Wurman emphasized that “the city is the cause” of the problems surrounding the Zone. Therefore, he argued, the court should make its order forcing the city to permanently clear out the neighborhood “by the end of the summer.” The city, meanwhile, maintained that it needed nine more months to finish clearing the Zone, which officials testified that they plan to continue regardless of the outcome of the trial. “We are invested, as a city, in addressing this area around the Human Services Campus — for these people out there that are unsheltered, but in partic- ular, for these property owners, home- owners, business owners,” Gina Montes, deputy city manager for Phoenix, testified on July 11. “We are all in. We have been working for many months, and we are not going back.” Montes’ statement was met with skepti- cism from the plaintiffs and their lawyers. As Blaney noted, the city was not conducting regular “engagements” — its term for the sweeps — until the judge’s order came down in March. “Yeah, things were, quote-unquote, in the works. But things were not done until we got into this case. That’s the bottom line,” Blaney told the city’s lawyers as the trial came to a close. This was a key takeaway of the trial. Before the lawsuit, the city had done far less to provide shelter to the many living outside. And the question remains: What is the city doing now? City promises sanctioned campground Over the two days of the trial, the city attempted to prove to Blaney that it was following his order to clear out the encampment. Numbers the city provided as exhibits in the trial showed that some 200 people had been placed in shelters as a result of the Zone sweeps since December. However, the city did not provide data on how many of those people remain shel- tered. In June, the Arizona Republic reported that some of those shelter place- ments were only temporary. According to testimony by city officials, three blocks of the Zone were cleared before the trial, with 14 blocks remaining. A fourth sweep took place on July 12, with a fifth set for later this month. For the most part, people have not returned to camp in the areas that have been cleared, which the city claimed was a success. “Those areas that we have addressed — it’s not as fast as we would like, as I know the plaintiffs would like — but they have remained clear. They have remained clean,” Montes said. “Twenty-four of those folks we encountered and we engaged with chose to go somewhere else in the area.” The city is clearing the Zone block by block in large part because of a 2018 deci- sion by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that it is unconstitu- tional to arrest or otherwise punish people for sleeping in public when they have nowhere else to go. To address this, the city leased land from the state and plans to create a “sanc- tioned campground,” or an area for people to camp outside, with security and basic amenities such as bathrooms and showers. The city currently is branding the camp- ground as a “safe outdoor space,” though people there will still be camping outside in triple-digit heat. The campground will be located right on the outskirts of the Zone at 15th Avenue and Jackson Street. Montes testified that the city was moving “aggressively” to open the camp- ground but said that plaintiffs’ requests that the city clear out the Zone by the end of the summer were not possible. “It is not feasible or realistic for us to do it in that short a time period, while at the same time complying with requirements in the federal Fund for Empowerment/ACLU case,” she said. Lawyers for the property owners, meanwhile, urged Blaney to set a shorter deadline. “Why should our clients suffer for another nine months while the city gets around to it?” Tully asked in his closing statement. The hundreds of people living in the Zone as summer continues are suffering, too. OHara Shipe Lynn Trimble Left: Joel Coplin is one of a dozen plaintiffs in the Brown case against the city. The artist lives and works in a warehouse in the Zone. Right: Zone resident Antoin Jackson was one person impacted by the sweep on May 10. ‘A Legal Tightrope’ from p 7
