PHOENIX—Shelby Ord has big plans for himself at 18.
First, he plans to get his high school equivalency diploma, a good job, an apartment, and “maybe a cat, of course.” Then go to college and major in chemistry or teaching.
All attainable and worthwhile goals were seemingly out of reach on April 3 as Ord, wrapped in a dirty blanket, strolled down the sidewalk in the homeless encampment known as “the Zone” near Phoenix’s Capitol District.
“I sleep over there,” said Ord, pointing to a tent sandwiched in between other tents and piles of debris. “I pretty much do my thing. I’m a good kid. I don’t smoke or do alcohol or drugs.”
“I’m out here because my family wasn’t helping me to live independently.”
Ord said he became homeless in the Zone about a month ago. But soon, his tenuous living situation may face yet another upheaval, this time by a judge’s order.
Future Uncertain
Ord said he doesn’t “entirely know” what happens next to an estimated 1,000 homeless people camped in tents and rundown shacks within the 13-acre urban enclave.“Who knows where I would go even?” Ord told The Epoch Times.
For now, it’s an open question, as the city has yet to take action.
In a previous report, city of Phoenix spokesman Dan Wilson told The Epoch Times the city is reviewing the judge’s ruling.
Blaney wrote in the 23-page lawsuit that the city is primarily at fault for the Zone’s existence and becoming the ugly, foul-smelling, drug-ridden tent community it is today.
Through its “erroneous” interpretation of another court order preventing the enforcement of public camping laws, the city of Phoenix “stopped or greatly decreased enforcement of other healthy, quality of life, and even criminal laws and ordinances in the Zone,” Blaney wrote in the declaration.
Today, the Zone is like any other impoverished neighborhood, stretching from 7th to 15th Avenue, Madison, Grant, and Van Buren streets, mired in squalor and desperation.
Local contractor Brian Williams said: “Instead of feeding Ukraine, they need to help these people out, man. Help our people out here. Why don’t they give all that money going there to these people?”
Williams said he had “no idea” where the homeless would end up with the judge’s ruling.
“Probably find another Zone. I see them all over Phoenix. Maybe they can find someplace for them,” Williams told The Epoch Times.
“It’s like a colony here now. I didn’t know there were so many homeless people. It’s pretty sad.”
Arizona state Sen. Catherine Miranda stood in the middle of 12th Street on April 3, monitoring the situation.
All around her were tents of different shapes and sizes lining the street on both sides as people wandered about, looking hopeless and trying to maintain a semblance of normal life.
Miranda acknowledged that many homeless residents are seniors relying on a host of social services and charitable organizations in the Zone.
“It’s just pure sadness for me. It’s frustration. It’s anger,” Miranda said.
“There are so many different reasons why people are homeless. There are evicted people out here. People are one paycheck away from being evicted. There’s drug addiction. There’s alcoholism,” she said.
“Because it’s so big, I believe the city and the state have not worked together” to solve the crisis. “The city cannot do it alone, and the state can’t.”
Miranda is the lead sponsor of bipartisan legislation seeking to provide shelter and better sanitary conditions for people living in the Zone.
SB1585 would allocate $200 million to build housing and get people the services they need, she said.
A majority in the state Senate recently approved the bill, currently held up in the House because of what Miranda said boiled down to “politics.”
Politics on the ‘Backs of Human Lives’
“The legislature is holding my bill hostage because of politics on the backs of human lives dying as we speak,” Miranda told The Epoch Times.“There is not enough money and resources. The two [court] rulings conflict,” she added. And although her bill is “not the silver bullet to the problem” of homelessness in Phoenix, “it’s at least a huge start.”
In 2022, local business owners filed a lawsuit against city officials for allowing the Zone to grow and create an unsafe environment.
Bill Morlan, president of Electric Supply Inc., located at 917 West Madison in Phoenix, and in the Zone, said he chose not to participate in the lawsuit. Instead, he believes there’s another solution.
“If [Judge Blaney’s] ruling means getting people off the street and someplace better—fantastic,” Morlan said. “The ruling isn’t and shouldn’t be to chase them somewhere else. The ruling is and needs to be the city has to get people places to stay.”
Homeless enclaves such as the Zone are “not a good idea for anyone,” he said.
“This is terrible for the people out there. It is terrible for people here. It’s terrible for the neighborhood. I’m lucky that many of my customers tend to be electricians, maintenance guys—they’re not afraid.”
While Morlan manages to exist in the Zone, it remains a blight on the downtown and Capitol District.
Just recently, there were two murders and a dumpster fire containing a dead body, he said.
“People go to the bathroom in the parking lot. It’s a lot worse for them than it is for me [but] it needs to be fixed in a way that’s good for everyone. I can’t say that enough,” Morlan said.
A woman who lives on Madison Street in the Zone told The Epoch Times she'd been renting the same apartment for the past 11 years.
“One day, I was asleep. The next day, I woke up, and the whole mess was out there. It’s gotten worse and worse,” she said.
Beautiful Neighborhood Once
She said it wasn’t always bad in her neighborhood.“The city of Phoenix was beautiful at one time. You could see the beautiful buildings. You could see the beautiful lights. Now, all you see is tents and people walking down the streets, fighting and arguing constantly,” the woman said.
At that moment, a homeless couple walked past the woman’s house, screaming.
“There have been shootings out here, people thrown in a dumpster,” she said. “How can they let this happen when you’ve got the state Capitol [nearby]? I don’t understand it at all.”
Kerry, a homeless woman in the Zone, worked in customer service before losing her apartment, then her job, and was forced to live on the street.
She said it would be “nice if things were different.”
“When I first became homeless, I had a full-time job. I got priced out [of rent]. Then trying to get back in, they wanted all this money. Then I got laid off,” Kerry told The Epoch Times.
“I feel bad for the business owners. I feel bad for people down here. Nobody wins.”
“I'll put it this way. They’re probably going to appeal [the judge’s ruling]. It will probably take a while. For people like this, this is their lot in life. You have to adjust to whatever is going to happen. It sucks all around.”
Kerry said homeless encampments are in nearly every major U.S. city now, anywhere the rent is “out of control,” and views it as a “snowball effect.”
“It starts with one thing and rolls down. There are always setbacks, but I can’t wait for the day I have a job,” Kerry said.
While visiting in the Zone, Felicia Gaston of Phoenix said she was hopeful the city would provide more housing for the homeless and put an end to an unhealthy situation.
“When it gets hot outside, it gets bad,” Gaston said. “I know people are tired of all the drama with the drugs. I don’t know where they will take them or what they can do [when the Zone is shut down].”
Sitting near his tent, a homeless man named Yahweh was busy cooking eggs on a grill, lamenting the homeless problem as a potential powder keg.
“When they come down on people and try to move people, there’s no place for a person on the streets to move to,” Yahweh said.
“What’s going to end up happening is they’re not going to be happy because they’re not going to get their way.”
Bob, a local truck driver, said he doesn’t know for certain what will happen to the homeless people living in the Zone facing mass eviction by court order.
“They’ve got no other place to go,” Bob said. “The homeless just got overwhelmed with the recession and COVID. It just wiped people out—knocked them out of their homes and jobs.
“It’s a tough call, depending on whose responsibility it is.
Larger Social Problem
Morlan said he considers the Zone a symptom of a societal problem driven by unaffordable housing and not enough mental health and drug treatment centers.“[It’s] an overwhelming combination, [but] I don’t think the problem is too big to solve,” he said. “We need more involvement. You can’t look at it and just throw your hands up, [but] somebody’s got to fix it.”
In the meantime, the city of Phoenix plans to open a 200-bed shelter on Washington Street to accommodate the homeless. However, Judge Blaney stated in his ruling that it is a seasonal shelter “merely intended to serve as a ‘heat respite shelter’ in the summer months.”
“There is no evidence that the shelter is meant to specifically address the homeless population in the Zone,” the judge wrote.
Cartels ‘Active’
A homeless man walking down 12th Street said that Mexican drug cartels are currently active in the Zone.
As far as the city making the homeless leave the encampment, he said he thinks it won’t happen. “This all they know. You steal this away from them; they'll get pissed.”
For Morlan, the Zone is where he hopes to stay and do business.
“This is my neighborhood. As long as people live here, it’s their neighborhood too. Nobody should have to live like that,” Morlan said.
