With more residents slipping below the poverty threshold, crime has become increasingly intertwined with life in the City of South Tucson.
The estimated number of Americans living in poverty increased by 1.1 million in 2008 according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Today, 13.2 percent of Americans live in poverty.
Judge Ronald Wilson of South Tucson Municipal Court sees the repercussions of poverty in his courthouse almost every day.
“It’s a whole new type of criminal and crime,” Wilson said. “It’s generated by poverty and repression and environmental conditions.”
The latest Census data on South Tucson showed that of the 5,490 documented residents in 1999, 2,525 lived below the poverty line - nearly half the population.
Defendants who come before Wilson have been cited for crimes such as drinking in public, sleeping on benches, trespassing in abandoned buildings, driving without insurance or registration and shoplifting items such as toothpaste, beer, deodorant, water, food and medicine.
“They are crimes not motivated by greed. I’m not seeing malice and viciousness. I’m seeing hopelessness and despair. I’m seeing hurt and pain because people can’t provide for themselves,” he said.
“Crime is the word, but it’s something else - it’s something deeper than that.”
Of the nearly 6,000 cases in South Tucson’s jurisdiction each year, all Class 1, 2, or 3 misdemeanors - about 25 percent are traffic violations.
“Take a broken taillight for example. If you have money you’re going to get it fixed. A couple of weeks ago I had a man who was cited for having inadequate brakes on his truck. No one wants inadequate brakes or a broken taillight. These crimes are directly related to poverty,” said Wilson, South Tucson’s only judge.
Wilson, who was appointed in 2002, said he has seen a “troubling” increase of these types of crimes since the recession began toward the end of 2007.
“People are desperate and they don’t know where to turn,” he said.
The unemployment rate in South Tucson is currently at 17.7 percent, up nearly 7 percent from 2000 and 8 percent higher than the national rate.
“Anecdotally speaking, people are more desperate. There’s less work. People are losing their jobs or their hours are being cut back,” said Brian Flagg, coordinator for the Casa Maria soup kitchen at East 25th Street and South Third Avenue.
Flagg said he has seen conditions gradually worsen in the past two years from the window at Casa Maria where 600 to 700 bagged lunches and more than 200 bags of food for families are given out daily - amounts that have risen to keep up with demand, he said.
All too often, Flagg said he hears the struggles of South Tucsonans who can’t afford life’s necessities.
“Boatloads of people are coming to my door for help because they don’t want to get kicked out of their homes or lose their power. There are just not enough resources for the grinding poverty,” he said.
Other organizations haven’t been able to keep up with the needs of some South Tucsonans.
The Primavera Foundation, on West 40th Street, offers services such as the Primavera WORKS/Temporary Day Labor Option, where unemployed people can find work on a day-to-day basis.
At 6:30 every morning, dozens of people line up at Primavera hoping to find a job for the day. Beginning late last year, Primavera has been forced to turn people away for the first time since the day labor program began more than a decade ago.
"More people are looking for jobs and businesses have been hiring less,” said Jenna Van Laningham, executive assistant at Primavera.
Since last fall, Primavera has seen a growing need for assisted housing in both Tucson and South Tucson.
“There’s a huge demand for our family shelter. People come from all over Tucson,” Laningham said, referring to Primavera’s Greyhound Family Shelter, a 17-unit building located in South Tucson for families who have become homeless and need a place to live temporarily.
Two years ago only a few families would be on the waiting list for the Greyhound shelter, but recently, the list has been 20 families long, Laningham said.
Judge Wilson said he often sees people who have lost their homes end up in court.
“They’ve lost their job and they can’t pay their mortgage. They don’t know how to live or sleep on the street so they get caught trespassing,” he said.
“They begin to self medicate. They drink or smoke until they’re numb.”
Lieutenant Jeff Inorio said the South Tucson Police Department has had more run-ins with homeless people in the last two years.
“Population wise, homelessness is increasing but I don’t know if it’s the economy or if they’re just finding their way here,” Inorio said.
The city of Tucson, which surrounds the 1.2-square mile city of South Tucson, has also seen an increase in poverty and unemployment. In 2008, the poverty rate in Tucson rose to 20.9 percent, up more than 2 percent from the previous year. Unemployment in Tucson jumped from 5.8 percent in 2008 to 8.2 percent in 2009.
Because of South Tucson’s traditionally high poverty rate, the city within a city has a more concentrated distribution of services for the poor and homeless than Tucson. The soup kitchens and shelters are likely drawing in homeless people from Tucson and other areas, Inorio said.
Veterans, an estimated 23 to 40 percent of the national homeless population according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, are drawn to South Tucson because of the Veterans Administration Medical Center, located on South Sixth Avenue between 44th Street and Ajo Way.
“There are a very large number of vets who are not receiving all the services they need. We frequently find them in court for quality of life crimes and violations,” Wilson said.
In court, Wilson said he has observed that many of the criminal behaviors associated with homelessness and poverty are the result of what he calls “co-occurring issues in people’s lives.”
For example, it’s not uncommon to see people with mental disorders such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder also have substance abuse issues or people with anger issues who are also unemployed or homeless, he said.
“You can’t separate it. There’s rarely one problem.”
Wilson, who is on the chair of the American Bar Association’s Mental Health Courts Committee, estimates that 50 percent or more of the defendants he sees suffer some kind of mental trauma or disorder.
To address that population, the South Tucson judicial system has established partnerships with social service agencies in the community such as COPE Community Services and CODAC Behavioral Health, Wilson said.
“Prison or jail is not always the place for these people. We want to help them he
“We require counseling or make them attend classes as part of their conditions. If they don’t, then the consequence could be a fine or jail. This empowers the agencies. They become fingers in the long arm of the law.”
Above all, the goal of South Tucson’s justice system is to work with people so they won’t break the law again, Wilson said.
“You try and teach them that their crimes are not a luxury this community can afford.”
