US cities see homelessness as blight problem. Could Phoenix DOJ investigation change that?

Local elected officials across the United States are obsessed with blight.

Perhaps because it's the issue that clogs up their email inboxes the most.

Perhaps because it's a relatively easy issue to solve with immediate results. Or maybe it's that blight of any kind — graffiti, homeless encampments, litter — is a visual reminder of a city's imperfections that must be eradicated.

Whatever the reason, America's big cities spend millions — sometimes tens or hundreds of millions — to clear them from sight.

The programs usually have cutesy names like "Blight Busters" or "Operation Healthy Streets" and generally are well received by residents and supported on both sides of the political aisle.

But for people experiencing homelessness who can't get one of the limited shelter beds in metro Phoenix and must live on the street, these programs are frustrating at best and devastating at worst. What local officials see as blight is all some people own.

In early August, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into Phoenix's homeless encampment cleanups, noting they may violate the civil rights of people experiencing homelessness by throwing away their possessions.

The investigation likely will take more than a year to complete, but experts say it could force cities across the country to change their approach to homelessness, which many politicians see as first and foremost a blight problem.

Phoenix encampment cleanups catch DOJ attention

Phoenix's encampment cleanup program is dubbed "Phoenix C.A.R.E.S.," or "Phoenix Community Action Response Engagement Services."

In 2018, the city launched the program, which encourages residents to report homeless encampments. The city then will send an outreach team to try to get the people living on the street into shelter — if available — or other services. Then the city sends out a sanitation crew to clear out any trace of the encampment.

Police officers can also initiate the Phoenix C.A.R.E.S. process if they come across an encampment, even if no residents have complained. Advocates say this is where most issues occur.

Frank Urban and Faith Kearns spent several years living on the street in Sunnyslope and downtown Phoenix. Police officers would ask them to leave public areas at least once every other month, they said. When they returned, their belongings were gone.

"If you're homeless and the cops ask you to move, you move. You don't ask why," Urban said.

"You don't take anything, you just leave. Otherwise, next thing you know, you're up in handcuffs on your way to jail for some crime you didn't commit," Kearns added.

Phoenix has had 2,743 encampment complaints so far this year, according to city spokesperson Stephanie Bracken. The city spends about $1 million per year on encampment cleanups.

More than half of the budget is dedicated to the three-times-per-week cleanups at the largest encampment in the city near downtown, just outside the Human Services Campus.

For more than a year, The Arizona Republic has documented these cleanups that advocates say are unnecessarily disruptive for people experiencing homelessness.

The city deploys street sweepers and forces the 200 or so people who live in tents in the area between Jefferson and Jackson streets and Ninth and 15th avenues to move all of their belongings to safe zones until the area is treated.

If tents, bags or other items aren't moved before the cleanup team arrives, police officers and other city workers may throw them in a dump truck.

Phoenix officials say the cleanups are necessary to protect the health and safety of people living in and around the encampments. They say people experiencing homelessness are given warning before the cleanups and that disposal of people's property is rare.

The Phoenix City Council voted unanimously in May 2020 to spend federal coronavirus relief funds to increase the frequency of cleanings from once to three times per week.

Advocates say the three-times-per-week cleanings are excessive and are not about cleaning but about agitating people into moving their camps somewhere else, which may solve the blight problem in that neighborhood but creates a problem for another neighborhood.

The city continued its cleanups the week following the DOJ's announcement that it would investigate the city's disposal of homeless people's possessions.

Multiple people told The Republic that police officers and city sanitation workers threw away tents, blankets, IDs, food stamp cards and other valuables just days after the investigation was announced.

Phoenix-style cleanups common across U.S.

Encampment cleanups are common all over the United States — but they're not all disruptive, according to Steve Berg, vice president of programs and policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

"Some places do it in a way that's really humane, and people who are in encampments feel like life improved as a result. Others do it in a way that is not humane at all and doesn't really solve any of the problems and just makes things worse," Berg said.

Cleaning is essential to the well being of people living in encampments. It can decrease the spread of communicable diseases like Hepatitis A, which is common in encampments.

Berg said cities should talk directly with people experiencing homelessness to perform the cleanups in a way that promotes hygiene without creating additional burdens.

Additionally, if people are forced to leave an area because of a cleaning, they should be given another housing option, he said.

In metro Phoenix, every shelter bed is full almost every night, and there is a severe lack of affordable housing options.

For most people living on the street, they have no other option and forcing them to leave an area only temporarily solves the blight issue, as they'll just set up camp elsewhere in the city.

Tristia Bauman, senior attorney with the National Homelessness Law Center, said multiple-times-per-week cleanups don't do much to actually help with health and safety if the city refuses to provide trash bins and toilets near homeless encampments.

In the large encampment near the Human Services Campus, trash bins are frequently overflowing, and people don't have access to bathrooms overnight.

"What a wasteful process. It's a misnomer to call them cleanups because if people don't have access to sanitation facilities, then the things being cleaned up, all of that will just pile up again," Bauman said.

Human Services Campus Executive Director Amy Schwabenlender said local governments often justify cleanings by saying people experiencing homelessness "don't know better" and that getting rid of some of their items that seem dirty or unnecessary is actually helping them.

But this is a standard only applied to people without homes, she said.

"We wouldn't say, 'I know what's best for you, it's time to clean out your garage,' " Schwabenlender said.

Homeless legal challenges

The violation of homeless people's civil rights during encampment cleanups and sweeps has already been tested in federal court.

In 2012, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the Fourth and 14th Amendments protect homeless people from government seizure and destruction, even if they leave their property temporarily unattended.

A group of people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles' Skid Row sued the city for seizing and destroying possessions "temporarily left on public sidewalks" while the individuals "attended to necessary tasks such as eating, showering and using restrooms."

The circuit court affirmed a lower court's decision that the city must provide appropriate notice to people before performing a cleanup and must allow homeless residents an opportunity to challenge the seizure of their items.

The city had argued that homeless people lose their due process rights when they leave their possessions unattended in a public sidewalk in violation of a city ordinance.

"The logic of the city's suggestion would also allow it to seize and destroy cars parked in no-parking zones left momentarily unattended," Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote.

Bauman said the city of Phoenix, which falls under the jurisdiction of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, appears to violate both elements of the 2012 decision with its cleanups.

The only notice given before the encampment cleanups near the Human Services Campus comes from police officers who announce the cleanups at 5 a.m.

Everyone who lives in the area is well aware of the cleanups because they happen three times per week. But Bauman said that is not an excuse to not provide notice, and last-minute verbal notice is not enough.

"I cannot think of a single case where oral notice ... has been approved as sufficient," Bauman said.

People who live on the streets in Phoenix also don't have a chance to object to the seizure of their items, because the city immediately disposes of them.

In some other cities, city workers will store the seized items for a number of days to allow time for people to regain their possessions.

Goal should be the same

Advocates hope the DOJ's investigation will force all cities, not just Phoenix, to focus more attention on creating permanent housing and shelter options instead of punishing people for living on the streets when they have no other options.

Berg said that even if leaders still view homelessness as a blight problem, they should realize that the only way to end street homelessness and the accompanying blight is to get people into housing.

"Whatever the reason is you think homelessness is bad, the solution is the same, one way or the other," he said.

Schwabenlender agreed. She faced pressure from the business owners surrounding the Human Services Campus because of the large encampment surrounding the campus.

Yet when the Human Services Campus and Andre House, a nearby soup kitchen, tried to add a new 100-bed shelter that would have served some of the people sleeping on the street, the neighbors also pushed back.

"I don't want to see homelessness either, but it's the 'how we address homelessness' that we differ," Schwabenlender said.

Coverage of housing insecurity on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Arizona Community Foundation.

Reach the reporter at jessica.boehm@gannett.com or 480-694-1823. Follow her on Twitter @jboehm_NEWS.

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