Pedestrians are now banned from standing for too long on 32 medians, mostly in northwest Tucson and other unincorporated areas of Pima County, after the Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance last week that labels lingering “for purposes other than waiting for the signal to change to cross safely” trespassing.
Shortly after the vote, county Department of Transportation workers began to install “Pima County property. No trespassing” signs at the first 14 “priority” intersections in the Foothills District. This week, they’re tackling 18 intersections in the Rincon and San Xavier districts, a county press release says.
The ordinance was sold as a public safety measure. But critics say this is another attempt to criminalize poverty and homelessness, because those mostly affected by the possibility of a trespassing fine are men and women panhandling on medians.
During a meeting in northwest Tucson on April 25, residents demanded Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos to rid the area of panhandlers and homeless camps. People said they were fed up with trash, human waste and alleged crimes.
At the meeting, Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller, who had unsuccessfully tried twice before to pass a similar ordinance, asked Nanos to stand up and support her proposal to ban panhandling on medians.
“I told her I cannot do that, sheriffs shouldn’t be involved in politics,” Nanos said. “Don’t put the sheriff in a political situation like that.”
But Nanos testified in support of the ordinance at the supervisors’ meeting last Tuesday. He told the Weekly that he backs the ordinance because “people don’t need to be on medians. It is not a safe environment. People are driving 40, 45 miles an hour.”
The county press release says that over the past 15 years, there have been an average of 357 crashes at intersections with an average of three deaths every year. Nine of those injuries involved pedestrians “in or around the median and at least one results in a fatality every two years.”
A couple of weeks before the board voted on the issue, Pima County Sheriff deputies began to patrol the intersections that would be affected to inform anyone standing on the medians that they had to move or face in the future a citation for trespassing. Nanos says that he doesn’t want to send anyone to jail over this.
Tucson homeless advocate Roy Trout says this is a classic move to continue the criminalization of poverty and homelessness. “Many people who can’t work depend on that money, because they have no other source,” Trout told the Weekly last month. “I have been out there for 22 years, I have a good idea of what it’s like to be on the streets.”
For years, Trout sold newspapers on medians—until the City of Tucson banned it back in 2001 amid reports of injuries, including deaths.
“We have society telling us, ‘go get a job.’ Well, I had a job,” Trout said. “I was selling newspapers. That was my job and you all took that job from me. I don’t qualify for much else. I have been on the streets since I was 15.”
Nanos agrees that this ordinance doesn’t address homelessness and its root causes. His job is to ensure all county residents are safe, but he says we ought to invest in housing people, job training programs, as well as mental health and substance abuse services.
“Have some humanity, and let’s find them a home,” Nanos says.
Supervisor Richard Elías was the sole “no” vote.
“That ordinance is not going to change one thing of the homeless problem they have,” he says.
After voting in favor of the ordinance, Supervisor Ramón Valadez asked for a staff report in three months to show how the county has in any way helped homeless men and women who sold newspapers in the medians affected by the changes.
“Pima County has a number of programs and resources for those experiencing homelessness, including the Sullivan Jackson Employment Center, which is the only program of its type in Arizona and one of only four American Job Centers in the nation providing employment assistance to people experiencing homelessness,” the county press release says.
As several homeless advocates have said in the past, these programs aren’t effective for everyone.
Elías supports an approach that involves housing people first, not issuing fines to individuals who won’t be able to pay for them. Unpaid fines can lead to arrest warrants.
“Even [Sheriff Nanos] said ‘I don’t want to take people to jail.’ It costs a lot of money to book them in the county jail,” Elias says. “It is just wasting money.”
The ordinance will push people out of the medians and onto other parts of town. Elías refers to Veinte de Agosto Park in downtown, which has now been closed for nearly one year over public safety and health concerns. The houseless men and women who occupied it headed to other parks further away.
“This is not a safety issue,” Elías says. “They just don’t want to have people there, they don’t want to interact with the homeless. As long as they are out of sight, they are out of mind. They are obviously very angry and have great fear, but we need to attack the problem, not scapegoat people.”
This article appears in May 26 – Jun 1, 2016.
5th poorest city in America under liberal rule for decades. White Guilt so thick that we treasure the ‘memorials’ on every corner to remind us, and DAMN proud of it!
No Wrong Again, you’re the only one that’s proud of it. You’re the only troll who mentions this in every other comment they post.
It’s really time for you to start typing something new. The 5th poorest city, evil liberals and raping of illegals nonsense got old after the first 10 times you posted it.
Please, please, please just go away.
We can all see what it is like to live in the 6th most impoverished city in America. One side says let’s do more to help the poor and the homeless by giving them more to keep them poor. The other side says let’s build our economy and create jobs so we aren’t so poor. We need both. There are some that will always be poor either by their lifestyle choices, disability or misfortune. But, we can have less poor people if we were a business friendly, job creating city (that is starting to happen). So we need to meet the needs of the chronic poor with food, clothing and housing and help those that can become productive do so.
2nd poorest state in the nation under Republican rule for decades – this is what you get: Extreme poverty
Homelessness is national crisis and needs to be handled on the federal level. The only states and cities that can handle it on their own are small and undesirable for homeless people (like Utah). Warm states and cities with major transportation routes (railroad and freeway) will continue to pay the price for what is a national problem. The more money municipalities invest in services to help the homeless, the worse their problem gets.
These people are on the streets for a variety of reasons but mental illness in conjunction with drug and alcohol addiction have become the main catalysts, not our economy or people being fired. Most of the people will NEVER be productive members of society again but we can find ways to house them and get them off of the streets so that they pose less of an economic burden on the rest of us. We must house these people FIRST and it has to be a federally led program which focuses on housing nation wide and distributing the costs across all states. NOTHING will change without a national housing effort for the homeless.
Provide housing and services for those who are willing and then we can pass laws to handle the rest, but we need to use the carrot before we use the stick…
That’s odd. Mental illness is tied to drug use. yet we see here in every article they can post how we need to make some drugs legal. Meanwhile illegals dumps millions of tone on Tucsonans.
We have a national crisis in thinking. More carrots? Feed the rabbits.
Homelessness is not always a bad circumstance but a choice for some. I know through my Addiction and bad choices I became homeless.Many people and social agencies tried to help but I was not willing to change! Boo Hoo to those who disagree have you ever seen a homeless person without a cigarette? If you can get smokes and drugs you can get it together.I DID.
PHOTO: Homeless Ad Proposal, Too controversial?
1- Are You Feeding The Homeless? Or, Are you feeding the Addiction?
http://tinyurl.com/l73t7wb
2 – Where Are The Families Of The Homeless?
http://tinyurl.com/neo7aze
3 – Did Jesus say, “Feed the Poor”? Or, did Jesus say, “Feed the Addiction”?
http://tinyurl.com/mk8s3vq
4 – Long term plan to “Break the Addiction”, Use Bread crumbs
http://tinyurl.com/nwwbzz8
I didn’t mind buying newspapers (when Tucson still had two papers) from homeless people who were selling them on the medians in the city limits before it became illegal. What I mind today are the homeless who pester people at stop lights for cash. I asked one homeless man “how he did” that day. “Great!” He said. “I got over $150.oo in cash!” PLEASE stop giving homeless people cash! Most use it to feed drug and drinking addiction. If you want to help, try what I do: give out $5.oo to $10.oo gift cards to fast food restaurants. Not only can they get into a restaurant to eat, but they’ll be allowed to clean up a bit in the bathroom. One man told me the cards were “better than cash” because of that.
YOU WANT HELP ALL ANYONE NEEDS TO DO IS ASK , CAN YOU HELP ME?
GO TO LA FRONTERA 0N BROADWAY, THE SECOND STOP # 8 EAST BOUND.IF YOU ARE READY TO
MAKE THE CHANGES IN YOUR LIFE , THE PEOPLE THERE ARE CARING AND UNDERSTANDING AND
WILL ASSIST YOU AND GIVE YOU SNACKS IF AVAILABLE.
I WAS HOMELESS FOR OVER 15YRS AND GOT EVERYTHING INCLUDING MEDICAL CARE AT EL RIO
ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE BUILDING , IT’S ALL RIGHT THERE. 7 M0S LATER AND NOW I HAVE
A NICE PLACE TO LIVE AND BENEFITS AND MEDS TO HELP ME LIVE. DON’T WAIT GET MOVING TO
THE BEST YOU THAT YOU CAN BE. YOU DESERVE A GOOD LIFE , EVERYONE DOES . SMILE
“This is not a safety issue,” Elías says. “They just don’t want to have people there, they don’t want to interact with the homeless. As long as they are out of sight, they are out of mind. They are obviously very angry and have great fear, but we need to attack the problem, not scapegoat people.”
Mr. Elias should define who “they” are. Sounds to me that he is the one who is fearful. Are people allowed to stand in medians in most of Elias’ district? NO! They are not because this practice has been illegal in most of his district for a long time. Elias is grandstanding — folks should know that his comments are self-serving and hypocritical.
“This is not a safety issue,” Elías says. “They just don’t want to have people there, they don’t want to interact with the homeless. As long as they are out of sight, they are out of mind. They are obviously very angry and have great fear, but we need to attack the problem, not scapegoat people.”
Mr. Elias should define who “they” are (see above quote.) He is the one who sounds very angry and fearful. His accusations are incorrect and dishonest. This practice has been illegal in most of Elias’ district for a long time and he’s been fine with that. Perhaps he has a rational explanation as to why other Pima County citizens shouldn’t enjoy the same safety measures as the folks he represents. Or perhaps Elias is the one who is scapegoating people. Regardless, his comments are self-serving, hypocritical, and do nothing to attack the problem.
“criminalization of poverty and homelessness” correct. Invite them over to your home for shelter and work Dudly Doright.
I saw a news piece shortly after this ordinance was passed that said the shelters have space and aren’t being fully utilized. There is help for the homeless who desire it. Most of the folks in the median and who were sleeping on the sidewalks do not want it.