Tucson will increase the police presence at Veinte de Agosto Park downtown in response to complaints stemming from an increasing population of homeless people who have taken up residence there.
Councilman Steve Kozachik said he and other city leaders met Wednesday night to discuss ways for the city to address problems associated with homeless people living 24 hours a day on city sidewalks, many in tents and wooden boxes.
“They can’t keep living in the public right-of-way, that’s not speech,” Kozachik said.
Organizer Jon McLane calls the assemblage a protest of the lack of services for the homeless, rather than a homeless camp — an argument used successfully to get a federal judge to limit the city’s ability to do anything about the situation.
Kozachik said police plan to spend more time in the area to prevent incidents of indecency, urinating and defecating in public and aggressive panhandling.
He said the increased police presence also would help prevent instances of drug sales and use in the park, at West Congress and South Church Avenue, which homeless activists have called Safe Park.
Mayor Jonathan Rothschild said the change in police presence is welcome to address problems downtown, but was unsure how much crime was directly related to activity at the park.
“The level of criminal activity around the park can only justify so much police presence,” Rothschild said.
The homeless population downtown has grown in recent months, after U.S. District Court Judge David C. Bury ruled in December that activists’ free-speech rights allowed their continued presence around the park, with some limitations.
For example, Bury said protesters could remain on the public sidewalk along Church Avenue after the park closes at night, as long as they left a five-foot width to allow foot traffic to pass.
Since then, activists have brought about 20 “dream pods,” large wooden boxes that people sleep in, and others have pitched at least six tents.
Many of the tents and boxes are not on the Church Avenue sidewalk between Congress Street and Broadway, the only area applicable in Bury’s order.
Several boxes have been rolled onto the sidewalks, with tents pitched on Broadway and Congress. Tables, chairs and a futon sofa also have been brought in and set up along the sidewalk.
Tucson City Attorney Mike Rankin said the city has been cautious about acting against people outside the boundary identified in the order.
“Given the order, we need to be careful about the application of our ordinance even if it’s outside the technical geographic boundary of the ruling,” Rankin said, adding that free-speech laws apply equally on all city sidewalks.
Those temporary structures along Congress have drawn the concern of county officials because the street fronts the main entrance into the county government complex.
“That’s where people gain access to county services but have to traverse that obstacle course,” Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said, noting the county administration, Superior Court and adult probation buildings all face Congress Street.
In addition, county officials have begun mapping and cleaning areas where human excrement has been found around the county complex and other county properties.
Kozachik said homeless- camp activists have made a joke of Bury’s ruling, which was intended to protect free-speech rights.
“We went from the three B’s of Bury’s ruling to couches, coffins and crapping up the roadway,” Kozachik said.
The three B’s refer to a police policy Bury struck down: that people could bring no more than bedrolls, blankets and beverages to the park during the ongoing protest.
“Bury needs to get out and take a road trip and see what his ruling has caused,” Kozachik said.
Rothschild said the city intends to ask Bury to revisit his order.
“That’s our job, to go back to the judge,” Roths-child said. “I think in this case there’s a good opportunity based on the change of facts.”
In addition, Rankin said city attorneys have been preparing an appeal to submit to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
He said an appeal could be completed as early as Friday. But he would not discuss the specifics of the appeal because the document needs revising before it’s filed with the court.
Kozachik said he’s also proposed inviting the protesters to move to another city-owned property outside the revitalized downtown core. He suggested the city could provide toilet facilities and block off an area where the protesters can stay, still exercising their free-speech rights, but where they wouldn’t cause a disruption.
No decision has been made on the proposal, but Kozachik said he was skeptical that organizers of the protest would accept such an offer.
“These people don’t reflect the single mom living out of her car or the working poor,” he said.
