I. The Problem: When Government Abandons Its People
Homelessness was running rampant in Phoenix. The city was making it worse. Residents and property owners were paying the price. And then, the Goldwater Institute took action—creating a solution for the state, and a model for the nation to follow.
In 2022, standing just blocks from the Arizona State Capitol, the first thing you noticed was the stench. The second was your unease—the kind of feeling you get when instinct tells you something is deeply wrong. For those living and working in the lawless square mile known as “The Zone”—where Phoenix officials shipped over a thousand homeless and drug-addled men and women—this became a new normal. Property owners tolerated violent crime and threats to their life, hand in hand with cleaning up a mess they did not cause: repairing fences, picking up used drug needles, and cleaning human waste.
Property owners and residents begged their city officials for help, but their calls went unanswered. In fact, officials made it worse by designating the Zone an “open encampment zone” and instructed law enforcement not to enforce nuisance calls in the area.
Civil disorder reached a low point during the weeks before Thanksgiving that year when authorities made a horrific discovery. They found the charred remains of a premature baby on a street. Just a month later, a homeless man suffered a similarly gruesome end, deepening the area’s descent into chaos.
“That child burned… that was the beginning of the end for me. I don’t know why that hit us so hard,” said Karl Freund, who was leasing a building in The Zone and sued the city of Phoenix over their handling of the homeless crisis. “Someone set a child on fire, and then two weeks later somebody burned a body just a block away. Then you see the people that are so mentally ill that you can’t place them in society. We walked out a year ago to see a girl masturbating 20 feet away from my car in the parking lot.”
Goldwater interviewed residents and business owners about The Zone in 2023.
By 2024, Phoenix had become a cautionary tale for urban America. In the previous five years, the city spent over $180 million to address the homeless crisis (as revealed in a Goldwater Institute investigative report), only for the number of homeless people to rise 92 percent. The city-sanctioned encampment harbored over 1,000 individuals living in conditions resembling a failed state. Residents of Phoenix were left with questions: How could such depravity happen in the United States? How could it occur to one of the fastest growing cities in the country? What do you do when the government that you fund with your tax dollars abandons you?
Into this vacuum stepped the Goldwater Institute. While some offered sympathy without action—and government and NGOs demanded more spending without a real strategy—the Goldwater Institute developed an answer rooted in a deeply American principle: When government fails to protect property, the state should forfeit its claim to tax it. That concept became the core of Proposition 312: The Safe Neighborhoods Act, a ballot initiative drafted, championed, and ultimately enacted through the efforts of the Goldwater Institute. The measure empowered property owners to claim refunds of documented expenses they incurred to clean up after the homelessness problem if their city fails to enforce public nuisance laws. It served as a mechanism of accountability, not just fiscal but moral, that leveraged the one thing politicians care about most—taxpayer dollars.
What began as a complaint in one city turned into something larger: a statewide reckoning with government’s failure to protect citizens. Recognizing public frustration, the Goldwater Institute swiftly turned hopelessness into action, forging a coalition spanning Arizona’s civic, business, and political leadership. With partners including the Arizona Tax Research Association, Arizona Free Enterprise Club, Arizona Chamber of Commerce, Arizona Food Marketing Alliance, National Federation of Independent Business, Americans for Tax Reform, Arizona Rock Products Association, private-sector leaders like QuikTrip, and elected officials like Phoenix Councilman Jim Waring and Gilbert Councilman Jim Torgeson, Goldwater built an alliance cutting across traditional boundaries and launched an information campaign that crossed channels and targeted a variety of voter groups. Proposition 312 became a platform enabling Arizonans to reclaim democratic power against a corrupt government, something that inherently spoke to the public as a whole.
The people of Arizona responded. In November 2024, voters across Arizona delivered a state win for property owners, approving Proposition 312 with over 58 percent of the vote—one of the highest passage rates of initiatives that cycle. Rural and urban voters joined together to send a message, with every county across the state but one supporting the measure.
In less than a year, Proposition 312 began to reshape Arizona’s urban landscape. Just days after voters approved the first-in-the-nation measure, Mesa’s City Council voted unanimously to prohibit urban camping on public property, while Tempe announced enhanced enforcement of its longstanding ban. Today, six Phoenix metropolitan-area jurisdictions—including Mesa, Tempe, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Goodyear, and Surprise—have adopted similar restrictions, signaling not just a regional trend but a broader assertion of public authority. This created a shift across Arizona—one that placed accountability above ideology and affirmed the people’s power to demand results from their local governments without simply throwing more money or regulations at problems.
Across the state, newly adopted bans commonly restrict camping within 500 feet of schools, childcare centers, parks, and homeless shelters. Additional cities are poised to follow suit: Chandler and Tucson are now weighing ordinances that would bar encampments in much of their cities. Proposition 312 fundamentally altered the balance of power between local governments and their constituents. It showed that when empowered, a free people will make their communities better, safer, and stronger.
II. Why This Deserves the “Biggest Home State Win” Award
1. Goldwater’s Central Role — From Conception to Implementation
This success of the Prop 312 campaign exemplifies how public policy centers can lead and create change, showing the power of liberty-oriented entrepreneurship. The Goldwater Institute did not act as a bystander or cheerleader. We were the architect. The initiative originated in Goldwater’s legal and policy shop and was:
- Drafted by Goldwater staff based on field research and legal theory.
- Introduced to the legislature with both the Senate President and Speaker of the House as the sponsors and shepherded through its referral process.
- Included in the Arizona House and Senate’s majority plan
- Supported through public commentary, op-eds, coalition building, and a targeted paid digital campaign.
- Bolstered by advocacy for local residents in court, including Goldwater’s landmark litigation to dismantle Phoenix’s “The Zone.”
- Executed by the implementation of a system to create awareness to property owners of their right to a claim under the act and to assist property owners in securing relief.
2. Overcoming Institutional Resistance and Ideological Hostility
The passage of Proposition 312 did not occur without resistance from entrenched interests. Powerful national organizations opposed the proposal, including the ACLU of Arizona, the Arizona League of Cities and Towns, and local political establishments. These groups denounced the measure as “punitive” and “regressive,” invoking well-worn narratives equating the enforcement of laws with cruelty and government accountability with oppression.
Yet voters, armed with insights from the Goldwater Institute’s targeted informational campaign, asserted that taxation without the enforcement of laws represents an affront to both property rights and the public trust. By cutting through ideological rigidity and presenting a facts-first argument in accessible terms, the Goldwater Institute empowered the people of Arizona to take on powerful government authorities. Rural, suburban, and urban voters approved Proposition 312 overwhelmingly.
3. A Tangible, Voter-Driven Policy Victory in Arizona
Proposition 312 now carries the full force of law and shows that freedom produces results. Since its passage:
- Cities across Arizona—Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Goodyear, and others—have either revived dormant ordinances or passed new ones to avoid triggering Prop 312’s refund liabilities.
- Property owners, for the first time, are empowered to recoup costs for private mitigation efforts—security, sanitation, legal services—when cities fail to act.
- And in The Zone, what once resembled a post-apocalyptic wasteland has now returned to an area where residents and property owners can safely go on with their lives and business.
4. A Replicable Framework with National Implications
Federalism can be revived through freedom-focused reform that solves problems. Proposition 312: The Safe Neighborhoods Act is not a one-off for Arizona. Goldwater is now exporting the law outside of Arizona. In its structure and logic, it can drive action in cities facing near-identical crises of encampment law nullification and municipal refusal to act, such as Portland, Los Angeles, Austin, and Denver. Goldwater’s model offers to empower citizens to take action and force cities to internalize the cost of their abandonment of duty to taxpayers.
III. Conclusion
By empowering citizens to reclaim accountability from neglectful leaders, Proposition 312 addressed urban decay, renewed civic trust, restored property rights, and established a replicable framework with national implications. It ensures that local officials are held accountable for upholding both municipal rules and the broader mandates of state law. The victory was truly one that involved the entire state. Rural and urban voters across Arizona joined together to demand a more accountable local government.
The Goldwater Institute’s initiative demonstrates that impactful change does not require top-down mandates or endless bureaucracy, and it revealed that voters across Arizona will respond to solutions that expand their freedom and empower them to take action. Proposition 312’s overwhelming passage and immediate implementation represent not just a home-state victory, but a nationwide blueprint for restoring democratic accountability to ideologically-driven officials holding a tight grip over our cities.
Honoring this effort with the Bob Williams Award would celebrate not only the tangible results seen across Arizona, but also reinforce the critical lesson that genuine reform can come from our first principles.
IV. Supporting Materials
Election Results
The New York Times, November 25, 2024
Campaign, Website, Ads and Metrics
Litigation Brief
Legislation For Ballot Proposal
Letters of Support
Selected Media Coverage
Local Media Coverage
- Phoenix CBS 5, “Finding solutions to ‘The Zone’ homeless encampment in Phoenix,” June 7, 2023.
- AZPM, “Prop 312 promises help for property owners,” October 10, 2024.
- 12 News, “What does Proposition 312 mean for Valley voters?,” October 16, 2024.
- KTAR News, “A day inside downtown Phoenix’s homeless encampment ‘The Zone,’” October 26, 2023.
- Sun City Independent, Proof of concept: Arizona Prop 312 is already forcing action on homelessness,” December 11, 2024.
- KTAR News, “Defendant sentenced in death of man beaten, burned in Phoenix homeless encampment,” January 3, 2025.
National Media Coverage
- The New York Times, “A Sandwich Shop, a Tent City and an American Crisis,” March 19, 2023.
- Fox News, “Goldwater Institute’s Timothy Sandefur and AZ Business Owner Discuss Phoenix’s Homelessness Zone,” March 30, 2023.
- The Center Square, “Arizonans to vote on tax refund for ‘public nuisance’ damages,” March 6, 2024.
- The Washington Examiner, “Make cities pay for not enforcing the law,” April 29, 2024.
- The Wall Street Journal, “Arizona Cities Will Pay a Price for Ignoring Homelessness,” November 22, 2024.
Implementation Guide
