Local resident says City of Tucson isn’t cleaning up homeless encampment

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — If you walk or ride your bike on the Loop in Tucson along the Pantano Wash, you might find Su Libby walking or cleaning up trash.

As she looked across the wash, she noticed a homeless encampment. She’s walked past it for years now.

“It’s extremely well hidden. Unless you’re looking for it, you probably won’t see it,” Libby said.

She said it’s filled with people, garbage, and refuse.

She used to volunteer to clean up creeks when she lived in Oregon and she said she saw a lot encampments over there.

“This particular wash is the worst thing I’ve personally seen,” she commented about the wash in Tucson.

She’s worried about the effects the trash around the encampment will have on the environment, so she contacted the City of Tucson in the middle of January, sending them pictures of the trash in and around it.

The City contacted her back and said they did outreach and cleanup on three separate dates.

They told her on December 22 of last year they cleaned up the encampment. Libby said the City told her a few days later on December 29 they attempted outreach to the residents living there.

However, Libby said she didn’t contact the City until January 16 of this year.

She said the City told her on January 19 that they cleaned it up again.

She said she went back to check on it about two days ago and it was still a mess.

“It was obvious that the amount of garbage and campers had in fact increased,” Libby said.

The City of Tucson told KGUN9 they did pick up trash at the encampment, but when they evaluated it, it didn’t qualify to be taken down. They said they also offered shelter to the residents.

However, they didn’t tell KGUN9 why they sent clean-up dates to Libby before she first contacted them.

However, Libby said she’s willing to give them more time to clean it up.

“But they need to know that maybe they need to readjust and go back on their planning,” she said.

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