TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — At Brother John’s Beer, Bourbon, and Barbecue in Midtown, neighbors against the STAR Village project chanted in unison.
“Stop STAR Village,” they said together.
The meeting was called by the Tucson Crime Free Coalition. Jessica Allen, one of their members who lives around the project, said the City of Tucson did not let her know about it.
“We weren’t notified even though they said we were notified,” she said.
At the news conference, speakers said the City didn’t include businesses and neighbors in conversations.
“The City only contacted us after they had announced the decision and that’s not the right order of things,” Kevin Daily, the co-founder of the Tucson Crime Free Coalition said.
Conversations about STAR Village, the City of Tucson said, have been ongoing through newsletters, news conferences, community meetings, and directly with neighborhood leaders and businesses.
However, Jack Anderson, the president of the Sugar Hill Neighborhood Association, said that is not true. He was one of the speakers at the meeting on Monday night.
“I have people in the neighborhood right now that are complaining about homeless in our dog park,” Anderson expressed.
STAR Village is a City-sanctioned homeless encampment for women and non-binary identifying people. The City said they will have social services and resources to help them find stable housing.
“It does bring more crime…there’s been drug use, drug sales,” Anderson said.
Since 2020, the City said they’ve been talking with people living in Ward Three about how to handle homelessness. STAR Village, they said, will be supervised.
“They have no history of being able to control these encampments successfully and that’s demonstrated at Hundred Acre and that’s demonstrated at Camp Bravo, which was a total failure,” Daily said.
Daily lives near the project. Instead, he said, the City should open bed space and a treatment facility at the Pima County Jail.
“That truly is a safe setting that could protect people,” he said.
For now neighbors said the City should pause the project to further conversations. Many of them said they will be at the neighborhood meeting with Ward 3 Councilman Kevin Dahl on Wednesday.
“Let’s come together in unity and make some real project progress here,” Anderson said.
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Andrew Christiansen is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before joining the team, Andrew reported in Corpus Christi, Texas for KRIS6 News, Action 10 News and guest reported in Spanish for Telemundo Corpus Christi. Share your story ideas with Andrew by emailing andrew.christiansen@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
