City Officials Decommission Homeless Encampment Downtown
Written by Allison Frazer
Downtown Pittsburgh is looking to improve the safety of residents and provide solutions to the homelessness issue. As of this month, officials have decided to close down the oldest continuing homeless encampment in Pittsburgh.
The encampment consisted of several tents at the corner of Grant St. and Fort Pitt Blvd. and had been a place of safety concerns for several months. Reports have shown the site was a location for drug activity, and the ground was scattered with syringes, drug paraphernalia, personal belongings and trash littered about.
The Office of Community Health and Safety and the Allegheny County Department of Human Services partnered together to send outreach workers including a nurse to move residents out of the encampment. Their belongings were placed into vans to be transported to shelter beds.
Individuals staying in the encampment are offered shelter and can work with the Allegheny County Department of Human Services to create individualized plans prior to closure.
Officials have offered to support the encampment and the residents to aid them in finding more permanent housing options. However, in the last months, the camp posed an overall safety risk to members of the camp as well as residents in surrounding buildings and pedestrians passing by.
Downtown’s future of growth depends on the safety and comfortability of residents, workers, and visitors. Improvements require long term solutions for issues such as affordable housing to support all members of Pittsburgh.
