Phoenix Mulls City Ordinance Restricting Medical Care in Parks

The City of Phoenix is considering an ordinance that would inhibit nonprofits and support services from providing food or medical care to homeless people in city parks. Advocates vociferously oppose the potential measure, stressing that unhoused people could die if they lose access to these critical services.

The draft ordinance under consideration by Phoenix City Council, called the Safe Medical Treatment in Parks Ordinance, would require organizations that want to provide medical services or hand out food in city parks to get a permit from the city. KTAR reports that both the food distribution and medical treatment events would require licensing, insurance and only two organizations per park per month could participate.

The ordinance was originally approved by the City Council in December 2025 and was set to go into effect on March 30, but was delayed. But at the council meeting, dozens of people spoke against the new rule and compelled the city to revise the ordinance, and the revision included the addition of a permitting process for aid distribution. One organizer, Austin Davis, with the nonprofit AZ HUGS told AZ Family that Tempe has similar rules:

This ordinance could be used to halt their operations and people on the streets will die because of that, especially since we’re heading right into the most dangerous time of the year.

Violation would be classified as a Class 1 misdemeanor, but city council members argue that the activities overstretch city resources, leave behind trash and make it difficult for other people to enjoy the parks. One told Fox 10 that they simply didn’t believe parks should be sites of aid distribution at all:

This should not be allowed in a park, any park. It’s not acceptable. We’re trying to get more neighbors and children involved in our parks and the use of drugs is not helping.

Some ASU students hope to humanize the homeless by publishing a book that recounts the stories of unhoused people they personally spoke to while volunteering with Street Medicine Phoenix. University of Arizona medical student Michael Demangone told ASU News that he came up with the idea for the project when volunteering challenged his preconceived assumptions about homeless people:

A lot of people just want to be heard, just want to be loved. And you really have to get to know them to be able to care for them the best in medicine. I think that’s what made me want to learn every patient and their story.