PHOENIX — Phoenix city officials said there was space available for any zone resident who volunteered to accept indoor shelter.
"Our goal is to go at the pace we’re going right now every 2-3 weeks with each block that way we can offer everybody indoor space or different options for different individuals and not rush people into options that they didn’t want," said Scott Hall, the deputy director of the Phoenix Office of Homeless Solutions.
Phoenix won't say how many people accepted this week's offer. But officials say, of the 104 homeless the city engaged during the first two Zone cleanups, only 20 declined.
"The ones that have come in are still in our program. they are working towards getting employment and they're working with their case manager," said Mila Valle, the chief program Officer for UMOM New Day Centers, an organization assisting Phoenix by helping to get homeless women and mothers off the street.
Three women from the Zone arrived at UMOM on Wednesday.
"The collaboration with the city of Phoenix was great," Valle said. "We are here to support them and helping the individuals and families find a safe place to stay and working with them to get them permanently housed."
While there are signs the Zone is getting cleaner, a spokesperson for the Human Services Campus says as of Tuesday, the population of the homeless encampment actually grew, from 786 people on May 10 to 906 people on Tuesday.
Fund for Empowerment sued the city on behalf of Zone residents in federal court.
Lead organizer Elizabeth Venable says Phoenix's homeless problem is not going away anytime soon. "They simply don't have the capacity until at least next year to have anywhere near the number of people that are actually in the zone," she said.
The clean-ups will continue as Phoenix prepares to convince a Superior Court Judge, it's in material compliance with his order.
