Frequently Searched

Even San Francisco Is Starting to Change Course on Homelessness. Why Won’t Phoenix?

February 10, 2023

In the liberal haven of San Francisco, where one of the worst homelessness crises in the nation has been raging nonstop for years, officials may finally be taking the first steps toward changing course.

Phoenix leaders should pay close attention.

San Francisco is infamously one of the most dangerous, crime-ridden, drug-filled and homeless-overrun cities in America. Over 400 homeless people died on the streets from fentanyl overdoses in 2022 alone. One man was arrested over 60 times in San Francisco for crimes such as burglary, theft, and drug use—but was allowed back on the streets. School children getting off the bus to go home are regularly forced to walk through crowds of homeless people and drug dealers. There are horrific accounts of children being found dead in the streets after being sexually assaulted and overdosing on drugs.

Hellish as San Francisco’s crisis is, certain city officials have apparently started trying to right the ship. Case in point: a San Francisco city attorney has appealed a ruling from a U.S. district court judge that banned cleanup sweeps of homeless encampments. “There are people living on our streets who refuse shelter, and there are those who have secured a shelter bed but still choose to sleep on the streets,” said City Attorney David Chiu. “It is unreasonable to tell the city that it is powerless to do anything in those situations.”

The case was brought by homeless advocates who accuse San Francisco of violating the 2019 precedent set by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Martin v. City of Boise, which declared that it violates the Eighth Amendment’s “cruel and unusual punishment” clause to punish people for “involuntarily” sleeping on the streets. Since the City of Boise decision, the issue for city officials nationwide—including in Phoenix, where similar litigation is also underway—has turned on a basic question: what does it mean to be “involuntarily homeless?”

Phoenix officials have argued that the city cannot enforce its own laws against public camping, loitering, or urinating and defecating in public, because the City of Boise ruling forbids them from “criminalizing” “involuntary homelessness.” But if an individual is offered shelter and refuses to accept, that person is no longer “involuntarily homeless”—rather, he or she has made a choice to stay on the streets instead of accepting shelter.

This is a concept that even city officials in San Francisco, one of America’s most crime-ridden cities, are beginning to understand. Yet the city of Phoenix refuses to act—thereby leaving all its citizens in the homeless “Zone”—both law-abiding property and business owners and those living on the streets—in danger.

It’s no secret that “The Zone” is plagued by drugs and crime, including rape, murder, arson, and prostitution—yet Phoenix’s leadership seem content to let this continue. How many people must suffer in the streets of Phoenix before  city leaders shift course? Why is it that San Francisco, the city that stands as a beacon of progressive politics, is starting to realize things need to change, while Phoenix continues to allow lawlessness to take over its streets? Do Phoenix officials need to let their city reach the levels of crime and homelessness that San Francisco is known for before they take action to enforce the law?

These are questions that the citizens of Phoenix need to start asking. If San Francisco can start to make a change, Phoenix can too. Otherwise, the Valley of the Sun will become unrecognizable.

Austin VanDerHeyden is the Municipal Affairs Liaison at the Goldwater Institute.

 

 

More on this issue

Donate Now

Help all Americans live freer, happier lives. Join the Goldwater Institute as we defend and strengthen freedom in all 50 states.

Donate Now

Since 1988, the Goldwater Institute has been in the liberty business — defending and promoting freedom, and achieving more than 400 victories in all 50 states. Donate today to help support our mission.

We Protect Your Rights

Our attorneys defend individual rights and protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Need Help? Submit a case.

Get Connected to Goldwater

Sign up for the latest news, event updates, and more.

Wait! Don’t close this yet!

We are grateful for your support of the Goldwater Institute’s efforts to advance and defend liberty throughout the United States. For over 36 years, we’ve been defending the rights of Americans to live their lives free from government interference.

And Goldwater is unique in that we direct our efforts to the 50 states where we introduce and advance innovative ideas that expand freedom. And we fight in courtrooms and capitals nationwide to defend individual liberty.

In 2024 alone, we scored over 50 policy and litigation victories defending liberty!

And that’s just the beginning.

Our plans for 2025 include:

  • Stopping pernicious DEI and other woke programs in America’s universities.
  • Ensuring that patients suffering from rare and terminal diseases have access to cutting-edge, lifesaving medical treatments, without having to first seek permission from the government.
  • Defending parental rights across the United States so that parents can send their kids to the school that best fits their needs, free from leftist indoctrination.
  • Eliminating government interference in the fundamental right of individuals to own property and use it as they see fit.
  • And much, much more

We seek to restore the presumption of liberty; that people are free to act without first asking permission from the government.

But we cannot do this without you. Will you join us as we fight to preserve and advance liberty throughout the country? As we seek new and innovative ways to defend freedom in all 50 states?

And there’s great news: Thanks to a generous Goldwater supporter, your donation today will be doubled!

So please, join us in fighting to advance liberty and score real wins for freedom from coast to coast!