Grand Canyon Times

Arizona voters have overwhelmingly approved Prop 312 at the ballot box, meaning relief is finally on the way for Arizonans hurt by government’s failure to address the state’s rampant homelessness crisis. Designed by the Goldwater Institute, this first-in-the-nation reform compensates Arizonans whose livelihoods are being destroyed as municipalities refuse to enforce the law.

“The voters sent a clear message this election cycle: they demand their tax dollars be used to enforce the law and address rampant homelessness,” Goldwater President and CEO Victor Riches said. “Now that Prop 312 is law, business and property owners will not be left holding the bag when municipalities refuse to do their job.”

Under Prop 312, property owners who have been forced to shoulder mitigation expenses due to a municipality’s purposeful failure to enforce nuisance regulations can receive a refund for damages up to the amount of their property tax liability.

The reform garnered a large coalition of support from residents, property owners, and business owners who have been hurt not only by their government’s failure to enforce the law, but by the government’s proclivity for shunting homeless people into unofficial open-air shelters like “The Zone” in Phoenix.

Joe and Debbie Faillace owned and operated Old Station Sub Shop in downtown Phoenix for nearly four decades until the deteriorating homelessness crisis forced them to sell the business. “We have felt that there is no other option for us because of what the government has forced upon us,” Joe and Debbie said.

“We had no clue what to expect when we would drive into work every morning. Many days we would arrive to find our shop (located in the heart of The Zone) broken into and vandalized, people passed out or overdosed on our patio, urine and feces scattered across our parking lot and entryway.” Prop 312, they added, “gives us hope that not only will the city of Phoenix not allow another ‘Zone’ to happen, but that even it does, the government will have to compensate small businesses like ours for failing to protect our rights.”

All around the state, local governments have spent months and years refusing to address their homelessness crises by enforcing the law. The result: law and order give way to death and destruction as violent crime, public drug use, and vandalism run rampant in these lawless homeless encampments.

If the government isn’t going to solve the problem, Arizonans need to take matters into their own hands. Now, they can.

Read more about what Goldwater is doing to address homelessness here.