City-Approved North Side Homeless Camp Upsetting Neighbors
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - A hillside along Howard Street on the North Side is where several homeless people have set up camp.
You can't miss their tents and belongings, but one homeless man says they are allowed to be there.
"This is a campsite the city supposedly bought and the mayor supplied for homeless people," he said.
As it turns out, the man is right. It is part of a city initiative, sponsored by the Homeless Outreach Coordinating Committee. The Mayor's Office says these homeless people have the city's permission to be there and to live there.
Paul Hendrick is a homeowner above the camp on Compromise Street in Deutschtown and he's very angry.
"How would the mayor like us to camp out in his front yard - human feces, rats, just using the bathroom and doing what they want up there, litter," he said.
Hendrick calls this an ongoing problem and said the homeless have been there for about three months. Last year, they were there the entire year.
"I don't think it's fair that my 7-year-old can't go outside and play because they are down there doing drugs, partying at night and doing whatever they want to do," Hendrick said.
Hendrick said if the city wants the homeless to remain on this property, the mayor should provide water buffaloes, portable toilets, garbage containers and a cleanup crew. Otherwise, Hendricks said he and his neighbors will move out the homeless campers themselves.
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