This week, Phoenix officials and the entities that make money off of catering to the drug addled homeless, were dealt a blow when a Maricopa County judge declared Phoenix’s homeless “Zone” an illegal public nuisance.
In his 27-page ruling for attorney Ilan Wurman and his clients, Judge Scott Blaney of the Maricopa County Superior Court, gave Phoenix officials until November 4 to clean up the nuisance.
According to a blog post by Tim Sandefur of the Goldwater Institute, the court’s “decision finds that beginning in 2018, the city “intentionally stopped — or at least materially decreased — enforcement of criminal, health, and other quality of life statutes and ordinances in the Zone.” The city currently “maintains a policy of transporting homeless individuals into the Zone from other areas of the City,” it adds. The result, as every Phoenician knows by now, has been “a dramatic increase in violent crime,” and “a serious environmental nuisance—a biohazard—that empties into the state’s waterways.”
Phoenix officials, like their counterparts in Tucson, continue to claim that the Ninth Circuit’s rulings in the Martin and Grants Pass case preclude them from enforcing laws against urban camping.
However, Blaney found that those claims are based on the “most glaring misinterpretation of the Martin and Grants Pass opinions” which “is the inference that anyone who has erected a tent or other structure in the public rights of way is intrinsically unable to otherwise obtain shelter…. The cases also do not support the inference that anyone in the Zone that is using illegal drugs, is publicly intoxicated and/or passed-out, is committing criminal acts, and/or is engaging in some type of public indecency, is involuntarily engaging in the offending conduct as an unavoidable consequence of his or her status.”
Blaney agreed with Phoenix that the Martin and Grants Pass “decisions created an unworkable mandate based upon questionable legal analysis,” however, he found the rulings “do not justify the city running an open-air homeless shelter in the streets of Phoenix.”
According to Sandefur, the court ordered “the city to abate the nuisance by November 4—including removing all tents—and to “maintain its public property in the Zone in a condition free of: (a) tents and other makeshift structures in the public rights of way; (b) biohazardous materials including human feces and urine, drug paraphernalia, and other trash; and (c) individuals committing offenses against the public order.” The judge then set a hearing for November 30 where the city must report on its progress in following through with this order.”
Arizona State Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma are joining the federal case in question in the hopes of getting the Supreme Court of the United States to address homeless encampment bans, in order to tackle the growing crisis plaguing Arizona communities.
The Republican legislative leaders filed an amicus curiae brief this week with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Gloria Johnson, et al.
In that case, three homeless individuals in Grants Pass filed a lawsuit to try to stop local and state governments from combating the public safety threats, the public health dangers, and the inhumane conditions associated with these homeless encampments.
Toma and Petersen argue that the “detrimental rulings from both a lower court and the Ninth Circuit have tied the hands of elected officials in establishing critical solutions.”
The two lawmakers and others say that “The Zone,” located just blocks away from the Arizona State Capitol, “is a prime example of the devastation inflicting our citizens, with hundreds of homeless individuals living in squalor. This area is afflicted with murders, rapes, drug abuse, disease, and other atrocities that lawmakers, law enforcement, social workers, and healthcare professionals are unable to properly address due to ongoing litigation.”
Petersen and Toma argue the Ninth Circuit seized policymaking authority from elected state legislatures and city councils and dictated how state and local officials can respond in alleviating the homeless crisis.
Additionally, they contend the Court greatly misinterpreted the Eighth Amendment when it ruled that imposing penalties in order to get people off the streets is “cruel and unusual punishment.”
“We’re talking about a humanitarian crisis that continues to spiral out of control in our state, thanks to bad court rulings, judicial overreach, and a litany of vetoes by the Governor,” said Petersen. “Lives and livelihoods are lost every single day that we continue to allow homeless encampments to grow in our communities. We must have clarity from the U.S. Supreme Court in order to holistically address the systemic issues contributing to homelessness, as well as the dire public safety and public health consequences created by allowing these encampments to remain. Once again, the Attorney General is absent, but the Speaker and I are committed to engaging for the betterment of Arizona.”
“Many of the street homeless population are seriously mentally ill, drug addicted, or both,” said Senator John Kavanagh. “It is unconscionable that these vulnerable people are being allowed to live in squalid circumstances on the street where they may abuse drugs and become crime victims. This situation is a result of federal court rulings that some say prohibit the police from enforcing street camping bans even when shelter can be provided to the homeless person. It is imperative that the Supreme Court clarify lower court rulings, so that if homeless persons are offered shelter and refuse, they can be removed from the street by the police.”
“Homelessness is one of the top issues impacting Legislative District 2, putting law enforcement and private property owners into the direct fray due to the lack of leadership at Phoenix City Hall,” said Senator Shawnna Bolick. “My constituents want safe neighborhoods, not ones littered with used needles and drug paraphernalia often left overnight for their kids to encounter on the way to the bus stop to get to school. There are quite a few civil society groups stepping up, but it’s not enough. I hope the USSC does the right thing. Government exists for public safety, and Arizona’s Governor along with the Phoenix Mayor are failing their citizens.”
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Judge Finds Phoenix Homeless Encampment “The Zone” Is An Illegal Public Nuisance