Homeless camps are not the solution. We desperately need more shelter beds – By Amy Schwabenlender and Jonathan Koppell (AZ Central) / January 24 2021
Opinion: Efforts to scale back proposed shelter space make us wonder if metro Phoenix is really serious about solving the problem of homelessness.
Treating homelessness as just another tough-to-solve problem is easy if you ignore the humanity. But homelessness is not “pollution” or “inflation.” Homelessness is about human beings without a place to sleep, eat or bathe.
Real people.
Like Dan, an army veteran who battled multiple demons – cancer, chronic emphysema, his violent temper and a prison record – and ended up living on the street.
We could not ignore Dan’s humanity.
Like so many unsheltered men and women living, sleeping – surviving – on the streets, Dan was searching for a way out when he came to the Human Services Campus. After finding a bed at Central Arizona Shelter Services, he spent five months working toward a housing voucher and changing who he was.
“I’m nowhere near the same person I was when I came here,” he said. “I never dreamed this place could help so much. They turned my whole life around and gave me a whole new meaning to life.”
