I have lived in Tempe my entire life – 62 years – and served our community as a city councilman and mayor. The Tempe I know bears no resemblance to the nightmare city conjured up by Diana Simpson of the Virginia-based Institute For Justice in her August 12 guest commentary. Simpson depicts Tempe as a cold-hearted place obsessed with “criminalizing charity” and stopping “Good Samaritans” from helping the homeless. 

I can sum up that accusation in one word. Fiction.

Last year, Tempe spent $72 million serving the homeless and expanding affordable housing. The city opened a temporary shelter to get people off the street, purchased a second space that will open early next year, and grew its Homeless Outreach Program Effort, which makes 100 to 150 contacts with unhoused community members weekly. Tempe distributed more than $1.2 million to volunteer-selected nonprofits last year, while substantially growing Tempe Works, a program to help the chronically homeless receive housing, vocational training, and obtain jobs.

As the data shows, Tempe’s comprehensive whole-of-community approach is working. The county’s most recent Point-in-Time census showed homelessness in Tempe declined 34% this year, after dropping 32% last year. In that time, Tempe has helped more than 1,600 people transition into shelter. Tempe hasn’t chased our unsheltered out of the city as happens elsewhere – it has worked to help people get off the streets, including those who struggle in recovery due to compound addiction and health issues.

Simpson left out all that. Instead she focused instead on the legal troubles of Austin Davis, a Scottsdale resident who provides informal assistance under his banner called “AZ Hugs.” According to Simpson, Davis’ legal issues stem from “his arrest and jailing for feeding homeless people in a public park.”

Davis hasn’t been systematically providing assistance in a controlled, stable, or even legal program. Instead, his random events gather vulnerable people in large groups where Davis offers no security, no bathrooms, no sufficient litter collection, or other support that assures participants’ lives are improved in a safe environment. And despite repeated outreach by the city over more than a year, Davis has refused to comply with city permit requirements – as  expected of every other citizen. It’s also the law, and for good reason – the safety of those who come to such events.

Davis has disregarded repeated city requests while continuing to stage what he calls “picnics.” But simply calling something a “picnic” doesn’t make it so. As a result, the city and its residents continuously have had to deal with the consequences of Davis’ activities, with crowds of over 250 people who spill out to surrounding neighborhoods. As The Arizona Republic recently pointed out, these “picnics” have generated community security complaints, trash, drug paraphernalia, and outdoor markets for drug sales and use — the precursors to the destruction of any good park – and city. Resulting crime in the neighborhoods surrounding these events is one problem, but the greater concern is for the most vulnerable, those very homeless who are victims of battery, theft, and worse within their population.

While Davis claims he submitted one permit application, it was incomplete and non-compliant. Generously, Tempe offered Davis alternatives to participate in assisting the unsheltered, like holding events at a city shelter or partnering with other local nonprofits. Davis has refused and continued on his path, hosting events wherever he wants, imposing significant burdens on our community, and subjecting the supposed beneficiaries of his efforts to dangerous circumstances. 

When Davis ignored the city’s most recent denial, he was cited for hosting another unpermitted event — just like anyone else who acted with such disregard for our neighbors and fellow community members, never mind for putting the most vulnerable at continuing risk. He has never been jailed for this.

Davis subsequently was cited for trespassing when he refused to leave a park after its posted closing time. While with several others, Davis allegedly was aggressively hostile to a park ranger. The police had to be called. Davis received a 30-day ban from the park — exactly like 14 other people at that park over the past several months. When Davis was seen in the park on multiple occasions afterward, he was given additional warnings and citations, along with a map that highlighted the area he couldn’t visit.

Because Davis kept ignoring repeated requests from law enforcement, he eventually was arrested for trespassing. Those charges are pending in court.

The city has never told Austin Davis to stop feeding the homeless. Nor has he been singled out. The Aris Foundation, a nonprofit that also helps the homeless, received a letter requesting it apply for a permit on the same day as Davis. Aris complied and the permit was granted. It has since been renewed multiple times, each time for a longer period, lowering Aris’ cost. And Loaves and Fishes, made up of local church volunteers, also provides food at Sue’s Espacio, Tempe’s temporary shelter, in cooperation with the city.

Tempe residents are caring and generous. They also rightfully expect clean, safe spaces for recreation, and that the city will prevent mass, uncontrolled, understaffed, and dangerous events that carry the aftermath of illegal drug use, fighting, illegal camping, drinking, discarded syringes, fentanyl, weapons and garbage left behind. That’s why the city has engaged with trained volunteers and charitable organizations that comply with the law and community standards, all as a means to move sometimes very troubled souls from dependence to stability.

Effectively addressing drug addiction, alcoholism, mental illness, and the many other causes of homelessness requires training and skill. It does not require — and indeed is hampered by — enabling activities. The well-meaning and those who pretend to be saintly often end up interfering with legitimate efforts to provide care and pathways toward recovery. Rather than helping the unsheltered, they can expose them to ongoing danger and harm. 

This is the reality Diana Simpson must face if she wants to understand our city, and improve the lives of our unsheltered community members. What she portrayed was fiction.

Hugh Hallman served as a Tempe City Council member from 1998 to 2002 and as mayor from 2004 to 2012. He co-founded many Tempe civic organizations, including the Tempe Veterans Foundation and Tempe Neighbors Helping Neighbors.