In December 2016, Phoenix Police officers Steve Fluty and Matt Morgan were conducting outreach with City Human Services staff when they came across an elderly couple, the Waschers, due to a transient camp in their backyard. The Waschers have lived in the same house for 29 years and over time their back fence had deteriorated and fallen down.
The Waschers did not have the financial means to replace the fence so several local homeless people began moving into their back yard, using their hose for water and their backyard as a restroom and camp site. The Waschers had asked the homeless people to leave on several occasions; however, they were too afraid of repercussions to force them to go.
Officer Steve Fluty assisted the Waschers by officially removing all of the homeless people that were in the yard and organizing the first clean-up of their backyard in December. During that cleanup, officers removed about two tons of litter and debris which had been brought in by the homeless campers into the backyard. Officer Fluty continued to follow-up and spot check the yard during his normal patrol.
In January, one of the homeless individuals returned to the yard and was arrested by Officers Fluty and Morgan for residential trespassing. This individual had brought another half a ton of garbage into the backyard, so Officer Morgan began working to get a fence built around the backyard to avoid having this occur again. Officer Morgan reached out to Shannon McBride of the Open Door Fellowship Church. Ms. McBride was able to get donations to cover the cost of the materials, and she secured Hurricane Holes to donate the time and labor to dig the post holes for the fence. In addition, Home Depot supplied the materials at a reduced cost. Officer Morgan coordinated City Neighborhood Services to get dumpsters delivered to the area, and Adult Probation sent out clean-up crews to dispose of the litter left in the yard and alleyway by the homeless people who were living in the area.
On February 24, 2017, officers built the Waschers a new fence securing their yard to make it much safer for them to reside in. According to the Phoenix Police Department, the Waschers were extremely appreciative of the hard work and dedication of the officers.