A pilot program coming in the fall will offer a safe place to sleep for up to 25 people living in the streets, local officials announced Friday.
STAR Village will be an outdoor safe sleeping site on city-owned land along East Grant Road between North Sixth and North Stone avenues, Mayor Regina Romero said. STAR stands for Serving Together and Rebuilding.
The city hopes to have STAR Villageβs first users by Oct. 1, Council member Karin Uhlich said.
A community meeting about the program will be held by mid-September, she said.
The site will be located within Councilman Kevin Dahlβs Ward 3. STAR Village will offer safe outdoor sleeping for 25 women and non-binary people, according to a weekly newsletter put out by Dahlβs office.
Tucson mayor Regina Romero talks about the city partnering with local nonprofits to create Serving Together and Rebuilding (STAR) Village, an outdoor sleeping space, during a news conference Friday.
The inspiration for STAR Village came from a community member who raised the idea during a City Council meeting a few months ago, Uhlich and Romero said.
βI love that this was initiated by a constituent, a Tucson resident that cares, and that has really worked hard with us ... This is an innovative approach that is based on our community values, our Mayor and Council values, and on evidence that it is working,β Romero said. βAs we pilot this program, we will be learning from it, and thatβs okay. We will be hearing from the community and the neighbors, and thatβs why I think itβs important that we start slow.β
Primavera Foundation, Old Pueblo Community Services, Gospel Rescue Mission and La Frontera will be partnering with the city on STAR Village, Uhlich said.
An outdoor sleeping site is set to open in Tucson by October on city-owned land along East Grant Road between North Sixth and North Stone avenues.
The site will have three staff members on site every night from midnight to 6 a.m., so people have a safe place to sleep, Romero said. But the space will also be open throughout the day so people have a place to feel comfortable, cool off, charge their phones and connect to resources.
STAR Village βis about Tucson taking different actions towards a new direction,β Council member Lane Santa Cruz said.
βThis community needs, and very much deserves, multiple roads to stability and care,β Santa Cruz said. βThis work takes all of us: mutual aid leaders, nonprofits, faith communities and neighbors, choosing to collaborate instead of turning on each other.β
Tom Litwicki, CEO of Old Pueblo Community Services, said OPCS will be providing on-site services such as case management and behavioral health services for their outpatient clinics. OPCS will also look to help people move into permanent housing from STAR Village, he said.
βThe goal is not just to have people be in a safe space to sleep, but also to get their life back on track and move back into permanent housing in some place they can call home,β Litwicki said. βAll of us started from some place called home, and home is important, and matters.β
Outdoor sleeping spaces have proven to be successful in peer cities, like Denver, where crime rates in neighborhoods that contained safe outdoor spaces dropped, despite an overall rise in the crime rate city-wide, Primavera Foundation CEO Tisha Tallman said.
Community members will be able to go to www.primavera.org to sign up to be a volunteer at STAR Village, make donations or contribute supplies.
