Group says Tucson's sidewalk laws target homeless

The organizers of a downtown Tucson homeless camp and protest are asking a federal judge to bar the city from enforcing its laws about blocking sidewalks.

A new filing by John Cooper and Jon McLane is related to the June 14 shut-down of Veinte de Agosto Park, which homeless people had been using as a campsite they called Safe Park.

The filing is the latest in an ongoing series of legal battles over whether the city has made it a crime to be homeless.

On Tuesday afternoon in downtown Tucson, people slept in the heat on concrete benches in front of the main library. Bedrolls, crates of personal belongings and water jugs were left on the sidewalk along West Pennington Street.

Meanwhile, the Tucson City Council has for the second time backed away from a proposed ban on urban camping.

The council was set to discuss an ordinance at its meeting next week.

The new legal filing is part of a lawsuit filed by Cooper and McLane in January. They’re asking for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to keep the city from enforcing city codes that say a person can’t block the sidewalk — laws that have an “overwhelmingly disproportionate effect” on homeless people, the motion says.

“They’re targeting these people simply because they’re homeless,” Cooper said.

Confiscating homeless people’s unattended property — such as a backpack left on a sidewalk — is unconstitutional, a violation of the protection against search and seizure, Cooper says.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

The city said it shut down the park because of unsafe and unsanitary conditions. It posted signs that say “unattended property left in the park shall be considered abandoned and subject to immediate removal.”

In a related earlier lawsuit, which is now in the appeals process, a judge ruled the city couldn’t seize “any personal property that in good-faith does not appear to be abandoned.”

“The City’s interest in clean streets is outweighed by Plaintiffs’ interest in maintaining the few necessary personal belongings they might have,” Cooper says in the motion.

Since Veinte de Agosto Park closed, Cooper said, Tucson Police have arrested eight people for sleeping on the sidewalk with property, like a backpack or a bedroll.

“They give you a warning and tell you to move on, but where are you supposed to move to?” he said.

The city council was set to discuss a proposed ban on urban camping at its meeting next week.

It would have made it a misdemeanor crime to camp or store a bedroll on the sidewalk or other city property, but it also would have included policy about warnings and offering social services. Camping in a park without a permit already is prohibited.

Councilman Steve Kozachik, who brought up the idea, asked for the ban to be removed from the agenda, saying he now thinks Tucson should instead refine its existing laws and enforce them more consistently. He also called on businesses and churches to partner on new low-demand shelters that take in the homeless without rules about sobriety, which would help house a hard-to-serve population.