Many ASU students who spend time on Mill Avenue have probably come across a homeless person, a sight that is not too uncommon for Tempe residents.
Although residents of Tempe might be used to occasionally interacting with homeless people, business owners in the area want to see them done away with, at least from public property.
A Tempe City ordinance, which passed in January of last year, made it unlawful for anyone to sit or lie down on a public sidewalk for any reason. The ordinance was amended in November 2014 to make it unlawful for anyone to obstruct the public right-of-way unless it's for a medical emergency.
Opponents, many of whom are business owners, argue that the January ordinance should be reinstated because the most recent one led to a recent increase of homeless people near businesses. Some say this is due to the city's wide sidewalks.
Daniel Grover, general manager at Ncounter on Mill Avenue, said the influx of transient people has greatly increased in downtown Tempe since the ordinance was amended, causing customers to frequent the area less often.
“Less people are willing to come to the area in general because of the amount of transients that are here,” he wrote in an email. “The problem is when you have to get (transients) out of the restaurant or away from the entrance and that is always done by management.”
Like many other business owners in the community, Grover said he believes there should be more police interference when it comes to the public presence of homeless people.
“I would like to see more police enforcement of moving them along and having them be in places that are not in the public eye or in the way of business,” he wrote in an email.
Downtown Tempe Authority, a local business district organization, first brought up the issue in a city council meeting back in August, advocating for the removal of people sitting on the sidewalks and blocking the right-of-way.
DTA President and Executive Director Kate Borders said the number of people sitting down or lying on the sidewalk has "increased dramatically" since the city ordinance was amended last November, leading to a decreased number of customers in the area.
"Business owners feel that it is a disadvantage to their business because it is intimidating to guests," she wrote in an email. "We have had many businesses tell us that they have had customers choose to not visit their store due to the large number of individuals congregating on the sidewalk."
Borders said the issue does not revolve around homeless people specifically, but with the behavior of the people sitting on the sidewalks.
"The individuals who are gathering and sitting on the sidewalk are creating a concern for the local businesses who are seeing their consumers turn away," she wrote in an email. "The behavior is what we are looking to correct, while at the same time working to bring awareness and support to the many individuals who are in critical situations."
Tempe councilmember Lauren Kuby said the city's street-side right-of-way is so expansive that citizens and business owners feel as if homeless people can lie on the street without consequence. Kuby said the problem does not start with sidewalk sitting, but lies with the lack of homeless facilities in the area.
“The issue with Mill Avenue is that the right-of-way is so large that there’s some people who believe it encourages people to kind of lie on the streets and there’s no repercussions,” she said.
Business owners and residents who are fighting to reinstate the ordinance are not only pushing to criminalize the homeless, Kuby said, but taking away from the bigger issue at-hand: Preventing homelessness in the first place. She also emphasized that relocating homeless people would be to push the issue out of the public eye.
“There was this ordinance that’s been in effect for a decade or more and it said that you can’t sit on the sidewalks, regardless, but there’s some people who want to reinstitute the ordinance,” she said. “To institute such an ordinance criminalizes the homeless on our streets.”
Reach the reporter at Jlsuerth@asu.edu or on Twitter at @SuerthJessica
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