ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥

STAR Village, an outdoor safe-sleeping site on vacant city-owned land along West Grant Road between North Sixth and North Stone avenues, will begin operating in October, the city announced last month. STAR, short for Serving Together and Rebuilding, will not only offer safe outdoor sleeping for 25 women and non-binary people, but it will connect those staying there to resources and services. The goal, the city says, is moving people into permanent housing.

While the project was touted by elected officials and the local nonprofits, a sanctioned campsite off a busy Tucson thoroughfare has prompted nearby neighbors to start an online petition opposing the project. The growing opposition comes just as staff from City Councilman Kevin Dahl prepare for a community meeting less than two weeks before STAR Village is set to open.

As of Friday afternoon, the non-binding petition had collected 225 signatures since it was created Monday.

Lindsey Dooley, who started the petition, owns Tucson Tattoo along with her husband Derek. Their business is located on West Grant, less than a half-mile west of the proposed sleeping site. The couple also are the president and vice president of the , respectively. Balboa Heights is bounded by West Grant Road to the south and North Stone Avenue to the east.

Their opposition isn’t a “not-in-my-backyard situation,� the Dooleys say. Their opposition is more about the way the city approached this project.

‘We feel blindsided’

“(The city) feels like they can just get away with this because nobody’s going to push back, and that really bothers me,� Derek Dooley said. “We have a representative from Ward 3 that comes to all of our (neighborhood association) meetings, and we just had a meeting a few weeks ago. No mention was made ... part of our feeling on this, is we felt like we were not even advised or considered in the decision, because they just wanted it to happen, regardless of what we thought.�

When the Balboa Heights neighborhood received a mini-grant from the city to construct traffic circles in their neighborhood, Lindsey Dooley said she went door-to-door to get the required 60% of the neighborhood to sign a petition supporting the project. But the city didn’t do that when it came to informing residents and businesses about STAR Village, which they learned about from news articles.

“So you require 60% of the neighborhood to approve traffic circles, but this, they don’t need approval. You don’t even have to tell anybody. And I had gone door-to-door to the neighbors ... (where STAR Village will be), and none of them knew,� she said. “It’s kind of like an ‘ask for forgiveness rather than permission’ kind of situation.�

“We want (the city) to know that this is a neighborhood that cares ... this isn’t the neighborhood that just has thrown their hands up and accepted defeat, or is going to let it go to all hell. We care,� Lindsey said. “We want to make sure that the city knows that we are paying attention. We do care. We deserve a voice in this. We feel blindsided.�

Councilman Kevin Dahl, who represents the area, said the STAR Village pilot project was spearheaded by council members Lane Santa Cruz and Karin Uhlich. The site in question, he said, was chosen because it rests on a major transit line and is “as separate from neighborhoods� as possible.

“This property was identified, and I agreed to its location,� Dahl said. “My goal is to twofold: to get people in a safe place with the support and services they need while at the same time giving neighbors in my Ward relief from having people camping in their ally ways and parks. The only way this pilot will work is if the surrounding businesses and neighborhoods feel it is beneficial to them.�

“While I am supportive of the concept and want it to be successful, other than representing the ward it will be located in, I am not leading this push,� Dahl said.

Dahl said his office has been fielding concerns from residents since the pilot project was announced. To his knowledge, it was announced “before any outreach was done,� Dahl said.

If STAR Village doesn’t work out for nearby residents, Dahl said, he’ll push to get it shut down.

“My preference would have been to let neighbors be the first to know but moving forward we need to make this work because the problem is getting worse,� he said. “If the STAR sight creates problems as opposed to helping alleviate them, it will not work, and I will ask for it to be removed ... If it doesn’t work at this site, it won’t work at any other site. So, this one will make or break the idea. And if this pilot works, the city can do it at other locations, in other wards.�

‘We’re not being a part of the planning’

STAR Village will be located within the .

Jack Anderson Jr., the neighborhood association president, said he feels his neighbors are generally against the idea of opening the sleeping site.

He said the city is inconsistent in its handling of STAR Village compared to the development of a separate project in the neighborhood, Sugar Hill on Stone, a 66-unit affordable housing development that broke ground last month.

Residents had the opportunity to get involved in the development of the housing project, but everyone was caught by surprise when STAR Village was announced last month, Anderson said.

“They’re not happy ... that’s usually the norm on this side of town. We don’t find out until it’s pretty much been decided,� Anderson said.

Anderson said when he first heard about STAR Village his main concern was security, not only for residents in his neighborhood, but also for those who would be sleeping there.

But once he learned it consisted of outdoor sleeping and that is asking for donations of two-person tents, and other items, “I would be totally against that,� he said.

“Everything is stuck over in this area, this trend. We’re trying to lift ourselves up already, and if it really helps, okay, but in-terms of aesthetics it looks bad. And right now it looks bad,� Anderson said.

“I’m living on faith and hope when it comes to this, but we’ve been neglected, and it needs to stop.�

That feeling was echoed by Sharon Snyder, a fellow Sugar Hill resident.

Doris J. Thompson Park and the dog park across the street on North Sixth Avenue, have become hotspots for homeless people over the years, Snyder said, and the neighborhood hasn’t had any luck getting the city to help mitigate the problem.

Snyder said that over the course of living in Sugar Hill for close to a decade, her quality of life has deteriorated tremendously.

She said that homeless people have been starting fires in vacant houses, that she’s been threatened by others in front of her home and elsewhere in the neighborhood, and that trying to use public spaces like the park and the dog park have become unsafe.

“My quality of life is (awful) right now,� Snyder said. “In fact, I can’t actually say that because I’ve had three weeks of this homeless lady not throwing rocks at dogs and threatening other people in the dog park, so the last three weeks have been good.�

When Snyder learned about STAR Village, she said it felt like her neighborhood was being targeted for all the complaining she and her neighbors have done in recent years to try and get the growing homelessness problem under control. Soon after finding out Snyder signed the petition, she said.

“My solution is put an encampment out on Wilmot near the prison. Make it so that they can move them there. Create a village, create a city. Create whatever you need to create so they can live there, and the people that want to be safe can live in an area ... instead of trying to make them live with us, because (homelessness) is a counter culture.�

“We will never see eye to eye. They will constantly be doing things that will ruin our lifestyle and quality of life ... (The city) is not paying attention to what the residents want,� Snyder said. “I’ve lived in Oro Valley, I’ve lived on the east side of town. I’ve lived further north, on Campbell (Avenue), but I have never seen a neighborhood so poorly treated as Sugar Hill ... Sugar Hill is the scapegoat.�