A looming ban on harm reduction services in public parks in Phoenix has just been delayed for a further two months. It’s opposed by providers and human rights groups, who fear for the city’s many unhoused residents, in particular, if it ultimately goes ahead.
On December 17, 2025, Phoenix City Council voted 8-1 to approve the ban. The ordinance makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor to sell or exchange syringes, distribute harm reduction kits or hold events for the purpose of providing medical care in parks without prior city approval. It was due to take effect on March 30. But on March 3, the council accepted a request to push it back to June 1.
District 7 Councilmember Anna Hernandez was the only vote in opposition to the original ordinance. “The foundational issue here is that we do not have enough shelter space or housing for folks to live and folks don’t have health care access,” she told local media outlet CALÓ News in February. “So mixing those two things together and now making a barrier for these providers to provide that care, I think is going to be detrimental to this community.”
“They are consistently pointing to neighbors who have logged complaints about litter, medical supplies and discarded syringes.”
Shot in the Dark (SITD), a Phoenix-based volunteer harm reduction provider, has opposed the ban from the start. Member Brian Thoi explained how SITD does mostly outdoor distribution. They don’t have a fixed office location, so the volunteers set up folding tables or tents in places that are easily accessible to people in need, handing out supplies and receiving used supplies.
“We’re trying to get some concrete answers from the city,” Thoi told Filter. “They are consistently pointing to neighbors who have logged complaints about litter, medical supplies and discarded syringes in the parks, as well as feeling uncomfortable being in the presence of medical services provided to people in the park.”
Distribution of sterile syringes, naloxone, fentanyl test strips and other supplies by harm reduction organizations was only authorized in Arizona by a 2021 bill. State law allows cities, counties and private organizations to “establish and operate a prevention program,” with requirements that they provide safe needle disposal, syringes in “sufficient” quantities to prevent reusing or sharing, referrals to substance use treatment and mental health care by request, and education on overdose prevention, peer recovery and prevention of bloodborne disease.
Several state and local organizations have come out against the Phoenix ban. The ACLU of Arizona put out a call to action, inviting supporters to urge the city council to vote no on the ordinance. After it passed, the ACLU condemned the result.
“Outreach in parks is often people’s first, and only link to detox, treatment, or housing,” said Darrell Hill, policy director for the ACLU of Arizona, in a statement. “By targeting healthcare and aid workers trained to meet people where they are, the city is eliminating one of the most effective pathways into recovery.”
As Thoi explained, the council initially passed the ordinance with a 90-day delay, and a council member added an instruction to city staff to research policy issues and potential legal conflicts created by the ban. Confirmation of the new delay to June 1 means, Thoi said, “We are looking at the next few months to engage deeper into advocacy with city council and staff.”
“Participants have maybe interpreted it to mean harm reduction services are banned throughout the city. People have been letting us know they won’t be going out to our sites any more.”
Though the ban is not yet in place, Thoi stressed that it is already harming his organization’s work and the people they serve.
“It’s taking time and energy away from running our programs and services and being put instead into engaging with city staff,” he said. “What we’ve been seeing from a lot of our participants is they’ve heard the reporting on this, and maybe interpreted it to mean harm reduction services are banned throughout the city of Phoenix.”
That confusion has severe consequences. “People have been contacting our info line and letting us know they won’t be going out to our sites any more,” Thoi said, “because they have heard we have been banned or they’re not expecting us to be there.”
“If you want to make a permit system for having events in the park, and don’t want to give me a permit, that’s one thing,” he added. “But to ban harm reduction as a solution to these issues, I wonder what the knock-on effects of this will be. Are we going to see other cities take on these sorts of bans that will affect our work in other parts of the Valley?”
The ban is the latest Phoenix action targeting people experiencing homelessness, in the wake of the 2024 Supreme Court Grants Pass decision, which ruled that city and state governments have the constitutional right to evict people from outdoor encampments even if no shelter beds are available. The city council voted in May 2024 to ban camping within 500 feet of schools, public parks and other locations.
“It will lead to more overdose in the parks, and more 911 calls of people passed out or even dead.”
Based on Phoenix’s January 2025 point-in-time count, homelessness increased 3 percent from 2024-2025, largely driven by an increase in people living unsheltered (up 28 percent). The Maricopa Association of Governments noted that federal funding meanwhile expired for 1,000 shelter beds in the region, as rental costs increased and access to elder care and mental health care services remained limited.
Phoenix has seen a slight downtick in overdose deaths. According to Maricopa County data, deaths decreased 3.5 percent from 2023-2024, but were still higher than in 2020. Restricting vulnerable people’s access to harm reduction resources and referrals threatens this slow progress.
The impending parks ban has also activated other providers. Claudia McCormick-Vargas, a volunteer with Street Medicine, leads outreach in city parks with students from Arizona State University to deliver pet food to unhoused pet owners.
“We asked our students, is there a need, can we help?” she told Filter. “They told us they often see homeless people with their pets at harm reduction clinics on Friday afternoons. That’s how we started helping out. I started to see all the good work that both our students and the harm reduction group Shot in the Dark was doing with our homeless population. I thought it was great that our students were providing medical care and SITD was providing harm reduction supplies.”
The ban, she said, “will have a big impact. These are volunteers that have built a presence and relationships meeting homeless people where they’re at. People trust them and look for them. If this ordinance goes through I don’t see how it will be helpful with the homeless population in our parks. It will lead to more overdose in the parks, and more 911 calls of people passed out or even dead.”
Living on the street can be dangerous anywhere. But in Phoenix, brutal summer heat can kill in a matter of hours. The past several years have seen record high temperatures, with hundreds of heat-related deaths recorded in summer 2025. The climate crisis cruelly intersects with both homelessness and drug use: An estimated 40 percent of deaths were of unhoused people, and two thirds of cases involved drug use.
“Some of the needs I’ve seen are just basic hygiene and water,” McCormick-Vargas said. Despite being asked for it, “We’re not allowed to bring food. Some of the needs I see are for needles, condoms or lighters. In the summer people need to keep their electrolytes up if they’re outside.”
“We’re not going to let ourselves be pushed out of our community just because of some nosy neighbors.”
Thoi said that if the ban ultimately takes effect, his organization will have to adapt in ways that could expose volunteers and the people they serve to more risk.
“The reality is, even though it would be sad for us to be excluded from the parks, we will continue to operate as we have in the past,” he said. “We will just be subject to being in places that aren’t as safe. We’ll be in canal paths and vacant lots instead of a well-lit, maintained place that’s accessible to public transit and for people with disabilities. We’ll be pushed further out into the margins to places where maybe it’s dangerous for our participants and volunteers to operate.”
They’re sure of one thing, however: “We’re not going to let ourselves be pushed out of our community just because of some nosy neighbors.”
Photograph via City of Phoenix