HIV Advocates Warn Phoenix Ordinance Prioritizes Fear Over Public Health

On a Thursday morning in February 2025, Lee-ann Dunton and her colleagues with R.I.O.T. Phoenix — a local harm reduction group that sets up in parks and other locations across the Valley — were staffing a table near University Park in Tempe. The table typically offers clean needles, alcohol pads, rapid HIV testing kits, medical information on where to receive free care, and birth control.

As they were setting up, a bicyclist rushed over asking for naloxone, a medication used to rapidly reverse opioid overdoses. The bicyclist had noticed a man in the park who appeared not to be breathing and suspected an overdose.

The man, however, was behind locked park gates. Dunton had to locate people on the other side of the gate to pass along the medication and administer the dose.

Dunton said the situation could have turned out very differently.

Ten months later — just two weeks before the new year — the Phoenix City Council passed an ordinance Dunton fears will make situations like this more common, and potentially more deadly. Beginning in March 2026, providing “unsanctioned” medical care in public parks will be considered a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Once the ordinance takes effect, R.I.O.T. and other mutual aid groups that regularly set up booths, tables or vans in or near city parks to provide free, accessible services — including HIV care — will no longer be able to do so without a permit.

The problem, according to many of the groups providing care, is that park permits are already issued inconsistently, if at all. Several organizations, including R.I.O.T., say city officials often ignore their requests, particularly because their work serves unhoused people — the population the ordinance appears to target.

While some residents have testified that they feel parks have become unsafe due to unhoused people using them for shelter rather than recreation, public health advocates argue the city has left those residents with few alternatives. Parks, they say, are often the last places where people know they can reliably access immediate care and basic resources.

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Health workers have also raised concerns that the city failed to consult outside health organizations while drafting the ordinance, including HIV service providers that rely on parks for pop-up testing. Those efforts are part of the city’s stated goal to have 95% of the HIV-positive population aware of their status, treated, and virally suppressed over the next four years.

But a significant portion of the population is also the unhoused population, of which 13% are living with the virus, according to state data. But many don’t get treatment while in shelters or in need of housing: a recent LOOKOUT analysis found that of all HIV-related deaths in Maricopa County over the past five years, roughly one-quarter involved people experiencing homelessness.

The ordinance has left providers like Dunton deeply concerned about their ability to continue offering care.

“I’m sure you’ve heard the harm reduction phrase: ‘Meet people where they’re at,’” Dunton told council members during a Dec. 17 meeting. “Well, people are at Phoenix parks.”

What the ordinance does

In November 2025, a draft ordinance was introduced that would have banned all medical care on city park grounds, as well as the distribution of information related to medical care or harm reduction.

LOOKOUT obtained and published a leaked copy of the proposal. Public health advocates warned it would undermine the city’s efforts to expand HIV prevention among unhoused residents and limit outreach at Pride events and community markets. They also cautioned that the ordinance would severely restrict the distribution of life-saving harm reduction supplies in areas where they are most needed.

Advocates further raised concerns about the ordinance’s broad definition of “care.” In Tempe, similar language has previously been used to cite groups for distributing food and water to unhoused residents — a practice that is being challenged in court.

The day before the council vote, members amended the proposal to narrow its scope. The revised language specifies that the restriction applies to medical treatment involving the diagnosis of, or aid to, people with illnesses or wounds. The amendment allows organizations to distribute medical information.

However, the revised version also added criminal penalties. While the draft obtained by LOOKOUT would have resulted in civil citations, the version presented to the public introduced a Class 1 misdemeanor for violations.

Concerns fall on deaf ears

During the council meeting, dozens of speakers — many of them mutual aid workers and medical providers — testified about the ordinance’s potential consequences.

Mayor Kate Gallego and most council members said the ordinance addressed constituent concerns that parks had become sites for drug use and dealing, though no conclusive evidence was presented to support those claims.

Vice Mayor Ann O’Brien said in a written statement that the ordinance would save lives.

"This ordinance is going to kill more people, plain and simple."
— Stacey Champion
Mutual aid provider and advocate

“Our parks have become sites of medical activities that were never designed to occur in these spaces,” O’Brien wrote. “A child’s playground is not the most appropriate location to provide needle exchanges and medical treatment. This ordinance … recognizes that compassion must be paired with coordination.”

But critics say coordination was precisely what was missing. Phoenix Parks and Recreation Director Cynthia Aguilar acknowledged during testimony that neither the city nor the department consulted outside stakeholders — including medical providers or harm reduction groups — when drafting or amending the ordinance.

LOOKOUT contacted Councilwoman Laura Pastor’s office to ask about the drafting process but did not receive a response before publication.

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“I just don’t think this is sustainable in any manner,” said Stacy Champion, a former independent advocate and mutual aid provider for Phoenix’s unhoused community. “The city is doing its best to criminalize existing while unsheltered. It’s outrageous to me that they wouldn’t want advocates to keep people alive.”

Champion also questioned O’Brien’s invocation of compassion, citing Arizona’s rising number of heat-related deaths. Nearly half — 49% — of all heat-related deaths in 2024 involved people experiencing homelessness.

“This ordinance is going to kill more people, plain and simple,” Champion said. “There’s no doubt in my mind there will be more preventable deaths that could have been stopped with simple wound care or hydration.”

Despite nearly six hours of public comment — much of it from public health workers and harm reduction advocates — the council voted overwhelmingly to approve the ordinance. Members agreed to delay enforcement for 90 days to allow for amendments. The rule is set to take effect in March 2026.

"These decisions are all being made out of fear."
- Lee-ann Dunton
R.I.O.T.Phoenix

Councilwoman Anna Hernandez of District 7 cast the lone dissenting vote, calling the decision short-sighted.

“I don’t know why anyone would support this ordinance as written, or support it without knowing what the final language will be,” Hernandez said. “The only party that will benefit from this is our Police Department, which will have yet another tool to criminalize homelessness.”

Earlier in the meeting, council members also approved a separate rule allowing police to arrest people for using park equipment for purposes other than those intended. Advocates said the measure would disproportionately target unhoused residents. Hernandez again cast the sole dissenting vote.

HIV Care At Risk

One of the ordinance’s lesser-discussed effects is what happens when clean needle exchange programs — such as those run by R.I.O.T. — are pushed out of public parks.

Injection drug users remain among the highest-risk groups for HIV transmission, according to the state’s 2021 annual HIV analysis, the most recent statewide report available. Arizona also ranks among the higher states for the percentage of residents who report engaging in high-risk activities associated with HIV transmission, including intravenous drug use and prostitution, according to United Health Foundation rankings.

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The same data show Arizona ranks eighth nationally for HIV prevalence among people 65 and older.

Grassroots groups say they are often more effective than traditional medical providers at reaching people who use drugs. Research supports that claim: A 2021 study found medical providers were significantly more likely to prescribe PrEP — a medication regimen that prevents HIV infection — to sexually active gay men than to people who use drugs.

The study called for broader, targeted outreach to drug users, including expanded access to HIV prevention information and services.

Public health advocates argue the ordinance runs counter to scientific evidence and on-the-ground needs, favoring what they describe as NIMBY-driven pressure from residents who testified that parks feel unsafe without presenting data.

HIV service providers, including Aunt Rita’s Foundation and Spectrum, said in statements to LOOKOUT that they are concerned about how the ordinance could affect their ability to provide care — particularly as federal funding cuts under the Trump administration have already strained services.

It also remains unclear how the ordinance will affect grassroots programs such as Team Friendly, which distributes drug-testing strips and other harm reduction supplies, or Urban Front, which offers rapid HIV testing through pop-up events. Questions also remain about licensing requirements for HIV testing at Pride events held in public parks.

Advocates say the uncertainty has created confusion — and growing frustration — among those working to help the city meet its own public health goals.

“There’s such a misalignment between departments in the city,” Dunton said. “Public health is doing its best to fight infections and support the work we do, and then the council passes policies that undermine it. These decisions are all being made out of fear.