An effort by the City of Phoenix to again delay taking action on the dangerous homeless encampment known “The Zone” was thwarted by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney.
On Monday, Blaney denied the City of Phoenix’s Motion to Stay Preliminary Injunction while they appeal his previous ruling. The judge found that Phoenix didn’t establish good cause for a stay of his March 27 ruling that required the city to “demonstrate to the Court at the July 10, 2023, Bench Trial in this matter the steps it has taken and the material results it has achieved toward compliance” with his Order.
The City argues in the Motion that the Court should stay enforcement of the Preliminary Injunction because, inter alia, the City is now “taking action.” The Court interprets this argument as meaning the injunction is unnecessary because the City is already taking steps to abate the horrible conditions in the Zone. But the Court issued the Preliminary Injunction based, in part, upon the City’s past failure to address the issues in the Zone, as well as the City’s apparent lack of intent to do so until faced with possible judicial intervention.
In fact, according to charity providers who tend to the people in “The Zone,” it has grown in size and population since the judge’s March ruling.
In that March ruling, Judge Blaney ordered the City of Phoenix to “abate the nuisance it presently maintains” in “The Zone,” which is a series of semi-permanent tent encampments that encroach on the public sidewalks, public grounds, and public rights of way between 7th and 15th Avenues and Van Buren and Grant Streets.
As previously reported by the Arizona Daily Independent, the lawsuit was brought last year by several property owners, residents, and business owners in “The Zone.”
According to Blaney’s order, the City has the ability to abate the public nuisance through enforcement of current statutes, ordinances, and codes. This includes maintaining city-owned property in “The Zone” in a condition free of tents and other makeshift structures in the public rights of way and free of biohazardous materials such as human feces and urine, drug paraphernalia, and other trash.
The judge also ruled that City officials must also remove individuals who are committing offenses against the public order, reversing a policy that has allowed most homeless persons within the Zone to avoid arrest for disturbing the peace, drunken and disorderly conduct, illegal drug use, domestic violence, and obstruction of streets, sidewalks, and other public grounds.
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