Clearing "The Zone," Phoenix's largest homeless camp on deadline

Maricopa County has been one of the fastest-growing counties in America for almost a decade. It has about 4.6 million residents. While downtown Phoenix is rapidly building apartment buildings and Phoenix and its suburbs are adding new subdivisions, the unhoused population also has grown.

At the beginning of the year, 9,642 people were experiencing homelessness in the county, according to a yearly attempt to quantify the county's homeless population.

A tent city known as "The Zone" sits just southeast of the Capitol building in Phoenix. It garnered national attention as the United States' homeless population grew after pandemic aid dried up. In "The Zone," more than 1,000 people had set up tents.

A judge has ordered it to be cleared out by the end of this week, giving those who live there limited time to plan.

This week on The Gaggle, a podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, hosts Ron Hansen and Mary Jo Pitzl are joined by Republic reporter Helen Rummel.

Rummel covers housing insecurity and homelessness, and joins the show to discuss how the encampment became so large, how other cities may look to Phoenix for how to handle their crises, and if the city can achieve its goal on time.

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