City of Tucson Expanding Homeless Shelters to Neighborhoods - Speak UP!
The City is rewriting the zoning code to put shelters in your neighborhood.
Please watch this video
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nhr2RXay_fA (YouTube)
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1046335061740213
The City of Tucson is quietly rewriting its zoning codes to allow homeless shelters and sanctioned outdoor “safe sleeping” camps in areas where they are currently prohibited. With reduced parking, reduced on-site restrictions and a streamlined approval process that cuts you out of it. This will all be done with No vote and no warning!
Before you trust this City to manage this, look at what they already manage:
● Drive down any street - potholes that have been there for years , patched and re-patched while the City brags about road bonds it has spent and can’t show you.
● Look at the medians - weeds waist-high, trees growing out of the sidewalk, dead trees still standing and trash all over.
● Try to use a City park restroom - Locked, Boarded and welded shut. People doing drugs and living in these restrooms. The city can not keep the park restrooms clean
● Stand at a bus shelter after dark, no lighting because of copper theft, people sleeping on the benches, numerous crimes happening and drug paraphernalia at your feet
● Ride the Crime Bus, a fare-free transit system that has become a rolling drug den with a schedule, where drivers are told not to intervene and riders are told to look away and everyone is told that riding the bus is safe
The City cannot keep a restroom open, it can not mow a median, they can not fix a pothole or keep bus stops or riding the bus safe and now they want you to believe that they will competently locate, permit, inspect and police drug permissive shelters and tent camps next to your home and your kids school and that they will “maintain standards for surrounding neighborhoods.” They have an entire track record saying that. The shelter they open next to you will be run exactly the way they run everything else.
Insurance & Compliance
All operators must maintain General Liability ($1M per occurrence/$2M aggregate) and Sexual Abuse and Molestation insurance, naming the City of Tucson as an additional insured. Applicants must also provide proof of property owner consent if they do not own the land.
Read the fine print. The City's own permitting guide requires every shelter operator to carry $1M/$2M general liability insurance AND Sexual Abuse and Molestation insurance — naming the City as an additional insured. Think about what that means. The City knows exactly what they are inviting in. They are protecting themselves from lawsuits. They are not protecting you!
COULD THIS AFFECT YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD?
Did you receive a letter? Probably not, the only letters that were sent out were to properties that would be within 100 feet of one of the new shelters. One of our members shared this letter with us and we Thank You for sharing!
Whether you support these changes, oppose them, or simply want more information, you deserve to know what is happening in your community.
Feedback Session 3
Where: Park Place Mall Central Exhibit Space, 5870 E. Broadway Blvd
When:
● Friday, October 2, 2026, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.
● Saturday, October 3, 2026, from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m.
● Sunday, October 4, 2026, from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m.
RSVP Optional: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/g/wFU8z4z2hH
Community members unable to attend in person are encouraged to join the virtual session or submit written comments to Amanda.Smith@tucsonaz.gov. Feedback gathered during these sessions will inform a draft code amendment, which will be available for public review in the fall. The draft will then go to the Planning Commission for a study session and public hearing, after which the Commission will forward a recommendation to the Mayor and Council for consideration.
Visit the Housing and Homelessness Emergency Shelter Care Code Amendment website for more information.
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You are asking & We are delivering
The Tucson Crime Free Coalition has had a significant number of requests from community members and business owners asking how The City of Tucson works and who to contact with concerns, problems and or questions. We have also found that many residents are unsure of which Ward they live in. To help with this, we have included in this newsletter a City Ward Map so you can easily identify your direct council representatives although we recommend contacting ALL of them with your concerns and questions.
To help residents take action, we have compiled a complete list of the Mayor and City Council along with their contact information. We encourage you to reach out directly and share what you are experiencing. You are more than welcome to include and provide pictures and movies for proof that you have. This can include but is not limited to
● Trespassing on private property
● Encampments
● Fires set on public property
● Street Racing
● Boarded-up or abandoned buildings
● Businesses closing due to on-going crime
● Safety concerns for yourself, your children or grandchildren
● Poor road conditions
● Concerns about the Cities $2,410,000,000 budget and them not being able to control spending
● Free Buses and the problems that has created
● The drug addiction and mental illness problem all over Tucson
We strongly encourage you to email The Mayor and all of the Council, so they can receive a full and accurate picture of what is happening across the whole city and hopefully see that this is not normal. This is one of the most effective ways to communicate concerns - and it ensures you have a record that your voice was heard. We have made this very easy - all you need to do is “copy and paste” all of the email addresses into the To: section of your email.
Copy and Paste these email addresses into the To: section of your email:mayor.romero@tucsonaz.gov, ward1@tucsonaz.gov, ward2@tucsonaz.gov,ward3@tucsonaz.gov, ward4@tucsonaz.gov, ward5@tucsonaz.gov, ward6@tucsonaz.gov, help@tucsoncrimefree.com
There is an interesting article that may help some prepare for the public meetings. Not every city is suicidal.
https://www.governing.com/urban/more-cities-and-states-crack-down-on-homeless-individuals
We have enough trash spread out and left all over the place. Who will pick up after these drug attic criminals… the city and where will this money to build and maintain this all come from…. another tax increase. If they openly do crimes in broad daylight. Then what will they in a city owned freebie entitlement camp. ??? They already are protected wildlife….
Years ago, Lisa Chastain from Gospel Rescue Mission, whio really ought to know, remarked that :“Tucson does not have a homeless problem, Tucson has a drug problem.” This was on a morning radio show. kvoi we believe. This whole notion of having a homeless problem and declaring an emergency is a dangle, a distraction to draw your attention away from a couple things:1) the real problem of crime, 2) the real problem of drugs 3) the lack of good jobs 4) the terrible state of the Tucson economy and 5) the lack of a competent law enforcement unit that aggressively enforces the laws unrestrained by orders from the kings and queens, 6) the existence of a “restorative justice” local prosecutor who undercharges criminal cases, then pleads cases out to reduced charges, 7) the general incompetence of the city kings and queens. Look around:1) there are no students anymore because there are no parents anymore resulting in more homes and rental units, 2) the UofA enrollment is down how much, 23% 3) they keep building dorms now requiring first year students to live in them, (without students who is going to live in these dorms? illegals? 4) how many jobs have we lost this last year, we’ve seen some startling figures? 5)how many strip malls are shut down? 6) how many vacancies do you see in commercial properties as you drive around town? 7) Have you noticed the tremendous increase in number of houses for sale? 8) how much has the population declined in the last year or two? 9) how many rental vacancies are there out there? A couple years ago, the state pushed through legislation requiring cities to set up some type of zones where certain housing would occur- why was there a time limit on that legislation- did they know the population in places like Tucson would start to dwindle? 10) Can your kids or grandkids make a liveable wage in this town? We don’t have pro baseball- we have empty fields and parks? Druggies have taken over everything- there is no place that is safe. Just recently, DPS made 20 stops of people somewhere here in town. Of that 20, 17, that is 85% were arrested-many had outstanding warrants. 85% of your co citizens-people who might be at the gas station when you buy gas, or at the store when you shop. 85% EIGHTY FIVE PERCENT. Do you go out at night? Would you go downtown for a Pizza? Do you have wrought iron on your doors and windows to lock yourself in, because the people who should be locked up are not? We’re finding bodies in backyards( 2700 N. Dodge) (at least years ago, they’d take the bodies out in the desert, now in a backyard in the middle of town?? Tell us the bad guys are afraid of our current kings and queens? We’re finding out many of the people being arrested for violent crimes have recently been arrested for other violent crimes and are released? Everyone who commits a violent crime here turns out to be “incompetent”. No, there is no homeless crisis. It’s a significant drug problem which is destroying the city along with incompetent puppets making decisions about things of which they have no knowledge, and it’s just a distraction. Just social justice warriors who preach a cultural divide who have otherwise no life experience.
This is outrageous! I will definitely contact the mayor’s office. Every time I drive on Camp Lowell/Ft. Lowell, all I see are homeless people doing drugs at the bus stops, passing out at the bus stops, leaving their trash and their shopping carts filled with “stuff” all over the area. Circle K seems to be a favorite stop for them. Not sure why? I’m afraid to stop at any Circle K for gas.
This would appear to violate a state law formerly known as proposition 207. It should be enough to block this ordinance
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