The city had targeted Davis after he’d been unwilling to stop feeding unhoused people without obtaining a special events permit, for which he had applied but was denied. When he kept hosting his feedings anyway, he was charged with a violation of Tempe’s special permits ordinance.
With the court case pending, the city also arrested Davis for trespassing in city parks, forcing volunteers to continue the feedings without him. The drawn-out confrontation left a growing group of residents and volunteers questioning whether Tempe officials truly wanted to help the homeless or simply wanted to make them disappear.
Davis accepted the deal on Sept. 11, according to a press release from AZ Hugs, the organization he founded that hosts the feedings.
The city will drop 34 pending charges against Davis, who will plead guilty to one count of hosting an event without an event permit. He’ll receive a year of unsupervised probation, during which he will be unable to enter any park in Tempe, much less host events in them. Davis also is banned from “acting as an officer of AZ Hugs in hosting any events” in Tempe parks, according to the organization’s press release. And Tempe will fine Davis $1,148 if he fails to complete his probation.
In a written statement provided to Phoenix New Times, the city said the plea deal was the result of weeks of meetings between its officials and Davis.
“Compassionate giving is a quality that the City of Tempe values. As a community, we don’t want anyone to miss a meal or spend a night on the streets,” the statement read. “This case has never been about charitable giving or providing food to the homeless.”
What happens to AZ Hugs’ feedings is uncertain. “We’re figuring it out,” Davis told Phoenix New Times. “It’s kind of uncharted territory. It’s weird that serving the homeless is illegal.” But Davis was heartened that the feedings had continued without him, with residents picking up his slack.
Those dozens of volunteers, including former Tempe Councilmember and state Senate candidate Lauren Kuby, have kept his “Sunday Picnics” going while Davis stays outside of park boundaries. Other neighbors have dropped off water, ice, pizza and other food. On Sept. 8, Davis said, they also brought clothes, dog food, baby powder and plenty of other necessities to the picnic.
“One positive thing that’s come out of all this is we’ve rallied together a coalition of groups, people, folks in the community who want to continue supporting the homeless. So the community — not associated with AZ Hugs — has continued to feed the homeless,” Davis said. "I’m really thankful and grateful for the community keeping that going.”
With Austin Davis unable to participate, community members have continued his Sunday Picnics in his absence.
TJ L'Heureux
‘Tempe is better than this’
That community also showed up to give the Tempe City Council and Mayor Corey Woods an earful at an Aug. 26 meeting, according to the Tempe Tribune.Kuby was among the dozen residents who spoke at the meeting to criticize the city’s heavy-handed campaign against Davis. She pointed out that while Tempe has dogged Davis and AZ Hugs, the state recognizes the organization as a legitimate charitable nonprofit to which it refers people in need. She added that the city should be collaborating with Davis, not trying to punish him into submission.
“It's evident to many in the human services community that unhoused folks respect, love and trust Austin,” Kuby said. “Tempe is better than this. Can we all come together and figure this out? I ask you, please, to drop the charges against Austin.”
Jane Parker, who runs a nonprofit similar to Davis’ called Hope Arizona and has lived in Tempe for 34 years, said she is “not proud of my city because of the way you treat the homeless” and that unhoused people “know Austin, and they trust him, which is why they go to him instead of the city.”
One resident, Mario Martinez, told Woods that the prosecution of Davis “has your evasive fingerprints all over it.” He criticized Woods’ public statements that he was not prosecuting Davis — though the city was.
“I would appreciate it if you're going to prosecute Austin Davis to at least be candid enough, be forthright enough, to say, ‘Yes, we are prosecuting him.’ That's exactly what you're doing with my tax dollars,” Martinez said. “I don't think it should be spent that way, and there is a much better way of handling it than the way you are right now, and it's a disgrace to our community.”
Philip Yates, the president of the Riverside Neighborhood Association near downtown Tempe, said the city needed to consider “how we can help the homeless rather than demonize the people that are willing to spend the time to give to the people that are most in need.”
Two weeks later, the city and Davis reached their plea deal.
"Tempe has made it very clear that mutual aid and the community serving the community is not something they support," said homeless advocate Austin Davis.
TJ L'Heureux
The crime of being homeless
The plea deal closes Tempe’s legal saga with Davis. But he and Tempe — and Tempe and the homeless — are hardly yet on great terms. If anything, Davis said, Tempe police are “ramping up criminalization of the homeless.”Just last week, Davis was cited for trespassing after he spent 10 minutes talking to two unhoused people on a grassy strip near the sidewalk on Scottsdale Road. In a video provided to New Times, one of the responding officers didn’t stop at issuing a citation, going on to deliver a haughty lecture to Davis and the two unhoused people for keeping a pet.
“Why do you have dogs?” the officer said. “If you’re having a hard time feeding yourselves, why do you have two dogs that you have to feed as well as feed yourselves? I have to ask that question — I’m just curious.”
When Davis responded that the officer’s dogs probably “are family to you,” the officer cut him off before implying that the unhoused are responsible for their predicaments.
“A lot of people make decisions on their own why they end up out here, okay?” the officer said.
“A lot of people don’t,” Davis responded. “A lot of people have unforeseen circumstances.”
“Well, I’ve dealt with all kinds of adversity in my life, you know what I mean?” the officer replied before claiming he’d never allow himself to be homeless.
The exchange underscored something Davis has been saying for months — that many Tempe officers seem to believe the unhoused people did something to deserve living on the street. Davis thinks that could explain the city’s aggressive response to his efforts.
“Tempe has made it very clear that mutual aid and the community serving the community is not something they support, which is just terribly unfortunate,” Davis said. “I hope they can also pivot and recognize there is value to this. Maybe this could be an opportunity to step back and reevaluate. I hope. Only time will tell.”
He hopes the city will eventually come around and work in tandem with him, perhaps by sending city service providers to his events. At the very least, though, he thinks the city should let up a bit with its enforcement, which he said does more harm than good.
“It has been shown time and again that criminalizing homelessness does not solve it and it does not help people move out of their complicated situations,” Davis said. “People end up incarcerated or dead, and our most vulnerable neighbors deserve a lot more than that.”
