SE Valley Times

Tempe officials briefed the City Council recently on huge strides the city has made in removing the homeless population from the Salt River bed.

Paul Bentley, Tempe's deputy community health and human services director, and Craig Hayton, director of community services, made a presentation to the council Thursday, May 18, on the impact of their efforts in the Salt River bed area.

In August of 2022, the city determined that it had to take drastic measures to address the state of homeless populations living in the Salt River bed community. The area has no running water or bathrooms, experiences flooding, cannot be reached by emergency services and presents a health hazard because of the amount of human waste, garbage, needles and chemicals.

The city offered a resource center near the riverbed, which gave the homeless water, food and temporary shelter during the heat of the day. They also have opened storage options for many so that they can retain all of their belongings while they work toward finding permanent housing. Anyone who was in the riverbed area after Aug. 31 was subject to trespassing charges or arrest.

Since that change, the city has seen drastic drops in calls for service in the area, moving from almost 100 to under five so far this year. The city is now focusing on addressing the needs of the displaced homeless population so that they would not need to return to the area in the future.

The council approved emergency funds up to $2.6 million in its 2022-23 fiscal year, and estimates expenditures for services so far are approximately $2 million. Additionally, they have submitted requests for $448,000 in continued budgeting for debris removal and cleanup moving into fiscal year 2024. 

“We are in a sustainability mode and maintenance starting this [past] March, and those will be efforts that will continue moving forward,” Hayton said.

The city has been encouraged by the numbers of people accepting aid to move toward permanent housing solutions. They also have removed a huge amount of debris from the riverbed area and improved vegetation. This will drastically alleviate the impact of flooding, also limiting the spread of contaminants. 

"Many of the concerns that you hear about nationally, we intended to have a solution here within the resource village," Bentley said.

Council member Doreen Garlid spoke about her observations at the site and the difficulty of remediating homelessness.

"I visited the resource village twice and both times that I was there, there were people that were coming out of the river bottom and some people were inside the tent and getting services and talking to people," Garlid said. "And I have to say that it's such a difficult thing to do to remove people from an area that's not safe, that they felt that they wanted to stay at. And I know that all of that is very a difficult thing to do."

Despite the difficulty, what she saw exemplified treating people with dignity.

 "And, you know, we're working with humans, but I have to say that at the least what I saw when I was there, when I walked around was, I did see that people were giving dignity the best that we can. And it was a very compassionate and comfortable area to be in," she said.