those persons who are able to work and financial assistance to those persons who are unable to work.4)Develop better public policies and social services to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place. This entails guaranteeing access to local support services in order to prevent “at-risk” families and individuals from becoming homelessness.5)Prevent discrimination by prohibiting laws that discriminate against homeless people, including laws that specifically target homeless individuals or the activities they must engage in because they are homeless (“Homelessness” and “Solutions”).Although the city recognizes that the occurrence of homelessness in Tempe is a growing problem, it has failed to provide ordinances In 1999, the Tempe Community Council, a partnership between the City of Tempe and the United Way that serves to identify and plan for needed social service programs in the community, recognized that current. Per request of Mayor Neil G. Giuliano, a citizen task force was established to study homeless problems and needs for service.The Downtown Tempe Community, an association formed to promote business and quality of life in Tempe, is commonly called upon to deal with the problem of homelessness in the area. The DTC’s most recent initiative, implemented this past October, stems from pressure by local businesses frustrated with the presence of transients in and around their shops; by installing spiked fences on the sitting areas surrounding planters in front of the Tempe Salvation Army, the DTC seeks to prevent homeless people from camping out on the center’s property and to create more public space for pedestrians (Zawicki). While the DTC asserts that it is their job “to solve problems as they arise,” they merely seek to make the problem of homelessness vanish from sight in installing spiked fences around the Salvation Army’s property (Zawicki). The DTC ...
