In spring of 2020, as we entered the strange and uncertain months of strict quarantine, only a few months after Natalie Nguyen bought the warehouse that has become Splinter Collective, we made the acquaintance of a few men who lived at the encampment at Estevan Park just north of our home. Though interactions were brief and impersonal due to social distancing, we slowly began to form friendships with a few of those people. During the early days of the covid pandemic, many of the services that unhoused people in our neighborhood relied on disappeared almost overnight. Shelters, community kitchens, public bathrooms, and so many other crucial resources shut their doors. People expressed to us over and over that one of the things they really needed was just a place to sit and charge their phones. So, we invited a few people to sit on our porch and use our electrical outlets. Back then, two or three people would often be sitting on our outdoor table making a phone call or filling up their water bottles from the hose. Things carried on this way for a few months.
As the pandemic dragged on, more and more people who had lost their jobs due to business closures ran out of savings, and struggled to afford rent, bills, and basic needs. The number of people experiencing homelessness grew exponentially throughout 2020, and we saw the results in our neighborhood. Soon, more and more people began to rely on our porch as a place to charge their devices, and more often than not when we opened the front door, someone would be there requesting food, a cold drink, soap, or a cigarette. We were torn between wanting to help as much as we could, and feeling overwhelmed by the influx of needs that we, as a family struggling ourselves, couldn’t possibly meet. We made the decision to set up a table and chair on the east side of the warehouse, and began referring to it as the charging station. Now five to ten people were there at any given time. We did our best to provide essentials like hand sanitizer, menstrual products, and snacks when we could. The charging station had at this point grown beyond a small group of people we knew by name. While the majority lived in the encampment at Estevan Park, and were there most days, we began seeing new faces more and more. Our housed neighbors were, for the most part, supportive or at least tolerant of the charging station, though some problems began to arise. Our neighbor directly to the south of our warehouse regularly had deliveries for his business coming in large trucks, and the table, chairs, and growing assortment of people’s belongings began to obstruct his ability to access his driveway. Through conversations with him, we realized that the charging station could no longer exist there. We discussed dismantling it altogether- it had grown into something bigger than we had expected or bargained for. But we kept coming back to the fact that people in our neighborhood now relied on this resource. If they were no longer able to use this space, where would they go? It no longer felt like an option to take away something people had become accustomed to having access to, especially as the housing crisis got worse and worse. So, we discussed our options- we could move the charging station to the park, but we ran the risk of getting shut down for being on city property. Our front porch was no longer an option due to how much it had grown. We knew moving the charging station to the corridor adjacent to the train tracks was not a perfect solution, but it was the only solution we had. We built a small shower stall next to the charging station for people to use. Before the charging station moved there, that corridor was already highly trafficked by those on foot traveling between Barrio Anita, on the west side of the tracks, and Dunbar Spring, to the east.
By this time, Splinter had grown from a family living in a warehouse to a fledgling non-profit with several employees, and a board in the works. We began hosting a few fundraisers and a monthly poetry night. We started formulating our mission and our purpose in the community. Things were starting to get real.
In the subsequent months, the charging station grew and changed, people came, people left. We built a table with a microwave and a shade covering in the spring. As anticipated, the summer heat brought swaths of people coming to cool down, access water, and hang out. Throughout this last year we have faced a lot of challenges related to the charging station and the Encampment at the park. TPD swept the camp many times this spring, finally stepping back after pressure from Splinter, the residents of the camp, Tucson Tenants Union, Community on Wheels, the BCC, the list goes on…
Sometimes things went smoothly; people got along, and our main concern was intermittent power shortages. Other times, there were complaints from the neighbors about drug use, fighting, or general “unsightliness.” Trash accumulated next to our trash cans, so we asked for help from Caridad Community Kitchen, who organized to help us get more from the city. People had their belongings stolen, so we worked together or asked the community for help replacing things. There have been many ups and downs, and it has never been perfect, or anywhere near it for that matter. Perfect would be housing for all. Perfect would be a structure of resource distribution that didn’t require the suffering of many for the wealth of a few. We have worked with what we had, and done our best to come up with creative solutions to an enormous problem that the city is trying to address, but the solutions are coming slowly, and with only real consequence for a few.
Most recently, we were cited for the outdoor shower not being connected to the sewer, and were in jeopardy of a code violation. The city and the railroad both demanded that we remove the shower. We have known for a while now that the charging station was a temporary fix. Inevitably, our unsheltered neighbors deal with a constellation of issues including trauma, serious mental health issues, addiction, threat of violence and the general daily stressors of finding food, water, a place to use the restroom, sanitation, and a place to charge their devices.The road has been rocky and uncertain. Just this past week, the City of Tucson approved our proposal for a 75,000 dollar project which will include moving the charging station to Estevan Park,bringing a mobile shower (by the city, not us) to the park, once or twice a week-definitely not enough. And not what we were asking for, but what is being done. After a year of feeling like we are working against the city to help our community meet its needs, it’s an incredible relief to feel like we have been heard and there is money for this project. We are forever grateful to our team, who care so deeply about the work we do, and our community that supports our vision and attends our events. We are so excited to take this next step, and see what is in store.