PHOENIX — The city of Phoenix conducted its fourth cleanup on Wednesday near the Human Services Campus where hundreds of people live on the streets.
The City has changed the way that unattended belongings are collected and stored after concerns about whether the city violated the constitution during cleanup sweeps of The Zone.
The city uses clean garbage cans to give those to put their personal belongings, however, some have complained how one bin is not enough to store all their things like ice chests, tents, and other belongings.
Unattended belongings from the Zone will be held for 45 days inside a city warehouse building. A spokesperson for the city told ABC15 by email that they do not require people to physically come to the warehouse to receive their items, “People looking to be reunited with their items call our designated property number and we bring the items directly to them. We use this as an opportunity to connect them with a safer place.”
City officials will leave a notification at the encampments when they store someone’s unattended property with a reference phone number to call to retrieve the property and storage bin number.
In total, four people have been reunited with their property.
Yves Taylor had lived on 9th Avenue for nine months before city crews forced him out Wednesday. He didn’t turn over any of his things to the city.
“Oh they’re going to throw them in the garbage,” Taylor said. “We are people. We deserve some type of respect or something.”
The city said if people accept services during the sweeps of the encampments, they are able to store their bins at the Human Services Campus while they go into a shelter.
Some homeless advocates gathered at the cleanup on Wednesday to share information with those who are unsheltered about their rights and their things.
