The Daily Agenda: No honor among thieves
Local nonprofits are now regular victims of property crime… They have to spend money on security, instead of helping people ... Afghan food comes to Tucson.
There was a lot of talk leading up to this year’s city election about crime and homelessness and their effect on the community at large.
It’s impossible to ignore the increasing number of security fences popping up around town, with a larger concentration in specific areas.
Nearly every single property on the stretch of North Oracle Road that runs between Speedway and Grant is surrounded by some type of fencing, with new ones going up on the regular.
There have been four applications filed with the city of Tucson for fences on commercial properties since the start of September, and it’s not just private businesses having to take these measures.
Desiree Cook, founder of the local nonprofit I Am You 360, has received a crash course in the cost of protecting her resources over the past year.
Since she broke ground last March on what will soon be Tucson’s first tiny home village, the construction site has been vandalized multiple times and has had property stolen twice over the last few months.
At first, people were just breaking in to use the portable toilet on the site, cutting through the panels in the chain link fence, which cost $300 to replace each time.
But the activity has since escalated, with thieves breaking through the fence, damaging lumber and stealing ladders, piping, water jugs and more.
Cook has now spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace stolen equipment and sections of fencing over the past 18 months. That’s money that could have been used to purchase windows and doors and help complete the village ahead of or on schedule.
Instead, she’s now raising $150,000 for a secure fence and gate and looking into hiring overnight security guards. With the project roughly four months away from completion, Cook fears what will happen when electricity and appliances are installed and there’s significant value in the items that could be taken.
“It’s the unhoused hurting the unhoused,” Cook said, adding that security footage captured the thieves coming from of and returning to the wash adjacent to the property.
The day after the second theft, Cook and her staff ventured into the wash and found some of the stolen PVC pipe in a shopping cart that had been left behind.
I Am You 360 isn’t the only nonprofit to have been targeted by vandalism or theft. In September, $20,000 in race chairs and equipment used by athletes with physical and mental disabilities was stolen from a nonprofit that promotes inclusion in athletics. Earlier this week, Spreading Threads Clothing Bank was hit by a pair of thieves who items for an upcoming event.
And these aren’t the only examples. Literacy Connects’ campus is now surrounded by a secure fence and other nonprofits around town have beefed up security over the past year.
Cook is hoping to push through the next four months without any additional thefts or other major issues and finish construction on her 10 tiny homes.
“I saw it, but to actually see it is truly amazing,” Cook said of her vision of the project.
When Caitlin stopped by the construction site this week, workers were nailing shingles onto the newly installed roofs while Cook and her staffers awaited a large donation of food and supplies from Tanque Verde Lutheran Church.
Even though the Small Home Experience isn’t up and running, Cook has still managed to help shelter 10 young adults for the past three years in a renovated apartment complex donated by Crest Contracting, which has been working on the Small Home Experience on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Some of the apartment residents will move into the tiny homes when they’re complete, but I Am You 360 has a long list of applicants to consider who are all in need of safe and affordable housing.
The 18-to-22-year-old residents of the 450-square-foot eco-friendly tiny homes will be required to work, receive an education and participate in community service. A portion of their rent will be put into a savings account that the resident can then use for a down payment when they’re ready to move out.
Once the shingles are done, the next step is stucco and paint. Flooring, windows and doors will be the last steps to the houses’ completion, with the security fencing and gate the only part of construction that’s not yet funded.
Cook is hoping for cash or in-kind donations for the fence and gate, which she says is not only needed to protect the property, but also to help residents feel safe.
She’s in talks with the church and food bank across the parking lot from I Am You 360’s office and the tiny homes and hopes they’ll help share the cost of a security guard for the next several months.
And even though there’s finally an end in sight, Cook is already looking to the future, which includes a second tiny house village and eventually, fighting for foster care reform.
“We need to start talking about what we’re not talking about,” she said.
Hard times: Tucson homeless shelters have seen a concerning trend over the past few months: people who find themselves homeless without any history of substance abuse or mental illness, KVOA’s Chorus Nylander reports.
“Now we’re seeing women in their 70s, in their 80s, first-time homeless, people who have been evicted who never imagined they’d be on the street," Nicola Hartmann, CEO of Sister Jose Women's Center, told Nylander.
Taking a closer look: The City of Tucson is amping up enforcement of its commercial rainwater harvesting ordinance, the Arizona Daily Star’s Tony Davis reports. (This is the ordinance we wrote about earlier this week). The city has made progress, but they’re still trying to undo years of neglect. Davis digs into the enforcement statistics, which show 40% of the initial plans reviewed by city staff didn’t meet the ordinance’s requirements. The city also hasn’t said how many new commercial developments are meeting those requirements after they are up and running.
Water cleanup: Tucson is going to get $30 million from the Environmental Protection Agency to deal with PFAS, human-made chemicals linked to cancer, KJZZ’s Fronteras Desk’s Alisa Reznick reports. City of Tucson officials plan to use the money, which came from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to build a water treatment facility on the northwest side. Hopefully, that will allow them to reopen wells they had to close due to PFAS contamination, which is believed to come from firefighting foam used at airports and airbases, including the Tucson airport, which still uses it.
The Tucson Agenda doesn’t use any PFAS and will never cost taxpayers $30 million. Subscribe today!
New addition: Tucson now has an Afghan restaurant, thanks to Enayat Sherzada, a refugee who came to Tucson after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, This is Tucson’s Jamie Donnelly reports. Kabul Corner opened in September and serves authentic Afghan cuisine, made with ingredients shipped from Afghanistan.
“I heard from community members that they wanted an Afghan restaurant here. I used to talk a lot with the military people who got deployed to Afghanistan and they also wanted to try the same food here,” Ritiek Rafi, head of the Tucson Afghan Community, said. “Then when he (Sherzada) came and gave us the idea, me and my partner sat down, talked about it and said OK, it’s time. Let’s do it.”
Searching for the missing: In a heartbreaking tale, the Star’s Emily Bregel accompanied groups of mothers and others as they searched for missing loved ones in Sonora. More than 4,400 people have gone missing in Sonora over the years and mourning family members have taken on the task of finding them without much help from officials.
No dice on better data: The Arizona Department of Education still hasn’t found a way to provide the public with data on the school voucher program, Arizona Public Media’s Hannah Cree reports. The legislative panel designated to oversee the Empowerment Scholarship Account program met this week, but they didn’t shed much light on the program, which is projected to cost $900 million this year. The head of the program said he is working on a public-facing data dashboard.
1.2 million: The number of calls the 911 dispatch center in Tucson handles every year, KGUN’s Adam Klepp reports. The City of Tucson is trying to hire more dispatchers to handle the load.
