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Humanizing the Homeless
First, thanks to all of you who have written acknowledging this section. It speaks to the heart of the community that so many of you are reading and appreciating these personal stories. The variety of backgrounds, each ending up in a similar place is eye-opening.
This lady was named Angel at birth. She has given up that name because it represents to her the abusive conditions she had to live through. She's now a fighter and goes by Savage. Her message - she wants to be heard.
Savage is 44 years old. She was born in Lafayette, Louisiana. She has a high school education. Her father began molesting her before she turned 1 year of age. That continued until she was 4, at which time the dad died. At the age of 7 her mom sold her and the abuse continued into the new home. It was clear these memories were hard for her to recount - tears flowed as she told the story.
Savage joined all the clubs she could during high school simply to avoid having to go home until late, after her mother had gone off to work. Later she found safety by joining the Bloods - gang life giving her some protection from the abuse she suffered at home. That’s what the B stands for in the necklace she’s wearing. She began a relationship 16 years ago and has had 3 children. They bounced from Louisiana to Florida, and in 2012 arrived in Wilcox, Arizona. Her 'fiancé' lost his job, she was pregnant and their life living out of their car began. Both of them have been in and out of employment throughout their relationship. Another constant in their relationship is the domestic violence. There are scars Savage wears that recall those difficult encounters. In 2014 she was diagnosed with serious mental illness. She spent some time housed through Cope Community Services, but in 2019 she tired of the beatings and stepped out on her own. That's when Angel became Savage. There was some couch surfing, and eventually she ended up at an encampment on Golf Links, the city recently bull dozed. In fact, that encampment has been bull dozed twice since 2019 while she was a part of that community.
Savage tears up when describing the impact of being forced out of the camp by city officials. They told the group to move into a nearby camp where people didn't have to look at them. They lack water and get their food by pulling it out of the trash. It's demeaning and speaking of it was an emotional effort for Savage. She gets joy from her kids - although she has been denied access to them since becoming homeless. What brings her down is how society looks at (literally) and treats those in her situation. It's now her intent to speak out for those who cannot - and deliver the message that we should be trying to lift others. Sadly, in encampments the feeling is too often 'if others don't care about me, why should I care about myself.' She's trying to counteract that.
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City Homeless Response
If you see someone who appears to be unhoused and may be in need of services, please keep this number handy. Unfortunately, it’s not quite yet up and running – May 1st is the ‘go live’ date – and even then, it’ll only be useful from 8am until 5pm, Monday through Friday. It’s emblematic of what I believe is a well-intentioned, but insufficient response to the overall homeless situation.
That number is not for people to call asking to have an encampment moved. It’s to offer assistance to people you see on the street.
Each day we get an update on the number of beds available at the various shelters that are scattered throughout Tucson. This is typical of the availability. Gospel Rescue Mission has 10 beds open, but to get one you must be lined up at their place by 8am – that's 4550 S. Palo Verde, so not right in the heart of town – and they assign those 10 beds on a first come/first served basis.
I found it interesting to note OPCS (Old Pueblo Community Services) has zero beds available at their combined 6 locations. That’s the normal count we get from them on these daily reports. They’re a contractor for the city and were evidently asked to write a letter opposing the controlled encampments that I’ve been supporting. They obliged. Note that the city council received it about 2 hours before our scheduled study session.
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To be very clear, nothing I have suggested or supported even remotely involves offering encampments ‘through the threat of arrest.’ That’s made up and simply not factual. In addition, the notion that housing first has a ‘predictably high percentage of households exiting chronic homelessness’ is also simply not factual. If that were true, we wouldn’t have well over 2,000 people living in alleys and washes. We’d be investing in room capacity and using that model across the board. As is shown in the OPCS report on bed capacity, they cannot take part in that approach because they don’t have any beds available. While I appreciate Mr. Litwicki’s willingness to take part in our study session, I’d have been more impressed if it hadn’t come with such an unvarnished bit of advocacy. That’s of course understandable since OPCS gets our federal funding to manage the housing options, but to be intellectually honest he should have added that it cannot be the only option we pursue in our approach to homelessness. Now watch to see if OPCS is rewarded for their advocacy be being awarded a contract to manage our upcoming housing at La Hacienda, as they are already engaged at Wildcat Inn.
Nobody disagrees that the best approach is to get somebody off the street and into a shelter or into an apartment. Then start the treatments. But if you total up the beds that are available at local shelters, there are fewer than 30 on a daily basis, most of which have conditions (no partners, by lottery, first come/first served, no pets, etc.) Read the testimonials I share each week and you know that many of the people I’m talking to aren’t going to qualify, or simply won’t be interested because they don’t want to end a relationship, give up a pet or must pass a breathalyzer.
So we clear out encampments. There was a large one out on Golf Links. I visited it as the city was getting ready to clear it. The residents had been promised some apartment space. Many of them are now at the city-owned Wildcat Inn. Here are photos of the area – note there are no residences anywhere close, although in the second picture you can see some cars driving by on Golf Links. People were upset at having to see the homeless as they drove by, so we closed down the camp.
Compare that to these photos taken at the midtown-located camp by Arcadia Wash. You can see peoples’ back yards in the background. We cleared out Golf Links while this camp continued to grow in midtown.
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At our last study session, I asked what criteria we use to decide which camps to close and offer shelter to residents. The city manager said he’d ‘take ownership of the decision.’ Nice, but not responsive. The woman we have running the homeless protocol said, ‘we don’t close a camp without offering space to each person.’ Also nice, but not responsive. I’m glad everyone at Golf Links ended up at least temporarily under roof. But the question was what criteria we use for choosing one camp over another. The TPD Sergeant who runs our homeless outreach used to support controlled camps. His comment in an email was ‘We have been bouncing people between the Park and the alley and the process has been inefficient. We will do our best to mitigate the issues, but the challenges are overwhelming.’ Correct – moving people around from camp to camp is a waste of time, is degrading to the people involved and doesn’t get anyone the access to services they need. To the OPCS comment about the city being ‘already on a more promising path’ - our bed capacity isn’t 10% of what is needed in order to house the number of homeless we have. Relying on that as a single shot approach is not ‘promising,’ unless you’re a provider who is under contract and you can afford to focus solely on that model.
There’s another camp out by Golf Links. Based on email chatter it appears to be next on the list for being closed. Here’s a brief exchange related to that one -
Q: It appears that the area between Freedom Park and Swan Rd is cleared up, but camps have moved and are living directly on the property of 100 Acre Wood. There are tents on the trails themselves. Are their plans to relocate these individuals?
A: We just had an update from our Homeless Protocol Team today in which we were notified that they will be working with Environmental Services and will be trying to help clear out that area. This campsite is really large and is throughout the area, including towards Aviation and the Snake Bridge, so it will take some time. This will be a major cleanup effort, while still trying to offer individuals the help that they need.
Nobody who spoke up supported the idea of controlled camps. Fimbres was concerned that we’d end up ‘with another Seattle.’ The Seattle mayor and council allowed their camp to get out of control and it turned into a disaster. That’s not a result we should expect if the idea is done correctly.
So, we still don’t know the criteria the city uses when deciding on which camps to shut down. We all know putting someone in a hotel (at $6,000 per person per month) is the most effective approach. It’s not realistic to think that’s going to be sufficient to address our condition.
I appreciate the support from La Frontera’s Dan Ranieri in relation to exploring some options based on the reality of our bed capacity. He’s in touch with the county and I’m hopeful they can find a site for piloting the kind of approach he and I have discussed. As Cunningham said – evidently expressing the sentiment of the M&C - “I’m not quite at supporting camps quite yet.” I believe we have to.
The city is providing valuable assistance to the few dozen people who are at our hotels. Here’s the scorecard:
Total served is 132. I’m glad we’re looking for another hotel. Soliciting letters opposing another approach to supplement our Housing First approach won’t get the issue dealt with.
Refugees
Update on Judge Ahmad’s wife and daughter. Last week we finally had contact with the U.S. Embassy in Ankara. It has been like trick-or-treating at the house whose porch light was off. Until now. They’ve engaged with us and that’s about the extent of what I can share – but we’re encouraged by small blessings. Turkey is being inundated with Ukrainian refugees so that might have played some role in this slight movement. The problem is, Ahmad’s wife and their 2-year-old daughter are over 200 miles away from Ankara. I’ll share more as it evolves.
Last week I shared about Title 42 being lifted on May 23rd. That’s the Trump-era policy by which people were being denied entry into the U.S. at the southern border using COVID as the justification. You’ll note that I’ve titled this section ‘Refugees’, and not Afghan or Ukrainian – or Guatemalan, Hondurans, or any other nationality. What’s developing has a real troubling racial tone.
Casa Alitas was already involved in a recent threat by Border Patrol to do a ‘street release’ of what were Central American migrants. Following some quick interventions by a variety of groups, that was avoided. My office originally got involved with the migrant support issue when the former Greyhound bus station by the TCC was being hit with street releases daily. Since then we’ve seen Catholic Community Services step up, partner with numerous local churches and volunteers, including the owner of the Benedictine who generously offered that facility for months, and we’ve made it work. I’ve had migrants sleeping at the Ward office on cots when capacity at shelters was outstripped. All of that has taken collaboration.
Last week Border Patrol stood up a processing center at the San Ysidro point of entry specifically intended for Ukrainian refugees. It had been shut down due to the decreased number of entrants – due to Title 42 keeping Guatemalans in Mexico. In a matter of a few days, they’ve set up a process by which well over 600 Ukrainian refugees are processed daily, placed onto waiting tour buses and moved to churches who are helping the cause.
To be very clear – I think it’s great that we’ve shown how nimble we can be to process, welcome and settle these refugees. But you may remember these images – many of which I’ve had in newsletters – showing how Central American refugees were treated under Title 42:
We brought in 76,000 Afghan refugees through the botched evacuation of Kabul last August. They spent time on military bases and are now scattered throughout the country – over 700 in Tucson – working to rebuild their lives. This is a picture of the interior of a U.S. C-17 showing how we brought the Afghan refugees from Kabul to Qatar. This is how the judge I’m working with for his family’s reunification was evacuated.
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Title 42 will soon be lifted. Border Patrol has already said they’ll be doing street releases when capacity at shelters is exhausted. I have joined others from the county in telling our congressional delegation that when they lift Title 42 and our numbers increase from around 200 per day to likely 800 per day, they also must lift any restrictions on the use of federal dollars that right now limit paying for hotel space for migrants to a COVID-related need. They can’t very well say COVID and Title 42 are no longer relevant, but the COVID restrictions on how the federal money remain in place.
Urban Forestry and Native Plant Preservation Ordinance (NPPO)
Last week we had an update on our new urban forestry program. If it achieves a standardized and professional approach to ‘trimming’ trees around the city it’ll be worth the investment. If we can agree on nothing else, we can all agree that the shade trees provide benefit all of us in multiple ways.
What the new forestry program will do is build on the city’s climate resiliency program. You can find all the elements of that by going to https://climateaction.tucson.gov/ It’s worth the trip and taking a few minutes navigating through the site. We welcome Nicole Gillett to the city, heading up that effort.
As a part of the Urban Forestry presentation I asked that we reconsider the low water use plant list that’s now in place. It’s a list of plants developers use as a pallet when designing landscape on projects. There’s some history that indicates the list could use a fresh look. I’m hoping Nicole’s team can begin that.
About 4 years ago a local group called Water Casa conducted a survey to test the validity of the low water plant list. They sent the survey out to 96 local experts to get their input. That group included botanists, Watershed Management Group, Audubon, the Desert Museum, Tohono Chul, Wheat Design and a bunch more. The result was a list of hundreds of trees and shrubs that were recommended to be both added to the low water use list, and to be removed. Many of those on the ‘to be dropped’ list included plants that have a 3 year on-ramp of requiring supplemental irrigation to get them established. If we can reduce water use and still provide a robust pallet of plants for developers to use, we all gain.
When the survey went out, it was for our entire Active Management Area (AMA) - those are areas scattered throughout the state that rely primarily on groundwater. Here’s the state map showing the 5 that are established by law. You can see that the “Tucson AMA” covers much more than just the city limits.
What happened was nurseries lobbied the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) and got them to block the proposed changes to the low water use plant list. They can slow-walk it when we’re looking at the whole AMA, but we have the authority to make changes to the plant list we use for development that takes place within the city. That’s the effort I’m hoping the new Urban Forestry unit will be taking on.
Also tied with the update on forestry was an item Kevin and I asked to be included on the agenda. In 1997 the city adopted what’s called the Native Plant Preservation Ordinance (NPPO.) The purpose was to identify a list of native plants deserving of protecting from development. There were 29 listed. Those include saguaro’s, Ironwood trees, velvet mesquite, nurse plants, shrubs and ground cover that’s important for controlling erosion. I have a few concerns about the ordinance.
One concern is that we simply are not enforcing it. I had some exchanges with our development team prior to the study session and these are examples of the responses when I asked about portions of the NPPO we’re supposed to be enforcing:
 
When I asked how we were conducting the annual checks called for by the NPPO, this was the reply:
Unfortunately, there is not currently a process for post-construction and annual review.
On our consent agenda for last week’s evening session was a plat for a new development going in out in Ward 5. It’s called Blackhawk Ranch. This is their proposed NPPO plan. I’ve highlighted the plants they propose to ‘Preserve in Place.’ Note – they propose to preserve zero plants in place.
So enforcement and oversight are concerns. To validate the ongoing need for an NPPO we invited 3 local experts to speak to what’s happening to, and the importance of preserving native plants. Don Swann is a biologist at the National Park Service. He was joined by Ben Wilder who oversees Tumamoc Hill and the research they’re doing up there, and Jonathan Horst from the Tucson Audubon Society.
One of the issues they raised was the length of time it takes to replace our saguaro’s. This graphic shows the timeline. If we allow development to blade under half of the young saguaro cactus, none of us will be around to see their replacements mature.
Also from their presentation is this graphic. What it shows is the estimated year of germination for new saguaro. For a variety of climate-related reasons we are seeing a significant diminution in germination of new saguaros. Combine that with the timeline for growth and it’s clear we can’t continue allowing development to eliminate these gems or they’ll simply be gone for our grandkids.
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This chart is included in the NPPO we have in place right now. Even if we were enforcing it, the NPPO allows a developer to destroy 50% of the saguaro and ironwood that are on the site, and 70% of the other 27 native species we’ve identified in the ordinance. Scroll back up to the preservation plan for the Blackhawk project I showed above. We didn’t verify their plant inventory, we didn’t verify their claim that none could be preserved in place, we have no plan to double check their claim on which ones are ‘viable’ (and therefore worthy of preservation,) and we don’t have a plan in place to check on their work in a year – as is called out in our NPPO.
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Staffing is a real issue. If we want this ordinance to be enforced, we need to address that. We just directed the city manager to include in our upcoming budget the hiring of a new landscape architect and two people who’ll be enforcing our rainwater harvesting ordinance. Between that group and the new Urban Forestry team, we’ve got a start at the staffing. For many of us the NPPO is a way of protecting the character of our Sonoran desert. I’m grateful to Kevin for partnering in bringing this forward, and to the 3 guys who took their time to highlight its importance.
One council member evidently felt our presentation was based too much on science and not enough on the cultural importance of native plants. We can do both. The Arizona Republic ran a piece on the importance of Saguaros right after COVID began. One of the people highlighted in the piece was one of our presenters, Don Swann from the NPS. While he spoke to the science, another person noted in the article spoke to the importance of saguaro to indigenous people. Lois Liston is a citizen of the Tohono O’odham Nation. She teaches art and traditional singing at the Ha:san Prep school in Tucson. In the article Lois related a story about how the saguaro carries significance to the Tohono O’odham. I’ll quote it from the article:
“A young child was left alone with some provisions by its mother who went off to play toka (a traditional O’odham game),” said Liston, who added that the story varies depending on which O'odham community tells the tale.
The child meets up with four animals who help find the mother. But the mother told the child to wait because she was so involved in the game. The youth was so sad that he started sinking into the ground. Later, the mother came back to see a cactus growing where her child was. The cactus gave people fruit, which Liston said was a good outcome to a sad tale.
O’odham have made use of the saguaro for a variety of things, including food and building materials ever since. And as you can see, they pass down culture through generations by reference to native plants. And those of us who just love to share the beauty of our Sonoran desert with visitors join the Nation in celebrating all of the plants found in the NPPO.
Earth Day at Watershed Management Group
On a related note, WMG is hosting an educational Earth Day, April 16th celebration. They’re the living lab and learning center located just north of Speedway on Dodge. The event will run from 8am until noon. There’ll be kids’ activities, food, music and of course the program.
The outdoor educational center includes the WMG food garden, lots of native plants, chickens and of course their trademark rainwater harvesting displays. It will be a family event so bring everyone. The event is a free bilingual program that’ll introduce kids – and adults – to the importance of climate consciousness, and to how easy it is to be actively engaged in ways that are helpful mitigation strategies.
The morning will include free rain garden planting exhibitions, bilingual stories, demonstrations on composting, and several children’s stories that’ll engage their minds on all-things environment. Please stop by. And WMG is also open daily during the week for free tours. I’d be remiss if I also didn’t mention that they are a non-profit and thrive based on the generosity of the community, so keep that in mind during your visits.
Here’s a link that’ll introduce you to the activities coming on Earth Day:
COVID Vaccines
When my bride and I visited China we were a bit taken by the size of some of the cities. Shanghai is their financial hub. It has roughly 26 million people living there. Last week they shut down the place – again – because they’re having the largest COVID outbreak since early 2020. In an effort to contain the outbreak, China is imposing some of the strictest shut down measures they’ve done since the pandemic began.
China, and Asia generally isn’t alone. Some portions of Europe are once again being hit with outbreaks. This is current data from COVID monitor Worldometer:
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China, and Asia generally isn’t alone. Some portions of Europe are once again being hit with outbreaks. This is current data from COVID monitor Worldometer: |
There’s some concern at CDC that we aren’t seeing the surge some of the other parts of the world are seeing at least partially because our testing numbers are way down. This graph shows that pretty clearly.
About 45% of Americans were infected with Omicron. That means 55% were not. Many of that group had COVID early on in the pandemic, but immunity wears off over time. The steps that can save lives haven’t changed since March of 2020; isolate if you’re feeling sick, get tested, get vaccinated and boosted.
Here are your Pima County health department mobile testing sites for this week. You do not need an appointment:
Here are the Pima County health department vaccination sites for this week. You do not need an appointment:
If none of those work for you, go to this site and you’ll find a couple of dozen mobile vaccine sites that area also available. https://webcms.pima.gov/cms/One.aspx?portalId=169&pageId=669257
Sustainable Tucson
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Tomorrow is this month’s Sustainable Tucson meeting. They’re still doing these virtually. You can sign in at 6pm, and you can find the links at their site: www.sustainabletucson.org. |
This month’s presentation will come from Associate UA Professor Sabrina Helm. She’s in the School of Family and Consumer Sciences and has worked on the psychological effects of climate change. She’ll touch on how we’re adapting – or not – to the climate realities we’re facing. The title of her presentation is “Acting as if the house is on fire.” Finding another house is not an option – the old “there is no Planet B” thing...Tune in. These are always informative discussions.
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COVID Update
New York City is having another COVID outbreak. Of the over 8,600 NYC residents who tested positive in the last week of March, over 8,000 of them had not been previously infected. If you think you’ve successfully dodged the COVID bullet because you haven’t caught it yet – or it hasn’t caught up to you – you're wrong. These outbreaks are being driven by the new BA.2 Omicron subvariant. New York is facing a 5th wave of COVID just a few weeks after they lifted their mask mandate. Actors on Broadway have tested positive, 3 members of the New York City council have tested positive, and the New Jersey governor has tested positive. It’s not limited to ‘front line workers.’ BA.2 is now over 80% of their cases. They’re seeing over 1,500 new cases daily. Thankfully, we’re doing much better currently.
This is a current worldwide map. World Health Organization identifies the outbreaks as BA.2 driven.
Arizona’s cases went from 4,566 last week to 6,840 this week. Last week we were wondering if the bouncing of the numbers was due to the state reporting delays. Now it’s clear the case count is in fact increasing, and rather significantly. There were over 400 deaths due to COVID reported in the state last week. It’s not ‘just a cold.’
In Pima County we had 526 cases reported and 21 fatalities. Here’s the state map that I run each week.
New Mexico and Utah are still seeing flu outbreaks. Arizona is still doing very well in that regard - ‘minimal spread.’ Thank you for your efforts to control flu spreading this season.
The Harvard Global Health Institute risk level map shows new outbreaks scattered around the country. Some of that is in Arizona. First, here’s the national map.
Next though I’m going to hone in on Arizona to show how the state has begun a slow return to increased COVID numbers.
Our neighbors in Pinal County are again in the high-risk category – as are the folks in Gila County. The vulnerability is they are both adjacent to Maricopa, our major population center. |
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In Pima County last week, we had 9 new daily cases per 100,000, and the 7-day moving average was 95. Both of those kept us in the yellow risk category. We’re doing a little bit better than even those numbers this week, so the Pinal increase hasn’t made it here yet.
There’s no way to know for sure how these data are affected by decreased testing. Please get tested if you either feel symptoms, or if you’ve been around someone who tested positive. It’s the only way we can expect the State Health Department to be able to keep accurate data to track the COVID spread.
Sincerely,
Steve Kozachik
Council Member, Ward 6
ward6@tucsonaz.gov
City of Tucson Resources
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