Services or consequences is how Phoenix City Council Member Ann O’Brien framed the city’s new community court in a news release last year.
The court, which opened this week, offers homeless people accused of nonviolent crimes a chance to accept services aimed at lifting them out of homelessness in exchange for reduced or dropped charges.
If a homeless person is arrested on suspicion of a nonviolent crime in Phoenix, they can choose to enter the community court instead of going to a regular courtroom. There, they will be put on a customized plan designed to get them eventually into stable housing.
