Public Joy Part 3: Unhoused Youth Cross a Stream in a Botanical Garden

In the third installment of Jay Pitter's Public Joy series for Azure Magazine, the author recounts an excursion with unhoused youth from Eva's Phoenix to a botanical garden. The outing was part of her Pathways to Public Joy pilot project, designed to foster healthy spatial entitlement—a concept Pitter defines as the quality of space individuals feel they deserve. During the visit, two young men who had wandered off invited the group to cross a stream. The youth self-organized, with some helping others across, demonstrating the very spatial entitlement the project aims to cultivate. Pitter, who has over twenty years of experience working with unhoused youth, critiques how service organizations often focus on survival rather than thriving and public life integration. The project was developed in collaboration with Eva's interim executive director Aisha Francis and her team.