A More Walkable Downtown Phoenix

[Warren Peace]

In my opinion, one of the most significant changes to make downtown more walkable is to better address the homeless population and the various sidewalk harassers who engage with pedestrians about their special interests.

My wife doesn't feel safe walking around downtown because of the homeless people that will chat her up for money and make her feel vulnerable when she is walking alone. She knows the downside of rewarding that behavior but wishes she could help those who truly need it.

The sidewalk harassers are often working for a charity soliciting donations for causes in direct competition with the homeless. I would be more likely to give to these well dressed solicitors routinely stationed by Fry's and other downtown street corners if they cared more about the charity needs competing alongside them.

Solutions? There are no solutions. Just alternatives with different tradeoffs. It obviously costs money. Is permitting required to set up a table and harass pedestrians on sidewalks? If not, perhaps it should be. Part of the permit should be to require recording donations and committing x% of donations to go toward helping to fund a new downtown homeless shelter. Perhaps a downtown development tax applied to hotels could help fund it. Partner with downtown apartments to offer an easy method to contribute, such as an auto-pay option. Partner with downtown restaurants and bars to simply post a QR code that enables a quick and easy donation for a cause readily apparent just outside the doors.

An ideal homeless shelter would offer both an indoor air conditioned option, and some outdoor living space with army style tents. To live indoors, a resident must agree to help maintain the facility and stay sober. The intoxicated residents and those unwilling to maintain a clean environment stay in the tents. The warehouse district seems to have a lot of vacant real estate the city can buy. Paid employees would be various social workers looking for their first jobs out of college. Partner with ASU downtown for student worker jobs and internships that involve healthcare and social work.

There should also be a downtown ordinance that forbids sleeping on sidewalks and in public parks. Violators are transported to the homeless shelter. The shelter should have "drunk tank" where recently transported persons are not free to leave as a result of violating the ordinance. Everyone else is free to leave. But it creates a safe place where they will not be bothered. How would they otherwise be bothered? Let downtown residents use a payment app such as Venmo to report vagrancy and fund the cost of transportation as a donation. A more specifically designed phone app (advertised with QR codes throughout downtown) that enable geocoding and photo uploads along with donations would probably be better. This enables people to help at the decision point when they see a problem.

Using this approach, when people report vagrancy, they are not calling the cops, they are calling social workers. Let the social workers determine if escalating to law enforcement is necessary. They are not putting homeless people in jail, they are sending them to a homeless shelter, and they are likely funding the cost of transportation through a suggested donation.