Albuquerque's mayor and City Council majority are in favor of setting up homeless tent encampments throughout the city. | Naomi August/Unsplash
Albuquerque's mayor and City Council majority are in favor of setting up homeless tent encampments throughout the city. | Naomi August/Unsplash
A new, 200-bed homeless shelter has opened for the summer in a formerly vacant, city-owned building north of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix.
The shelter, located at 28th and Washington streets, was made possible through a partnership between Phoenix and Maricopa County, as both municipalities contributed about $2 million in federal relief money to the shelter, as well as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which will run facility.
Residents of the facility have access to three meals a day, snacks, showers and laundry. In addition, they also have access to social services such as mental health support and help finding employment. Those who run the shelter hope its residents feel welcomed.
“The shelter program is their home,” shelter manager Jennifer Morgan said in a story by AZCentral. “One of the big moments of relief for residents is when you explain to someone that they won’t be awoken in the morning and asked to leave.”
Part of the motivation to get the facility operating by now is to give the homeless an escape from the brutal summer heat in Phoenix.
“The heat was an excellent reason to get this up and running, but the whole community knows that at the end of summer, there’s still going to be people who need support,” Jessica Berg, chief program officer at St. Vincent de Paul, said in the story.
Though the shelter itself is a triumph for the area, officials agree that it’s only a step in a larger process. Berg said the facility has the potential not only to be a heat shelter in the area, but a template for other, similar programs.
Scott Hall, special projects administrator for the city’s Homeless Services Division, said the building was set to be vacant for three years, meaning the facility could remain open beyond summer.
“We’re trying to be diverse in putting these in every area of the city,” Hall said. “Our unsheltered population continues to rise, and we need more shelter and housing opportunities for people.”
The shelter also has a “good neighbor agreement” with the neighborhood, which includes a curfew for residents, Phoenix police officers and security guards, as well as an advisory committee made up of local leaders.
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