It might be possible to avoid a person begging on a street corner, but for community service coordinators and businesses in Tempe, a constant presence of transients is difficult to ignore.
Tempe Homeless Coordinator Theresa James said the city’s homeless program has noted a 20 percent increase in the number of transients within Tempe since the economic downturn.
“It’s about a 20 percent increase for people who are new and telling us that it’s their first time being homeless,” she said.
More than 2,700 homeless people were living on the streets in Maricopa County during a one-day street count in January 2010, according to an Arizona Department of Economic Security report. The numbers have gone up and down each year since 2007, staying above 2,400.
James said Tempe’s Homeless Outreach Program Effort counted 121 people on Tempe streets in their one-day count in January 2011, though she said the count is not fully reliable because higher numbers of volunteers combing the streets are needed. The true count is more likely to be 300 to 500 people on any given day, mostly consisting of single adult males, she said.
The outreach team, which became operational in 2006, travels throughout Tempe in a van to search for people who might need assistance, she said.
“We work to build that trust, we give them water, we give them toiletry items … and then we keep going back,” James said.
She said one of their biggest obstacles to reducing homelessness in Tempe is the stigma surrounding it.
“There’s still a lot of people in this world that believe it could never happen to them,” she said.
On Mill Avenue, where many homeless people congregate, businesses feel the effects of a homeless population on a daily basis.
“I get very, very annoyed,” said Jacqueline Waters, a cashier at Mojo Yogurt on Mill Avenue. “They take baths in our bathroom.”
Waters said the issues with bathroom hygiene have forced the business to make the bathrooms for customer use only.
She said that none of the homeless ever buy anything in the store and that some of them will fill up a cup of yogurt and run.
Incidents involving the homeless occur at least once a week, she said. Waters said a homeless woman was banned from Mojo for swearing at the customers.
“After two years I feel like it’s getting old, fighting with them every day,” she said.
Other businesses on Mill Avenue have fewer confrontations with homeless citizens, but business employees said the homeless presence does have an effect on customers.
“I’ve actually had a couple customers ask me about the homeless and they … said, ‘Is this how it is all the time?’” said Mary Williams, a sales associate at Lotions and Potions.
Williams said sometimes homeless people that block the doors can keep customers from coming into the store, but she said she felt overall their presence was not problematic.
“If they’re not loud and abrupt then we don’t mind,” Williams said.
Mojo Yogurt employees have contacted Tempe Police regarding disturbances caused by the homeless, as well as employees at Cactus Sports.
“It would be nice if there were more bike cops,” said Michelle Wood, assistant manager of Cactus Sports.
She said that Tempe Police does a great job when they do receive calls.
“We don’t do anything specifically to target the homeless,” Tempe Police Sgt. Steve Carbajal said.
Police target criminal activity but do not track the residential status of those they arrest, Carbajal said.
According to Tempe City Code, publicly soliciting in an aggressive way is prohibited. City Code also says it is unlawful to camp — i.e., putting out bedding, storing belongings, etc. — in a public park, street or place unless authorized.
James said Tempe’s Homeless Coordination program works with police officers that patrol Mill Avenue.
She said she completely understands how frustrating it can be to have homeless people disrupting everyday business.
“I would … want business owners to know that homelessness isn’t the kind of problem that just one group can solve — it takes more than the service providers and the police department, it takes all of us,” James said.
The Tempe program received federal stimulus money in 2009 from the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program, a federal program under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
James said they were the only city to use the HPRP money to begin providing permanent supportive housing to chronically homeless people.
Tempe also received a grant from the Gila River Indian Community to be used solely to help the homeless obtain and keep employment, she said.
“These people don’t have simple lives, none of us do,” James said.
She encourages residents and businesses to call her first if they notice a homeless person loitering, though if the person is committing a crime, the police should be called.
Homeless people in need can seek help at the Tempe First United Methodist Church off East University Drive and South Forest Avenue where showers are provided Monday and Friday, James said.
Reach the reporter at sksmith9@asu.edu
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