As Encampment Sweeps Fail and Shelters Fall Short, Nearly 1,000 Homeless People Return to Phoenix’s Troubled ‘Zone’
A growing number of homeless people in Phoenix, Arizona, are returning to an area of the city known as ‘The Zone’ to find shelter as other services fall short of their needs.
‘The Zone’ encompasses roughly 15 city blocks between downtown Phoenix and the state capitol. Over the last couple of years, as many as 1,000 homeless people lived in the area because the city does not have enough shelter or affordable housing options. Phoenix spent roughly $20 million to clear the encampment over six months last year but to no avail.
As of October 2024, roughly 990 homeless people had returned to the area surrounding ‘The Zone,’ according to an Arizona Central report. For comparison, there were 395 people living around the former encampment area in October 2023. Advocates like Jamie Podratz, who works on public policy at the Arizona Housing Coalition, say the trend is concerning because it shows the city’s emergency response system does not have enough resources to be effective.
“As long as we kind of fail to address the issues of homelessness in our communities, we’re going to see this because we know we have a shortage of emergency shelter beds, and we know we have a shortage of affordable housing,” Podratz told Invisible People.
Encampment Sweeps Highlight Legal Battles and Controversial Policies
‘The Zone’ has been a source of constant tension in Phoenix since it began forming in late 2022. Advocates sued the city of Phoenix in 2023 to try and stop the city from conducting homeless sweeps in the area. The ACLU of Arizona argued that the practice of sweeping homeless people away from ‘The Zone’ caused them to face “immense hardships” and was potentially unconstitutional.
Nearby property owners argued that ‘The Zone’ made the surrounding neighborhood unsafe. A judge sided with the property owners in 2023 and forced Phoenix to disband ‘The Zone’ within three months. The judge found that the city “intentionally stopped — or at least materially decreased — enforcement of criminal, health, and other quality of life statutes and ordinances in the Zone” and forced Phoenix to resume enforcement activities.
That all changed after the Supreme Court ruled in Johnson v. Grants Pass that cities can use fines, fees, and arrests to punish homeless people when no shelter is available. Since then, Podratz said city officials have gone back to sweeping people away from the area.
“The concept of sweeping encampments can be worrisome because moving people around or moving people away from services should never be the goal,” Podratz said.
Shelter Expansion Fails to Meet Growing Demand
The developments around ‘The Zone’ also raise questions about how Phoenix responds to homelessness. Local shelter and housing investments seem to be outpacing the city’s growing rates of homelessness, so the growing number of people living at ‘The Zone’ suggests that the city’s shelter system is not meeting people’s needs.
Across Phoenix, there are roughly 14,700 year-round shelter beds, with more than 9,400 of that total coming from permanent housing options, according to HUD. Over the last year, Phoenix has added more than 300 rapid rehousing units, another 800 other units of supportive housing, and more than 1,100 shelter beds, which often serve as a point of first contact for homeless people entering services. In all, that represents a 19.8% growth rate for the number of available beds compared to a 6.8% growth rate for the number of homeless people.
While Phoenix saw a 2% reduction in its overall unsheltered count last year, Podratz said the city needs to focus on expanding its capacity to serve homeless folks and connect them with shelter.
“We also need to look at the larger picture and determine our capacity to address the numbers of people that are living on the streets so that it improves the quality of life for everyone,” Podratz said.
One way to begin addressing the issue is to provide more flexible funding options for service providers. That would allow them to create programs that target specific groups of people experiencing homelessness, like seniors and families with children.
However, voters seem to have a different idea of how to address homelessness. During November’s election, voters passed Proposition 312, giving property owners a tax break to reimburse the costs of removing homeless encampments from their property. This suggests Phoenix will continue its efforts to criminalize homelessness instead of providing additional support.
Pandemic Lessons Show the Path Forward
The pandemic proved that we need to rethink housing in the United States. It also showed that aid programs work when agencies and service organizations are provided with sufficient funds and clear guidance on spending aid dollars.
Contact your officials and representatives. Tell them you support keeping many of the pandemic-related aid programs in place for future use. They have proven effective at keeping people housed, which is the first step to ending homelessness.
