91 Public Hearing - Appeal of Hearing Officer Decision - Abandonment of Right-of-Way - ABND 200534 - Various Segments generally located south of Jefferson Street and north of Harrison Street (railroad tracks) between 7th and 13th Avenues
Our Unsheltered neighbors deserve support and resources, not more police BS than they already have to deal with! It is absolutely ridiculous to try and privatize what are obviously public spaces just to keep belittling and dehumanizing people who have nowhere else to go.
Easements are NOT private property, this is the dirt land between the sidewalk and the street. This will continue the criminalization of humans in multiple ways, not limited to the criminalization of individuals like residents and tourists, unsheltered people, and protesters.
Rather than increasing avenues for criminalization, the council should allocate time and thoughtful attention to addressing the city's unacceptable lack of resources for unhoused community members.
This is a waste of resources that could be used to help these individuals versus criminalizing the fact that they are without shelter. I personally work with a population of unsheltered individuals who help keep our area clean and friendly. We should shift the focus from blaming them for crime and violence and instead address the issue of our own community struggling to keep fed and housed. Let's ensure basic human rights and feed and house our neighbors.
This is unacceptable and disgusting attempt to not do your job of supporting your constituents. People that are unsheltered, need shelter! Not more criminalization. Police already harass and brutalize people in the zone. People are dying during this pandemic as council ignores the needs of community and wants to abandon their responsibility to find solutions.
The City of Phoenix needs to fund programs to aid the homeless community in our city. It's extremely important to focus on that situation, and not pass more policies focused on giving the PHXPD further ability to harass and harm the homeless – which this will most certainly do.
Homelessness is not a crime and should not be treated as such. Money and resources should be going towards the people who live in this city, people who need help. Not property.
Our unhoused neighbors are not criminals merely for trying to survive without shelter or other basic rights and resources. People over property, always. To privatize property is to dehumanize unsheltered folks, who deserve so much more than what Phoenix provides for them.
The unsheltered population needs to be HELPED NOT CRIMINALIZED. The way to "address homelessness" is to find and create resources to help our unsheltered communities not to arrest and fine them. Criminalizing homelessness only puts our unsheltered community members at higher risk. City of Phoenix needs to do better and prioritize PEOPLE OVER PROPERTY.
The purpose of abandonment is to 'beautify' the neighborhood while criminalizing the unsheltered, further policing them and forcing them to leave. How is this any solution to the housing crisis? It's crystal clear in Martin v. City of Boise that houseless communities cannot be punished for sleeping on public property, this abandonment will be direct violation of that as the city will make it easier for residents to be arrested, ticketed and/or jailed in the area they go for services.
As a small business owner in the area, I understand that one must protect one's source of income but punishing people for not having a home is wrong. Property is NOT MORE IMPORTANT than PEOPLE.
This city council must stop acting like it is. Privatizing public land will only criminalize more of our unsheltered community. Let's help, not harm. We need to allocate some of the ridiculous amounts of $ given to the police and invest it in more shelters and beds for our neighbors who need it.
Find a solution (make available housing? Help with mental // emotional health?)
Make available resources, food, water, clothing, shelter and there won’t be a need to criminalize sidewalks.
I don’t quite understand all the details but I do know that the city and the police continue to lack transparency. They continue to choose cruelty over compassion and doing the real work to better the lives of its citizens. The people should come first, not image, not property, and not ego. Criminalizing anything only dehumanizes and turns real people with real lives into nothing but criminals to the state. Think of the long term affects. Think of your soul. Be a human. Listen to the people.
As a property owner in the area I am in support on the abandonment. The neighborhood can be greatly improved if the owners assumed the responsibility of landscaping, cleaning and maintaining the property. The cost of maintaining the easements would no longer be a financial burden to the City of Phoenix and would facilitate the guidelines as set forth in Capital Mall District Development
Homelessness is certainly not a crime and coercing people out of that space is not a solution to homelessness. Investing in social programs and housing is what we need to be doing. Why not consider allocating money from the Phoenix PD budget - who are grossly overfunded - to help pay for such programs?
This in unhelpful and provides no support to our community
Our Unsheltered neighbors deserve support and resources, not more police BS than they already have to deal with! It is absolutely ridiculous to try and privatize what are obviously public spaces just to keep belittling and dehumanizing people who have nowhere else to go.
this isn’t going to help anyone other than those who don’t want to do actual work. policing the homeless is not helping the community.
This is bullsh*t. Do not continue to criminalize and harm our unsheltered neighbors.
Easements are NOT private property, this is the dirt land between the sidewalk and the street. This will continue the criminalization of humans in multiple ways, not limited to the criminalization of individuals like residents and tourists, unsheltered people, and protesters.
Rather than increasing avenues for criminalization, the council should allocate time and thoughtful attention to addressing the city's unacceptable lack of resources for unhoused community members.
This will only enable police to further criminalize us, and is totally unnecessary.
This is a waste of resources that could be used to help these individuals versus criminalizing the fact that they are without shelter. I personally work with a population of unsheltered individuals who help keep our area clean and friendly. We should shift the focus from blaming them for crime and violence and instead address the issue of our own community struggling to keep fed and housed. Let's ensure basic human rights and feed and house our neighbors.
This is unacceptable and disgusting attempt to not do your job of supporting your constituents. People that are unsheltered, need shelter! Not more criminalization. Police already harass and brutalize people in the zone. People are dying during this pandemic as council ignores the needs of community and wants to abandon their responsibility to find solutions.
The City of Phoenix needs to fund programs to aid the homeless community in our city. It's extremely important to focus on that situation, and not pass more policies focused on giving the PHXPD further ability to harass and harm the homeless – which this will most certainly do.
Homelessness is not a crime and should not be treated as such. Money and resources should be going towards the people who live in this city, people who need help. Not property.
Our unhoused neighbors are not criminals merely for trying to survive without shelter or other basic rights and resources. People over property, always. To privatize property is to dehumanize unsheltered folks, who deserve so much more than what Phoenix provides for them.
The unsheltered population needs to be HELPED NOT CRIMINALIZED. The way to "address homelessness" is to find and create resources to help our unsheltered communities not to arrest and fine them. Criminalizing homelessness only puts our unsheltered community members at higher risk. City of Phoenix needs to do better and prioritize PEOPLE OVER PROPERTY.
The purpose of abandonment is to 'beautify' the neighborhood while criminalizing the unsheltered, further policing them and forcing them to leave. How is this any solution to the housing crisis? It's crystal clear in Martin v. City of Boise that houseless communities cannot be punished for sleeping on public property, this abandonment will be direct violation of that as the city will make it easier for residents to be arrested, ticketed and/or jailed in the area they go for services.
As a small business owner in the area, I understand that one must protect one's source of income but punishing people for not having a home is wrong. Property is NOT MORE IMPORTANT than PEOPLE.
This city council must stop acting like it is. Privatizing public land will only criminalize more of our unsheltered community. Let's help, not harm. We need to allocate some of the ridiculous amounts of $ given to the police and invest it in more shelters and beds for our neighbors who need it.
Find a solution (make available housing? Help with mental // emotional health?)
Make available resources, food, water, clothing, shelter and there won’t be a need to criminalize sidewalks.
We don't need more laws making it harder for our unhoused population to survive
I don’t quite understand all the details but I do know that the city and the police continue to lack transparency. They continue to choose cruelty over compassion and doing the real work to better the lives of its citizens. The people should come first, not image, not property, and not ego. Criminalizing anything only dehumanizes and turns real people with real lives into nothing but criminals to the state. Think of the long term affects. Think of your soul. Be a human. Listen to the people.
As a property owner in the area I am in support on the abandonment. The neighborhood can be greatly improved if the owners assumed the responsibility of landscaping, cleaning and maintaining the property. The cost of maintaining the easements would no longer be a financial burden to the City of Phoenix and would facilitate the guidelines as set forth in Capital Mall District Development
Homelessness is certainly not a crime and coercing people out of that space is not a solution to homelessness. Investing in social programs and housing is what we need to be doing. Why not consider allocating money from the Phoenix PD budget - who are grossly overfunded - to help pay for such programs?