Negotiators are discussing the future of the free trade deal that keeps all the produce crossing the border tariff free. Looking to shore up its water supply as Colorado River cuts loom, Cave Creek is finalizing a water agreement with Peoria. The Tucson Unified School District has approved a nearly $800-million budget proposal for the next fiscal year. Plus the latest tribal natural resources, metro Phoenix, business, and health news.
Transcript
TIARA VIAN: This is KJZZ, your news and information station in Phoenix and across Arizona. I'm Tiara Vian, and here are this week's stories you don't want to miss. This is the podcast that's designed to catch you up on some highlights from around the region. Thanks for listening. Here are a few of the stories for the week of June 15th, 2026.
This past weekend marked the 60th anniversary of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that originated with the Phoenix Police Department. Ernesto Miranda confessed to kidnapping and sexual assault, but justices ruled that detectives should have told him certain information first. Matthew Casey reports.
MATTHEW CASEY: Over the decades, Miranda warnings have been lines in TV shows, such as Law & Order, Dexter, and Breaking Bad.
TV SHOW CLIP: You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Do you understand? Anything you say or do can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney and have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you at the government's expense.
MATTHEW CASEY: The case from which those words came was assigned to the late Carroll Cooley. He'd only been a Phoenix police detective for a short time in 1963, but tracked a suspect down in Mesa with only a partial license plate to go on. Here's Cooley talking about the case with KJZZ in 2016.
CARROLL COOLEY: And we were suspicious, his his criminal record indicated that he had a problem with the police in a number of areas. That's not enough to arrest a guy for.
MATTHEW CASEY: The guy was Ernesto Miranda. Cooley convinced his suspect to ride downtown and talk about a police matter. Cooley preferred to not discuss it in front of Miranda's wife and children.
CARROLL COOLEY: He voluntarily came to the police department. He was not under arrest. He wasn't in handcuffs.
MATTHEW CASEY: At Phoenix Police Headquarters, which was in what's now known as the Old Courthouse, victims identified Miranda, but not positively at first.
CARROLL COOLEY: So we went back in and talked to him after the lineup. At that point, he asked us, "How did I do?" And I said, "You didn't do so good, Ernie." He says, "Well, I guess I better tell you about it." And I said, "Yeah, I think you should." So he told us about it and wrote the confession.
MATTHEW CASEY: That confession was thrown out in 1966 by the Supreme Court, which ruled that police have to inform people of their Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights when they're in custody. Cooley said Miranda wasn't being held and he was told on the ride downtown that he didn't have to talk.
CARROLL COOLEY: We were nothing but good guys. We had nothing on him. We had a car seen a week later, that doesn't amount to probable cause.
MATTHEW CASEY: Miranda was re-convicted. Cooley died in 2023, about a year before the U.S. Justice Department released a civil rights investigation of Phoenix Police. Among the findings in the report, since clawed back by the Trump administration, was that officers routinely violated Miranda rules.
BENJAMIN TAYLOR: The justice system works when you have judges, defense attorneys, police, and prosecutors all being ethical and doing the right thing.
MATTHEW CASEY: Phoenix attorney Benjamin Taylor says one of the first things he checks is if his clients were told their Miranda rights.
BENJAMIN TAYLOR: Uh if the police don't give the Miranda rights to a person who is being questioned and being held in their custody, the case could be dismissed or evidence could be suppressed.
MATTHEW CASEY: In its report, the Justice Department said investigators looked at multiple incidents in which Phoenix Police questioned children without telling them their rights.
BENJAMIN TAYLOR: Ultimately, you have to give Miranda warnings, and you have to let the child know that they have a right to even speak to their parent, too.
MATTHEW CASEY: The Miranda decision changed policing in the U.S. More locally, the Justice Department findings drew a wave of police reform ordered by the Phoenix City Council. Most jobs have been completed, and some are ongoing. One still in the works is a youth interaction policy expected to go live this fall. Assistant Chief Jeff Benza recently told the Council:
JEFF BENZA: The policy is to focus on the development of our youth and to teach our employees to deal with youth appropriately and speak with them appropriately.
MATTHEW CASEY: Benza also said that starting later this year, police report data is going to be monitored by a performance compliance team that will be looking for signs of unconstitutional policing. At the same meeting, Chief Matt Giordano told the Council he's working on a three-year strategy for the department starting in 2027.
MATT GIORDANO: This plan will integrate lessons learned from the U.S. Department of Justice investigation, ensuring that the department's future direction is informed by a clear understanding of past issues and a commitment to meaningful and lasting improvement.
MATTHEW CASEY: Summarized in the plan will be years of reforms before the Justice Department came to town. Two years after its report and 60 years after Miranda, Phoenix Police keep evolving. Matthew Casey, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
TIARA VIAN: In Fronteras News.
Swaths of green punctuate the desert off the highway leading through Mexico toward Nogales, Arizona. Fresh produce worth billions of dollars a year is constantly on the move across the Arizona-Mexico border. Now, negotiators are discussing the future of the free trade deal that keeps it all tariff-free. From the Fronteras Desk in Hermosillo, Nina Kravinsky has more.
NINA KRAVINSKY: It's shady under a canopy of vines at the Pozo Manuel table grape vineyard north of Hermosillo. Jose Manuel Chavez, who leads a group of field workers harvesting these fruits, shows me how he perfects a freshly picked bunch of pale green grapes.
JOSE MANUEL CHAVEZ: [Speaking Spanish]
NINA KRAVINSKY: He snips off any grapes that have sun damage. As temperatures slide toward 100 degrees, workers sweat even under the shade of the grapevines overhead. There are rows and rows of vines like this on this 1,400-acre vineyard. It's one of Sonora's largest, in a state where table grape production is big, big business. During the harvest season, Pozo Manuel can pack up to 60,000 boxes of grapes a day—the vast majority destined for the U.S.
ALEJANDRO VILLASENOR: We send grapes to Costco and Target and Walmart and Sam's and Whole Foods.
NINA KRAVINSKY: Alejandro Villasenor oversees production and says the grapes dangling on the vine above us will most likely be across the border in Arizona by tomorrow. From there, they'll be shipped to different parts of the U.S.
ALEJANDRO VILLASENOR: We are harvesting in a period of time of the year where there's nobody harvesting but us.
NINA KRAVINSKY: Sliding into a U.S. market hungry for grapes in the weeks before California starts producing has allowed this operation to grow. At the peak of the season, more than a thousand migrant workers from further south in Mexico live here to tend the fields. Last year, more than $275 million worth of fresh grapes passed from Mexico into Arizona. Tariff-free, thanks to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal that the first Trump administration negotiated to replace NAFTA. Now, USMCA is up for its first mandated review, six years after going into effect.
DONALD TRUMP: I don't know that I'm going to renew it because, to be honest with you, United States does much better. Hey, we don't need anything that Canada has, we don't need anything that Mexico has, but they need everything that we have.
NINA KRAVINSKY: That was President Trump last week, ahead of a July 1st deadline for the countries to decide whether they'll stay in the trade pact, make changes, or withdraw completely. Three decades of free trade between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada have shaped how Americans eat, says agricultural economist Daniel Sumner.
DANIEL SUMNER: Canned fruits in the United States, which have gone way downhill, whether it's peaches or pears or you name it, because people have access to fresh berries and other fresh fruits year-round, grapes year-round.
NINA KRAVINSKY: The USMCA is now likely to go into months, if not years, of negotiation. Farmers are used to dealing with a certain level of uncertainty, like weather and consumer demands.
DANIEL SUMNER: The political uncertainty is harder, and right now we're dealing with a set of politicians that are seemingly unpredictable or or maybe even creating uncertainty on purpose.
NINA KRAVINSKY: These negotiations are happening at a tense time for the U.S. and Mexico politically. The U.S. recently indicted several Mexican officials accused of aiding drug cartels, and Trump has made cracking down on criminal groups in Mexico a political goal.
JAIME CHAMBERLAIN: Mexico and Canada have to consider that every single thing that comes out of the administration's mouth right now is extremely important and they should take very, very seriously.
NINA KRAVINSKY: Jaime Chamberlain is a produce distributor in Nogales, Arizona, who buys produce from Mexico to distribute in the U.S. While trade negotiations could be a way to get more than just a good price on table grapes, Chamberlain says ultimately, the U.S. and Mexico still need each other.
JAIME CHAMBERLAIN: We cannot feed our own domestic population. We need each other to feed each other.
NINA KRAVINSKY: Back at Pozo Manuel, Villasenor agrees that the U.S. and Mexico are too intertwined to fully extract from one another. But tariffs would likely mean higher prices.
ALEJANDRO VILLASENOR: The ones that are going to suffer that will be the consumers, sorry, really.
NINA KRAVINSKY: For now, he says his focus is on taking care of these plants.
ALEJANDRO VILLASENOR: We have a good product here, and there's not going to be a big problem if we are doing our best.
NINA KRAVINSKY: Nearby, a worker snaps a sweet green grape and pops it into his mouth. Chances are by nightfall, the rest of the bunch will be at the border. Nina Kravinsky, KJZZ News, Hermosillo.
TIARA VIAN: And this is the stories you don't want to miss podcast. Thanks for listening.
UNNAMED ANNOUNCER: Rio Salado College in partnership with ASU and Penn State University is offering a free 12-week semiconductor manufacturing training. The next session begins August 24th. More information at riosalado.edu/veterantraining.
TIARA VIAN: In tribal natural resources.
An Arizona tribe along the southern border has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Department of Homeland Security. Gabriel Pietrorazio has the details.
GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: The Tohono O'odham Nation has submitted an injunction to halt the Trump administration from looking to build a wall along its 62-mile boundary with Mexico. According to the complaint, the administration plans to solicit contracts for construction on sovereign lands without the tribe's consent.
VERLEN JOSE: We would prefer not to file this lawsuit and instead use these resources for our people.
GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: That's Tohono O'odham Chairman Verlen Jose in a social media message.
VERLEN JOSE: And it is our hope DHS will reconsider their plans once they see the strength of our arguments. However, at this point, we have been left with no other choices.
GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO: Gabriel Pietrorazio, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
TIARA VIAN: In water news.
Looking to shore up its water supply as Colorado River cuts loom, Cave Creek is finalizing a water agreement with Peoria. Camryn Sanchez reports.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: Cave Creek gets nearly all of its water from the Colorado River through the Central Arizona Project canal system. The town has also paid to store water in a West Valley aquifer the town can't really access. So, Cave Creek is letting Peoria use some of its stored water in exchange for Peoria's CAP water. Cave Creek Utilities Director, Sean Cruzweisner:
SEAN CRUZWEISNER: It gives us a lot of security for the next few years in order for us to evaluate and find the next long-term short water resources for the town. You know, having these in place is a huge thing, and we've been working on it as staff and our consultant team for over two years now to get to this point.
CAMRYN SANCHEZ: The Peoria City Council has already signed off on the deal, and the Cave Creek Town Council will vote on the agreement next week. Cruzweisner says Cave Creek is looking to finalize a similar agreement with Surprise. Camryn Sanchez, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
TIARA VIAN: In business news.
In a unanimous ruling, the Arizona Court of Appeals overturned a controversial fee on Arizona Public Service customers who have solar panels on their homes. Wayne Schutsky reports.
WAYNE SCHUTSKY: When the Arizona Corporation Commission approved an APS rate hike two years ago, it also let the utility charge solar customers an extra fee to cover what it called extra costs to provide backup power to those residents. But a three-judge appeals court panel found that APS never actually asked for the fee as part of its rate increase request. That violated the due process rights of solar advocacy groups and customers opposed to the charge because they weren't even informed the solar fee was on the table or given a fair opportunity to state their case. The judges also found APS never provided evidence that solar customers are responsible for increased costs. Wayne Schutsky, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
TIARA VIAN: In health news.
Voices of Arizona is a special segment where we spotlight everyday Arizonans who help make our state an extraordinary place to live. In this latest story, Jill Ryan introduces a Phoenix teen who recently broke several national para-swimming records, and her sight is set on the 2028 Para-Olympics.
JILL RYAN: Before most babies learn to crawl, Josie Dolan was already getting used to the pool. Her parents signed her up for the Hubbard Swim School as an infant, and from there onto the Scottsdale Aquatic Club. Josie has spent all 15 years of her life so far deepening her love for the water.
JOSIE DOLAN: In 2024, I didn't really know if I wanted to go to the Para-Olympics, but I was invited to the Para-Olympic trials, and that was a really big turning point. So, I sort of set a little goal in my mind to get to 2028.
JILL RYAN: The competitive swimmer practices seven days a week with private coaching on Sundays.
JOSIE DOLAN: Focus on technique in 2025. Right now, I'm focusing on more endurance and speed. Um next year, I want to focus a little bit more on technique and my diving especially.
JILL RYAN: With her disability, it's not physically possible for Josie to jump. As a result, her dives can slow her down at the starting block.
JOSIE DOLAN: I have spastic hemiplegia cerebral palsy, which means that half of my body is affected, and I have the right side of my body, and I have muscle tightness and muscle spasms occur quite often, and it makes my muscles weaker on the right side of my body, so it throws off my balance.
JILL RYAN: Josie was not always a para-swimmer. For much of her childhood, she and her family did not even know she had a disability. Leanne Dolan, Josie's mom, just knew something was wrong.
LEANNE DOLAN: Josie's diagnosis was considered pretty late.
JILL RYAN: She said Josie walked a little later than other toddlers. She would fall down a lot, she would drop things, run only on her tiptoes. And they would bring it up every year at the pediatrician.
LEANNE DOLAN: And it was pretty much dismissed. Like, our concerns were dismissed.
JILL RYAN: They weren't sent to a specialist until Josie was nine, but answers were delayed again. It was 2020 and the COVID pandemic had shut down the world.
LEANNE DOLAN: When you don't know what's going down and your kid is just falling over and very tipsy and kind of clumsy, they drop things with their right hand all the time, that's scary.
JILL RYAN: Once they learned what was happening, Leanne said it became pretty easy to deal with.
LEANNE DOLAN: So, I'm I was so happy that she had been in the pool the entire time because that's where she belongs. Like, that's she can't hurt herself in the pool. She can just go fast.
JILL RYAN: But obstacles remained.
LEANNE DOLAN: She doesn't know where her leg is in space at any time. And so, what was happening is she was getting disqualified a lot doing breaststroke because her leg didn't work the way that other legs worked, and so her kick wasn't correct.
JILL RYAN: Enter one of Josie's coaches, Laurel Hill, with Scottsdale Aquatic Club.
LAUREL HILL: She walks with a brace, but she can't um flex her right foot, and you have to have flexion in the breaststroke kick. So, it's not an issue for um butterfly, backstroke, or freestyle because your foot is pointed anyway.
JILL RYAN: Hill met Josie about a year after she was diagnosed, and that's when Josie first heard that maybe she, one day, could be a Para-Olympian.
LAUREL HILL: I really feel she's on the path to 2028, and I would be so excited to be cheering her on, probably on TV because those tickets are wicked expensive.
JILL RYAN: Hill worked with Josie on specifically her breaststroke for a year and a half, first trying to make the kick correct, then pivoting to show intent, which para-swimming rules allow. Her work has paid off. Josie's broken three national para-swimming records this year, all in breaststroke.
JOSIE DOLAN: And it just moved up to my best stroke. And so like, if you told me that I would have broken an American record in breaststroke like two years ago, I would have not I would have not believed you.
JILL RYAN: Now she says it's just about continuing to get better, network, and hopefully find herself competing for gold in the LA 28 Para-Olympic Games. Jill Ryan, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
TIARA VIAN: And this is the stories you don't want to miss podcast. In education news.
The Tucson Unified School District has approved a nearly $800 million budget proposal for the next fiscal year. As Bridget Dowd reports, the district has been trying to agree on where to make cuts as it faces a 2% decrease in enrollment.
BRIDGET DOWD: The district is projected to have a $25 million budget deficit by 2030 and has been identified as a high financial risk district by the Arizona Auditor General. Earlier this year, the board approved about $7 million in budget reductions. Chief Financial Officer Ricky Hernandez says a $45 million voter-approved override is helping them for now, but:
RICKY HERNANDEZ: There will need to be some additional cuts that will need to happen because unless the unless the enrollment levels out, right? You know, that is still the number one factor for why we're losing.
BRIDGET DOWD: The district is also considering closing or consolidating some schools to save more money in the future. Several districts across the state have closed schools due to similar enrollment challenges. Bridget Dowd, KJZZ News, Phoenix.
TIARA VIAN: And finally from KJZZ's The Show.
Nearly three years after the city of Phoenix cleared out "The Zone," there's more to the area. Here is co-host Lauren Gilger.
LAUREN GILGER: Well now, concerns are rising that "The Zone" is back, or maybe that it never really went away anywhere. So, I went down there on a recent Friday morning to find out. I'm walking around down here about 7:30 a.m. and people are getting cleared out. Police officers asking folks to leave.
DEVONTE CHANDLER: Some people prepare early in the morning. Some people get up 3:00, 4:00 in the morning just to get their stuff together and then start moving about 5:00 in the morning, 6:00 in the morning.
LAUREN GILGER: That's Devonte Chandler. I met him sitting with his girlfriend and a few other folks along a red, white, and blue painted building on West Madison Street that morning. People move out at 5:00 and 6:00 because they're going to have to?
DEVONTE CHANDLER: Yeah, and if if you don't, then, I mean, you get arrested. I I ticket, cited, arrested.
LAUREN GILGER: Do you know a lot of people down here who have those tickets piling up?
DEVONTE CHANDLER: No, they're all in jail.
LAUREN GILGER: Chandler and the people with him were certainly not the only people on the streets surrounding the Human Services Campus in downtown Phoenix that morning. Though, as he said, they were mostly packing up and moving out. Police cars were driving slowly up and down the streets telling people to move on over their loudspeakers. Cleanup crews were picking up trash and power-washing the sidewalks. So, where do you guys go when they clear you out?
DEVONTE CHANDLER: Parks, like anywhere. All right, when they get done, like people will walk to the front, and by that time, they'll get done, and people will go back over there slowly.
LAUREN GILGER: Are there encampments set up here most of the time now? Like, tents and stuff?
DEVONTE CHANDLER: No, you don't see a lot of tents. You can't have tents up, you can't have tarps. Um-hum.
LAUREN GILGER: Chandler told me he's been homeless for four years, but lately he's been living in the city's new Safe Outdoor Space where you can set up a tent in the shade and keep your things safely. You like it in there?
DEVONTE CHANDLER: I mean, it's better than having to wake up every time to stuff getting stolen, to on the streets. It's better than nothing.
LAUREN GILGER: The city just announced it wants to continue operating the so-called SOS for another four years, but Chandler told me he can't be with his significant other there, so he spends his days elsewhere. So, would you say "The Zone" is back?
DEVONTE CHANDLER: No, "The Zone" "The Zone" is getting smaller and smaller. Yeah, that's I would say that. "The Zone" is getting smaller and smaller, clearer and clearer, and yeah. Yeah. I mean, honestly, Phoenix is just going to have homeless people everywhere. Once they clear this out, everyone's just stretching back out to farther and farther. They clear out the parks, people are going to go farther and farther. There There is only There is only so much that that they can do and so much we can do, you know what I mean? Because there's lists. You have to call 211 to get on a list, you go here to get on a list, you go to the Heat Relief, you get on a list. No matter what, people are going to wait. And the people are waiting who don't have housing, where are they going to go to wait? What are they going to do waiting? What what help are they getting waiting, right? No one's getting any help waiting.
LAUREN GILGER: So there's one view from someone on the street in the so-called "Zone." It's getting smaller, but it's just spreading around the homeless population. So I also took the question to Scott Hall, Deputy Director of the City of Phoenix's Office of Homeless Solutions. Is "The Zone" back?
SCOTT HALL: Yeah, well, first I'd say, you know, do people understand what that area is?
LAUREN GILGER: "The Zone" surrounds the CASS campus, the city's sprawling, centralized homeless services campus where folks can get three meals a day, shelter beds, medical and dental care, case management, and more.
SCOTT HALL: So, you're always going to have walk-up traffic or people coming up to receive those services.
LAUREN GILGER: According to a June 3rd count from the Keys to Change outreach team, there were 283 people unsheltered on the street outside of the campus that morning. And in the shelter inside? 900 people slept each night. So, while Scott Hall doesn't like calling it "The Zone," he says no, it's not back.
SCOTT HALL: By no means are large encampments back or the thousand-person encampment back that was there three years ago. We're out there seven days a week doing outreach. My team's out there five days a week with them, engaging with people, trying to get people into services and into heat relief, uh and to accept those services, and PD's out there on a daily basis enforcing any kind of criminal activity.
LAUREN GILGER: Hall said they've actually upped the number of days their cleaning crews are out there in the mornings, and they're steadily seeing a decrease in the number of people staying around the campus. But as long as all of the services are right there, they're still coming. Is this something that, you know, is is has ever stopped in that area since, you know, the lawsuit happened and "The Zone" was quote-unquote cleared out?
SCOTT HALL: Yeah, it has not stopped.
LAUREN GILGER: Hi, excuse me, do you live here? Hi, I'm Lauren Gilger, I'm with KJZZ News. What's your name?
JOEL COPELAND: Joel Copeland.
LAUREN GILGER: Joel Copeland owns an art gallery right in the middle of "The Zone." He and his wife live above it. I ran into him as he was going to roll his trash can inside the fence that surrounds his property that morning. So, about 7:30 or so, everyone's about cleared out right now?
JOEL COPELAND: Yeah, it was kind of late. I I thought that they would be but, um, I think they're just taking a little it's Friday. Yeah, yeah.
LAUREN GILGER: Copeland was one of the business owners who filed the lawsuit against the city of Phoenix that forced the cleanup of "The Zone." But he's also driven folks who live there to doctor's appointments and packed up their belongings in the back of his pickup truck to help them move in when they finally get housing.
JOEL COPELAND: We've become friends. I I know their families, I know their children, I know, you know, um, we're part of their they're our neighbors.
LAUREN GILGER: He's seen it all outside his window here, from deadly fights to deadly overdoses to incredible acts of compassion. And he doesn't really blame the city for the people who are still here since the cleanup.
JOEL COPELAND: They're trying as hard as they can, it's just that the situation is so desperate.
LAUREN GILGER: But, he told me, he still thinks more needs to be done.
JOEL COPELAND: They shouldn't be sitting here on the street. There should be um adequate shelter for them, there needs to be supervised shelter for them, there needs to be mental health care, there needs to be all kinds of things that they're doing, just not enough.
LAUREN GILGER: Just not enough.
JOEL COPELAND: The The flood is too big. And uh and it needs to be spread out because every everybody can't come down here to one big dinosaur of a of um shelter and help. And it should be several shelters all throughout the metropolitan area that that should be triaged and have specific things for people to go to. And nobody should be pooping in a bucket and and pouring it down the storm drains.
LAUREN GILGER: I'm sure you know that that is a a long and ongoing battle in the in the city and in the valley to get, you know, to spread the wealth a little bit when it comes to homeless services, right?
JOEL COPELAND: Absolutely. And, you know, I mean, here we sit six blocks from the state capitol and six blocks from city hall. And why this happened here, I just can't believe that that it was even allowed to to become right here in the in the heart of downtown.
LAUREN GILGER: Copeland is a painter, classically trained, and sometimes he asks the folks outside his gallery to sit for him. He listens to their stories, he tells them his.
JOEL COPELAND: I try to paint them beautifully. You know, so it's a gritty subject, but it's painted beautifully. So, it's kind of, you know, pretty gritty.
LAUREN GILGER: [Laughs] Could you show me one? Would that be okay? Thank you.
JOEL COPELAND: All right.
[footsteps]
LAUREN GILGER: Oh wow, yeah, this is quite a studio space! [Laughs] There are paintings on the wall in gold frames everywhere, piles of canvases up. This is huge! They look like scenes out of like a like an old kind of Renaissance painting or something, but they're of these folks right outside here in "The Zone."
JOEL COPELAND: I have studied the the um methods and materials of the old masters, and I try to put it to a contemporary use.
LAUREN GILGER: What's this one? She's got a a puppy here, and there are some empty bottles lying on the ground under a palm tree.
JOEL COPELAND: That's the shade of one palm. You know, so it's it can be hilarious when there's a a palm tree and it gives about 16 inches of shade and everybody's standing in the shade. You know? Or sitting underneath one one palm tree. And here's Sterling, he's from San Carlos. I've taken him up to the reservation several times, met his family. And to me, it's just, you know, it's interesting as can be to be up there and be accepted by everybody. Yeah. And to, you know, go to the the center of town and buy stuff and it's just it's it's remarkable for me to to have the opportunity to to have met Sterling to be able to go up to San Carlos and become involved with with uh their community.
LAUREN GILGER: The San Carlos Apache Reservation is what, like 3 and a half hours from here?
JOEL COPELAND: Oh, not that far. You know, maybe two.
LAUREN GILGER: Still, it's a long drive.
JOEL COPELAND: Yeah, that's all right.
LAUREN GILGER: So, you're willing to, it sounds like, really go out of your way to get to know these people, to help them, to bring them home.
JOEL COPELAND: You should just talk to my wife. Yeah, I'm I'm the guy that helps, and people come all the time, and it can be exhausting because there's only so much of you. And you give a piece away and then you got to try and re-balance.
LAUREN GILGER: Do you ever feel like you re-balance?
JOEL COPELAND: Um, you just keep going. Whatever presents itself to you, you have to deal with in whatever way you can. You know, and sometimes you have to say no, sometimes you just say, "I can't I can't deal with that."
LAUREN GILGER: Are there moments when people have really broken your heart?
JOEL COPELAND: Oh, all the time. All the it we keep keep slipping back. You know, they come forward, forward, forward, and then, oop, all of a sudden there's a big slip. And it's just human nature, you know, it's it's it's hard. It's difficult to be us.
LAUREN GILGER: You mean people?
JOEL COPELAND: Yes, human beings.
LAUREN GILGER: But it sounds like you are kind of positive about it. Like, it sounds like you have not stopped, you haven't quit, you haven't left, you still know all those folks.
JOEL COPELAND: Well, how do you stop? I don't know how you can't I mean, I I just feel for it.
LAUREN GILGER: I mean, I wonder um like if you could talk to, you know, the people who drive past people who are experiencing homelessness on the street and, you know, are holding up a sign and they drive by, or people who are outraged by what's happening at "The Zone," or the lawmakers and policy makers down the streets both ways, right? At City Hall and and the State Capitol right here, like, what do you want them to know about this place?
JOEL COPELAND: Well, that these people need help! And not just, you know, housing, you know. They need to have uh specialty care for individuals that um need it so bad, and are receiving it, but it everything takes so long and there's so many the long lines. You know, even just to to do your laundry, you stand in line forever, you know, to to see the doctor, to see the dentist, to see anybody. You're just and it needs to be more efficient, and it needs to be more triaged.
LAUREN GILGER: Do you ever think that'll happen?
JOEL COPELAND: I'm hoping. There's always hope. As long as there's hope, it can happen.
LAUREN GILGER: Thank you so much for talking to me, I appreciate it.
JOEL COPELAND: Well, thank you for all you do.
LAUREN GILGER: The city of Phoenix says it is home to about 35% of the region's homeless population and 82% of the region's shelter beds. Since 2022, they've added more than 1,200 shelter beds and 300 spaces at their SOS, the city's outdoor campground. Because of that, the latest point-in-time homeless count showed while homelessness overall barely changed from last year, unsheltered homelessness dropped 12% valley-wide.
TIARA VIAN: And this has been the Stories You Don't Want to Miss podcast. Made possible in part by the Catena Foundation, BASIS Charter Schools, Palo Verde Generating Station, SRP, and the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust. Thank you for listening and for your generous support. I’m Tiara Vian. This is KJZZ. Listen more, learn more, online and on the KJZZ mobile app.
