A Safe Outdoor Space That Helped More Than 2,000 People Leave the Streets Could Close as Funding Expires
Phoenix is on track to run out of money to support one of its most successful solutions to unsheltered homelessness to date, and it could cause thousands of people to become homeless again.
For the last two years, Phoenix has operated a temporary campground, otherwise known as a “Safe Outdoor Space,” in downtown for people experiencing homelessness. The people who lived there used to live at a controversial encampment known as “The Zone,” where more than 800 people lived during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The four-acre site also includes all of the services people experiencing homelessness have access to when they stay at Phoenix-area shelters, Rachel Milne, who leads the city’s homelessness office, recently told NPR. Overall, more than 2,000 people have stayed at the temporary campsite since it opened in 2023…