PHOENIX (3TV / CBS 5) – The city of Phoenix has used more than $ 209,000 of federal CARES Act funds to build chain barriers around the city’s right of way between the street and sidewalk where the homeless lived, more Erect chain barriers in the area west of downtown near Central Arizona Shelter Services. This second phase will cost an additional $ 100,000 and will also come from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. In May, the city of Mesa began sending officers to look for homeless people susceptible to COVID-19 and take them to motels on east Mesa. “When this project was carried out at the start of the pandemic, the decision was made to support Maricopa County’s gated and regulated lots by securing rights of way once they were vacated and cleaned,” said Ashley Patton, a city street spokeswoman Transportation Department, which refers to the county-run campsites used by the homeless. While some in the neighborhood say they support the bars and chains, they don’t consider this to be a permanent solution and want the City of Phoenix to get more input from residents and businesses in the future. “The neighborhood didn’t know they were going in until they started bringing them in,” said Bill Morlan, who owns Electric Supply Incorporated near the intersection of Madison Street and 10th Avenue. “This project touches and changes lives.” Morlan says he doesn’t like the look of the bars and chains, although he does appreciate the effect they had in keeping people from pooping between the street and sidewalk near his shop because someone decided to going to the bathroom against my palm, “said Morlan. However, critics say it is the wrong way to solve the problem of homelessness in the area.” This is not a solution, “said Stacey Champion, community attorney. “The city, the county, the state keep trying to put tiny patches on a huge gaping ax wound.” Champion says the money should be used to plant trees in the area or to cool tents so homeless people can escape the brutal “That’s wrong,” said Champion. The expense was originally exposed by landscape architecture students at ASU who are working on a project to beautify the often overlooked neighborhood pushing people off the street, “said Elizabeth Ferguson, an ASU Landscape Architecture Masters student. “To be honest, any other solution could have been better.” Copyright 2020 KPHO / KTVK (KPHO Rundfunkgesellschaft). All rights reserved.
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