PHOENIX — A federal judge won't stop the City of Phoenix from a scheduled "enhanced cleaning" of "The Zone" homeless encampment Friday morning.
On Thursday, Judge Murray Snow issued a ruling in a lawsuit against the City of Phoenix filed by the ACLU. The ACLU claimed, in part, that the city's plan to clean the encampment Friday could violate the constitutional rights of those experiencing homelessness. They asked a judge to grant injunctive relief that could have thwarted the planned cleaning.
In filings and in testimony, the city denied the new plan violated any rights.
In the order, Judge Snow said the ACLU's motion is "granted in part and denied in part." He elaborates by saying nothing in the order precludes city from conducting its planned cleaning Friday.
However, he did grant injunctive relief establishing that the city can't enforce camping or sleeping bans on those experiencing homelessness if the city doesn't have enough shelter space available. He also ordered that the city can't destroy property without securing it for at least 30 days, barring any public health or safety threat.
The order, in part, goes along with Martin v. Boise a 2018 Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals ruling that made it unconstitutional to arrest someone for sleeping on the street if there aren’t enough available shelter beds, which is the case in Phoenix.
RELATED: Federal judge to make ruling on 'enhanced cleaning' plan for 'The Zone' homeless encampment
The decision came just a few hours after city attorneys faced a Maricopa County Superior Court judge in another lawsuit regarding conditions in "The Zone."
In that case, property owners in and around "The Zone" claim the city isn't doing enough to keep conditions in the encampment clean and safe. The complaint, originally filed in August, details increases in violent crime, trash buildup and human waste as regular problems.
Attorneys for the property owners are asking that judge to deem conditions in "The Zone" a public nuisance that the City would have to abate. Part of their argument includes a proposal to put a structured campground in the area with rules to enforce and follow.
"We believe that the city’s homelessness policy is a total abject failure," argued Ilan Wurman, attorney for the property owners. "It's totally unlivable."
In that case, the city argued its easier said than done to keep things clean, noting the city would rather work on adding shelter space rather than a structured campground over concerns of heat in the summer.
"This is a case about people disguised as a public nuisance," said Aaron Arnson, one of Phoenix's attorneys working on both cases.
Arnson detailed that the city has plans to online more shelter space next year along with ongoing efforts to clean the downtown encampment.
"These solutions, necessarily, by virtue of constitutional concerns and cost concerns and frankly the fact that things can only be built so quickly, take time," Arnson said in state court.
In 2021 there were accusations that the city and police department in Phoenix were trashing personal belongings like birth certificates and IDs during cleaning sweeps in “The Zone," accusations that are currently under investigation by the Department of Justice.
The city halted those cleanings in January 2022 and the planned cleanup Friday would operate under different rules. This pilot, according to city documents, focuses on one block and will allow people to move their belongings and put them back after the cleaning is done.
If a person isn’t at their tent to move it, the city will clean around it, tag it and plan to move it after a week if no one claimed the property. The removed property will be taken to the Human Services Campus where it will be stored for 30 days so people can come to claim it.
“The Zone” is the nickname for the downtown Phoenix neighborhood between 9th and 15th Avenues from Jefferson to Jackson Streets, where tents line the blocks.
This week, there are more than 800 people living on the streets in the area, according to a count conducted by the Human Services Campus.
A judge in the Superior Court case is still reviewing evidence before making a decision on whether conditions in "The Zone" are a public nuisance.
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