Downtown’s Veinte de Agosto Park will close Sunday at sundown because of safety and health issues caused by a growing homeless camp there.
In a city memorandum Friday, Parks and Recreation Director Fred Gray said he is closing the park for “public health, safety and welfare, and for proper operations of the park.”
It will remain closed until he determines it is safe, he said. Only city workers will be allowed into the park, to clean it and maintain it.
Reports from the Tucson Police Department show that in the past three months there have been 60 arrests in and near the park, including 10 arrests for assault and/or disorderly conduct, according to the memo.
It also says 13 arrests were related to drugs and/or drug paraphernalia, and there were nine arrests for liquor-related violations. Other arrests were made for misdemeanor violations and outstanding warrants.
Gray says in the memo that park workers found human waste, needles, alcohol containers, excessive litter and liners removed from city trash cans. Park workers also found evidence of small fires in trash cans.
The park “will remain closed until such time that I am able to determine that opening the park will be appropriate in light of the interests of public health and safety and proper park operations,” Gray said in the memo, which he sent to Police Chief Roberto Villaseñor.
Notice of the closure was posted in the park for the public, and to allow police to enforce the closure, the memo states.
The closure is legal under city code, said Lane Mandle, city communications coordinator. She said police served notice Friday morning to people at the park, and the notice “gives (them) all the weekend to clear out.”
She said the city staff is working with social services agencies to get people into transitional housing. However, Mandle said, individuals must meet programs’ and shelters’ conditions and rules to get access to a shelter or housing.
The Star reported last week that 50 people were sleeping in the 1-acre park at night. Less than three months after the city cleared out from the park and sidewalks wooden boxes that homeless people had slept in, homeless people were living at the park.
There were piles of bedrolls, personal belongings and cardboard tarps along Church Avenue.
City Councilman Steve Kozachik said he understands the concerns about homeless in the park, adding that a man recently died of a drug overdose there. But, he said, he is concerned about how the city has handled the situation.
City officials have not been proactive in finding resolutions to the homeless situation, he said. Kozachik also said the city allowed its contract with Central City Assembly, 939 S. 19th Ave., which houses homeless people, to lapse Friday night.
Kozachik said Gray’s decision occurred after a meeting Thursday with about 40 representatives of downtown businesses and city officials about the conditions of the park.
“We are talking about people. I am chapped about this,” he said. “Quite honestly, the city attorney, city manager and the mayor need to own this issue.”
