Scottsdale City Council continues partnership with Maricopa County
By Terrance Thornton | Digital Free Press
Scottsdale City Council has accepted $408,375 in grant dollars to help offset the administrative costs of providing outreach services to those at-risk or experiencing homelessness at the Vista Del Camino Community Center.
Scottsdale City Council — through unanimous approval Tuesday, June 25, at City Hall, 3939 N. Drinkwater Blvd. — approved both an intergovernmental agreement with the Maricopa County Human Services Department to administer social services to those in need and grant dollars to help shoulder the cost of those services.
“Through this intergovernmental agreement, the Maricopa County Human Services Department will designate Vista del Camino as the local Community Action Program administrator so that Vista may continue to provide CAP funding to Scottsdale area residents,” said Deanna Owens, Scottsdale Human Services manager, in her June 25 report to City Council.
“The CAP is a mechanism to allow funding and programming from several government sources to pass through to eligible Scottsdale residents, specifically to address poverty, the prevention of homelessness, and the empowerment of low-income families and individuals to become self-sufficient. Additionally, this agreement provides $408,375 to support the city’s CAP administrative costs.”
Read the report for yourself, HERE.
The Vista del Camino Community Center, 7700 E. Roosevelt St., operates, among other things, as a senior center and social services hub for residents experiencing homelessness and providing food and economic relief for those who are in crisis, officials there say.
Alongside those services include a longstanding workforce development program older than the building itself.
“The city of Scottsdale began working with the county in 1968, prior to the construction of Vista del Camino, to provide CAP funding to eligible citizens of Scottsdale through the federal Community Action Agency created to combat poverty throughout the United States passed through the
Maricopa County Human Services Department,” Ms. Owens said in her report. “In 2010, the City Council adopted Resolution 8634 formalizing this relationship through an intergovernmental agreement.”
Outreach services funded directly through Maricopa County at Vista Del Camino include:
- Utility payments
- Utility deposit
- Mortgage payment to prevent eviction or foreclosure
- Rent payment to prevent eviction
- First month’s rent payment for those who are homeless
- Rental deposit payment for those who are homeless
Scottsdale City Council continues partnership with Maricopa County
A few days following the City Council approval, the United States Supreme Court Friday, June 28, issued a ruling on the case — Grants Pass v. Johnson — where the high court sided with the city of Grants Pass, Colorado, that among, other things, allows municipalities to fine, ticket or arrest those experiencing homelessness.
“Today’s decision removes Arizona cities’ excuse for failing to enforce the law amid a devastating homelessness crisis that has destroyed countless lives and livelihoods,” the Goldwater Institute statement reads on the recent Supreme Court ruling.
“Leaders in cities like Phoenix have claimed that a Ninth Circuit ruling forbade them from taking action to clean up the streets – and law-abiding property and business owners have paid the price through no fault of their own.”
The Goldwater Institute is a proponent of Prop. 312, which will appear on the November 2024 general election ballot. The proposal would allow property owners to seek reimbursement for costs incurred to mitigate problems caused by homeless encampments.
