Philip the vagrant is known to the people in a northwest Pima County neighborhood and last week, a larger audience got to meet him when he called into the James T. Harris radio show and pleaded with residents to not feed the vagrants.
Philip had joined the conversation Harris was having with residents who have grown very concerned about the number of apparently homeless drug addicts who now make their way up from Tucson to occupy the dry riverbeds in the suburban area between the small towns of Oro Valley and Marana.
The situation was first made public by Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller who had been approached by residents and small business owners who are harassed on an almost daily basis by the vagrants. Miller sought to have an ordinance passed, similar to those found in the surrounding municipalities, that would have at least restricted where panhandling could occur.
Currently, many of the vagrants stand on the roadway medians in the hopes of catching a moment to beg money from stopped motorists. Miller has been advised by constituents that the median occupiers present a health and safety hazard to moving motorists as they scramble from car to car collecting money.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, while speaking at a recent meeting of neighbors, revealed that he “thought all along this was moving along,” referring to the plan to place “no trespassing” signage on the medians in response to Miller’s first request made months ago. “This morning I learned that Ms. Cornelio, whose husband is a Superior Court Judge had said she wasn’t going to put signs,” said Nanos who is apparently occupied with an FBI investigation into questionable spending practices by his department.
Nanos claims he can do nothing about the situation until “no trespassing” signs are posted, and he has refused to support Miller in her effort to have the ordinance passed.
Philip offered another solution. He believes that authorities should not be focusing their attention on the panhandlers in the median; instead they should be pulling over the drivers who give to the vagrants in the medians. Phillip argues that they are the cause of traffic jams, and they encourage the new generation of vagrants.
Phillip, who says he wants to live in the desert and has enough money for food and a few new clothes when necessary due to disability payments for his injured back, describes himself as a “clean living” homeless man. When he digs into garbage cans, he makes sure to put what he doesn’t want back in where it came from.
The sixty year old man said that he broke his back years ago and it continues to give him problems, but not as many as the younger generation of panhandlers that use the homeless visage to gain a quick buck. It is these homeless that apparently cause all the trash and garbage according to Phillip.
“I always kept my camp very clean so I wouldn’t ever be a problem to anybody, but these two young guys came in and they are the same guys that go into the median doing that routine,” Phillip told Harris. “They are pulling $80 to $100 bucks a day in the day time. Then at night they are getting high going out into the trashcans all night long until three in the morning bringing back tons and tons of whatever and then they go out somewhere and sort it. Then it is always someone else’s problem to pick up the entire mountain of trash that they left.”
It is the area residents, including Phillip, who are left picking up after the drug addled vagrants. Other than Miller, no one in power appears to be interested in helping them.
It is election season, and others on the Pima County Board of Supervisors might see the wisdom in helping pass some sort of ordinance, but because they mostly represent residents who reside in the municipalities with ordinances, there is little to compel them.
Until help comes Phillip and his fellow residents will remain vigilant. “They have tried but I’m always here because I’m crippled half the time,” said Phillip of vagrants’ attempts to rip him off. “So I’m always at home.”