Clearing "The Zone," Phoenix's largest homeless camp on deadline

Maricopa County has been one of the fastest-growing counties in
America for almost a decade. It has about 4.6 million residents.
While downtown Phoenix is rapidly building apartment buildings and
Phoenix and its suburbs are adding new subdivisions, the unhoused
population also has grown. At the beginning of the year, 9,642
people were experiencing homelessness in the county, according
to a yearly attempt to quantify the county's homeless population. A
tent city known as "The Zone" sits just southeast of the Capitol
building in Phoenix. It garnered national attention as the United
States' homeless population grew after pandemic aid dried up. In
"The Zone," more than 1,000 people had set up tents. A judge has
ordered it to be cleared out by the end of this week, giving those
who live there limited time to plan. This week on The Gaggle, a
podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com,
hosts Ron Hansen and Mary Jo Pitzl are joined
by Republic reporter Helen Rummel. Rummel covers housing
insecurity and homelessness, and joins the show to discuss how the
encampment became so large, how other cities may look to Phoenix
for how to handle their crises, and if the city can achieve its
goal on time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
megaphone.fm/adchoices