(The Center Square) – The Goldwater Institute is helping Arizonans who qualify for relief provided by Proposition 312.
Arizona voters passed the proposition in November by a margin of 59% to 41%.
Proposition 312 lets property owners apply for a yearly reimbursement of documented reasonable expenses they paid to offset the damage to their property caused by municipalities not enforcing the law regarding homelessness.
The proposition has specific timelines for how a city’s Department of Revenue is supposed to handle these claims, said Joe Seyton, the Goldwater Institute’s senior communications director.
The Arizona Department of Revenue said the proposition allows people to file from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31.
Seyton said people should receive their money if they file a claim within 90 to 120 days.
If claims are denied, people can appeal the decision. Seyton said the Goldwater Institute will provide free legal assistance to those who feel their claims were improperly denied.
He added the Goldwater Institute is “ready to make sure these local cities and towns are held to account, and they have to follow this law.”
Seyton said Proposition 312 came about due to Arizona local governments “utterly failing their citizens when it [came] to enforcing the law and addressing” homeless encampments.
He added many Arizonans who lived in these areas saw drug use, vandalism and increased crime rates.
Law-abiding constituents became “fed up” because Arizona cities failed to enforce the law and did not send police to keep order in those areas, Seyton said.
Constituents and business owners had to hire security guards and buy fencing and security equipment to deal with these issues, he said.
“They did not receive any compensation for any of the damage that came about from a crisis that they did not create,” the communications director said.
Seyton said these individuals were paying property taxes but not receiving the “public health and safety services the government owes them.”
For example, if a person paid $1,500 in property taxes last year, the proposition would allow them to get “up to the amount that” the person paid in property tax, Seyton said.
He added that the money people would receive would come from the “state-shared revenue that cities and towns are able to get from sales tax and lottery revenue.”
The communications director said people can get ”up to the amount of your primary property tax liability for the previous year.”
Seyton explained this proposition helps business and property owners get relief from a homelessness crisis “that is not their fault.”
The proposition “ incentivizes these cities and towns to start cleaning up their act,” he said.
Seyton noted cities such as Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe and Goodyear have taken steps to ban urban camping due to Proposition 312.
Cities and towns in Arizona have started to “clean up their acts” because they do not want to pay the money, he said.
Seyton added that it’s not an act of kindness to allow homeless individuals to sleep in areas with crime, violence and drugs.
“We think this is a really good first step in getting this crisis under control and ensuring that law-abiding property and business owners have recourse when the government fails to protect their rights,” he added.
One Phoenix location impacted by homeless encampments is a place called “The Zone.”
Seyton said Phoenix officials were taking homeless people and telling them to go to the area.
As a result, The Zone became “one of the largest homeless encampments in the country,” he said.
At its peak, The Zone occupied 15 city blocks and had nearly 1,000 people. Phoenix cleared the area in December 2023.
The communications director described The Zone as a “lawless wasteland” where many property and business owners lost their liveliness as a result of the government’s actions.
Previously, the Goldwater Institute worked with Joe Faillace and Debbie Faillace, who owned the Old Station Sub Shop in The Zone.
The Faillaces dealt with “(being) broken into and vandalized, people passed out or overdosed on our patio, urine and feces scattered across our parking lot and entryway,” according to the Goldwater Institute.
The couple ended up closing their restaurant after 38 years and selling it to Bill Ellis.
Thanks to Proposition 312, relief is “finally on the way,” Seyton said. He added that hopefully other business owners in The Zone won’t have to sell their businesses and can thrive.
