Tucson officials are trying to find a balance between the safety and usability of city parks and providing humanitarian aid for unhoused people.
Mutual aid and faith-based groups often go to city parks to distribute food and provide services to people, but neighborhoods have expressed health and safety concerns to city officials.
A community dialogue facilitated by a neutral party, the Center for Community Mediation and Facilitation, was hosted last week by Tucson Parks and Recreation wit the goal of finding a compromise.
The number of homeless people in Arizona increased by 3.5% since 2023, the U.S. Department of Urban and Housing Development said, based on a count conducted on a single day by volunteers. That makes the figure a reference estimate and usually underestimates the actual number.
In 2024, the estimated count was 1,281 unsheltered people in Tucson.
Permitting deemed problematic
Groups can apply for permits to distribute food in city parks and can be ticketed without one.
The process is free, but aid organizations are concerned about the inability to get a permit in certain parks.
The city’s policy is that parks within 1.5 miles of an existing congregate meal program will not be eligible for permitting, Lara Hamwey, the city’s parks director, said in a Nov. 7 city council meeting.
This includes Santa Rita Park at East 22nd Street and South Fourth Avenue, which is about three blocks away from Casa Maria Soup Kitchen.
“We do know that you have the concentration of homeless individuals at Santa Rita, but we do know that they have access to food very nearby, and so that’s why that park would not fall into a location that we would recommend,” Hamwey said in the November meeting.
She told the Star that these community dialogues are so they can listen to concerns of the public and bring them back to their team. But many of those concerns are about the process of giving permits to specific parks.
“Even one and a half miles is forever to someone who can’t leave their stuff or doesn’t have shoes or is disabled or chronically ill and cannot make that trip. So, it’s not really equitable,” said Amina Tollin, the leader of mutual aid group Unhoused Neighbors.
Tollin is a registered nurse and is often at parks giving food and providing services, like first aid care.
She said she was distributing resources and food to people at Santa Rita Park when police told her she needed a permit. But when she went to the city to get a permit, Tollin said she was told that is not an option for Santa Rita.
Maria Gonzales gathers her belongings during a major cleanup by the city at Santa Rita Park resulted in a huge encampment being cleared. City officials are working to find a balance between neighborhood health and safety concerns and groups who use parks to provide food and services.
“It’s a negative feedback cycle,” she said.
Tollin said the work she and other aid groups do should not be blocked, but in fact encouraged by the city.
“I don’t think (the permits) serve a purpose,” she said. “How about making it more accessible for people who want to do mutual aid to get the training that they need to provide the services that need to be provided?”
Tollin said the city should focus less on regulating humanitarian aid in parks and more on giving mutual aid groups important resources such as Narcan, a rapid treatment for narcotic overdose.
Trying to meet in the middle
At last week’s online community dialogue, there were approximately 60 attendees. The facilitators divided them into smaller groups to discuss their perspectives and possible solutions.
These included prioritizing general sanitation such as keeping restrooms open and distribution areas clean. Participants discussed only requiring a permit to distribute fresh foods, but not for packaged foods.
Right now, distributing bottled water is the only no permit association is only no permit associated with distributing bottled water.
Better communication between the public, distributors and the city were also a common theme. They wanted having more resources available like case and social workers with help from the city.
“How do we meet in the middle and make it an easy permit that’s not just lover-regulated, but still making sure that we’re keeping people safe, while not being punitive to those that are unhoused,” Gabriela Barillas from the Ward 1 office said.
Barillas is chief of staff to Lane Santa Cruz, who represents the city’s west side and is vice mayor, who brought this concern up to council.
She was present at the Wednesday meeting and said her office has heard complaints from mutual aid groups like Tollin’s. But there have also been concerns from community and neighborhood members about the safety of encouraging unhoused people in parks.
Ward 1 has bi-monthly meetings with community members, often hearing that residents want to make parks more “family-friendly.”
“As beautiful as our parks are, and as green as they are, they’re not homes. We also want to be able to respect the needs of neighbors and community that wants to take their kids or the dog out to play at our parks,” Mayor Regina Romero said at the November meeting.
Parks and Recreation will eventually share ideas from the community dialogues with the city council.
“Ultimately what will be the final outcomes will largely be based on what we hear from the public and what we think will actually be feasible for how we manage the food distribution permits,” said Hamwey from Parks and Rec.
She said her office would not comment on what they think the best solution is until completing the public discussions.
