Californians’ Great Migration to Phoenix
Nov 28, 2023 08:15AM ● By Lezli Freeman
Photo credit: sapavo//123rf.com
Great migrations have always been a reflection of a
mindset of a people to seek out more. As a family and transplant of
California, we have prided ourselves on seeking out more in Phoenix—more
community, more culture, more connection. As we reach our first anniversary of
being among the ever-loving Phoenicians, we have learned many things, but the overriding
theme is community. In our community, we have found: a “grandma” in our daycare
provider, family love and support among our neighbors, and care among everyday
people we encounter in mom-and-pop shops. The thriving metropolitan energy of
the arts community on Roosevelt Row has also shown us that even the downtrodden
of the city, the homeless, in places also have the Phoenicians’ hearts bleeding
as well.
It became clearly obvious that “the zone” was very
similar to the problem that actually thrust families like ours out of
California, with homeless encampments on every block. It started to creep into
the depths of our very own little home in California. Upon leaving California,
our family constantly mulled over this reality that was a plight and a pain to
see our everyday person enduring. It was blurring every street in my mother’s
small town, and I just couldn’t figure out for the life of me―why not just set up a grounds for the homeless? It
begged the question for years, and I thought I was just speaking in a dystopian
society way.
And then we migrated to Phoenix, and within months
I read of the homeless encampment grounds plans that the city had created and a
program to help its displaced community of people. It warmed my heart to know
that this great migration that our family has partaken in was not in vain. It
did our hearts good to know that we had relocated to a community where even the
homeless were nestled into the hearts of the Phoenicians, so much so that as of
November 4, the city of Phoenix had successfully cleared out a massive downtown
homeless encampment and helped more than 500 people find beds and shelters.
