TUCSON, AZ — Chris Sanchez built his own home in the 100-Acre Wood Bike Park in the Tucson area.
It has its own bedroom, living room, and game room.
“I love chess, I probably play chess every day," Sanchez said.
Outside his front door, he hits golf balls into the park. He's been living here for about a year.
"Things just kind of went sour for me, you know," Sanchez said.
He says he was living in a house in Tucson with a roommate. But then his car's transmission failed. He couldn't afford the repairs, and then he was unable to get to work.
"It can happen to anyone at any time. Not all homeless people are drunks or drug addicts," Sanchez said. "I don’t think about it, but I’m actually calling this place home now.”
Now the future of his home and the community in the 100-Acre Wood is uncertain.
The City of Tucson is planning a partial clear-out of what they call 'Zone 1' in the northern part of the park.
The military needs to do PFAS testing in the groundwater, and the park has a grant for improvements to the BMX trails.
"The whole 100-Acre Wood area is not meant for encampments," Mari Vasquez, a resource coordinator with Pima County and the City of Tucson, said.
Vasquez said the partial clear-out is scheduled soon, and the goal is to eventually have the entire area cleared of homeless people.
But she did not give a timeline for either of those efforts.
"They want to just pull us all out of here," David Sebastian said. "I don't know where they think everyone is going to go."
Sebastian lost his RV and has since been living in the 100-Acre Wood. He believes if this encampment is cleared out, they'll just move somewhere else.
"It's not going to be simple, and it's going to cause a lot of problems," Sebastian said.
What's life like inside of Tucson's biggest homeless encampment?
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Vasquez says the city has done multiple outreach trips to the park offering housing, detox, and other resources.
“Unfortunately the engagement with those resources hasn’t been as high," Vasquez said.
As this constant struggle leaves the future of the park still uncertain.
“This is a lot of people's homes," Sebastian said. "I don’t know where we will go. I really don’t.”
