For anyone living on the Valley’s scorching streets, finding a way to shower is one of life’s biggest challenges. One local organization that makes it easier is now being threatened with a $1,500 fine by the city of Tempe.
Cloud Covered Streets runs a mobile shower trailer, allowing unhoused people a place to rinse off the grime that comes with a life on the street. Recently, the organization began partnering with the Tempe-based Native Action Program, which assists with obtaining food stamps and housing, to operate in the latter’s Kings Plaza respite center parking lot on McClintock Drive near Apache Boulevard.
At a recent event, about 50 unhoused people were able to shower, change into clean clothes and obtain other assistance. The groups were scheduled to do the same thing on Monday — until Native Action Program received a directive from Tempe to stand down or risk a major penalty. According to a Cloud Covered Streets post on Facebook, Tempe claimed the shower services constituted an “unauthorized event,” an apparent reference to the special events ordinance that the city has used to dissuade residents from distributing meals to unhoused people in city parks…