THE NEWSPAPER OF AVONDALE, BUCKEYE, GOODYEAR, LITCHFIELD PARK & TOLLESON
WV schools plan for reopening
New school in Buckeye PAGE
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westvalleyview.com
INSIDE
This Week
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Movies return to West Valley’s biggest theater
SPORTS ........ 23 AIA approves the return of high school sports
FEATURES .... 25 Substance abuse disorder’s impact on families
OPINION ...............16 BUSINESS.............. 20 SPORTS ..................22 FEATURES ..............24 YOUTH ..................28 OBITUARIES ...........30 CLASSIFIEDS ..........32 SOUTH
September 9, 2020
The Voice of the West Valley for 35 years
Programs help house the homeless BY TOM SCANLON
West Valley View Managing Editor
BUSINESS...... 20
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Near the beginning of each year, the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) sponsors a Point in Time event, with scores of volunteers taking to the streets to count “unsheltered” homeless people. Results of the Jan. 27 count show Maricopa County’s homeless population increased significantly over the last year, from 3,188 to 3,767. More than two-thirds of the homeless were counted in Phoenix, with a relatively small number counted in the West Valley. Since 2017, Avondale’s homeless population has nearly doubled, from 27 to 56. Buckeye’s homeless population increased from 22 to 41, while Goodyear’s stayed nearly the same, with 22 homeless people counted the last two years, 23 this year. No homeless people were found in Litchfield Park, five in Tolleson. Those are the numbers. Eddie Thompson was one of them. It’s no fun to be homeless, he advised. “I was laying out there in the dirt. In the
heat in Goodyear, Arizona,” he reflected from a cool, comfortable apartment. A former offender who spent more than a dozen years in prison, he drifted to Goodyear and found a ragtag community sleeping in a storm retention field near Interstate 10. “I was just roaming around. I found out the Goodyear Police Department doesn’t hassle the homeless too much,” he said. “Other cities, they hassle you, tell you to move on. They don’t want you here.” He blames no one but himself for being homeless. After getting out of prison, he entered one housing program after another— but kept getting kicked out. The reason? “Doing drugs and alcohol, mainly drugs. ... I would test dirty, or just be too high or too hungover to go to work. “Everybody has their story. Some people can deal with things. I run,” he said Nearing 60, he got tired of sleeping on the ground—and being treated like dirt.
Homeless...continued on page 2
From a comfortable apartment, Eddie Thompson reflected on days and nights he spent “in the dirt” in Goodyear. (Photo courtesy Rich Heitz)
9/11 survivor recalls horrific, historic day BY TOM SCANLON
West Valley View Managing Editor
For the last three years, since moving to Goodyear’s PebbleCreek community with her husband, Michael, Cynthia Schwartz has been “living the dream.” Nineteen Septembers ago, she was living a nightmare.
It was a Tuesday morning, nothing unusual on her commute from New Jersey to Wall Street, where she worked for Goldman Sachs, until Schwartz stepped off a train at the station under the World Trade Center. At 8:46 a.m., Sept. 11, 2001, she felt the ground beneath her shake. The world was about to change, as five hijackers flew
American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center’s North Tower. “I just got off the train from Hoboken—I was in the basement (train station) when the first plane hit. A fireball came down the stairwells and into the basement. We
Survivor...continued on page 4
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