City set to clean up homeless encampments along Pittsburgh's river trails

Pittsburgh crews set to clean up homeless encampments along river trails

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — After five years of homeless encampments along Pittsburgh's river trails, many residents say they're fed up and are demanding immediate action.

They are called the caves. Above Route 28 and behind a canvas live half a dozen people experiencing homelessness in the basement of houses demolished long ago. During the day, they panhandle at the foot of the 31st Street Bridge, and people who live on Washington's Landing say they're responsible for a rash of car break-ins and thefts of Amazon packages from stoops. But the city has made no arrests.

"I had an officer in particular who went up tp the caves, got all my stuff back and I said I want to press charges and he's like you can't," Washington Landing's resident Gerald Delon said. 

For the townhouse owners, the caves are the last straw in a five-year struggle to get the city to address homeless encampments along the Allegheny River. Having bought their homes to enjoy the riverfront, they say the trail is now off-limits because of drug activity, discarded syringes, garbage and unleashed dogs.

"We've heard from many, many residents here, they will not use the trail in its current form," Delon said. "They're afraid for a variety of reasons."

"I'm very sympathetic to homeless," said Cliff Stevenson, homeowners association president. "I've been lucky my whole life. I've never been homeless, never had to want for food. But there comes a point you just get frustrated that nothing seems to be happening."

The homeowners association met with the Gainey administration last week but says it got few answers. But on Wednesday, the city said it is finally ready to take action.

"Are you specifically going to clean up this trail?" KDKA-TV's Andy Sheehan asked.

"Yes, over the next week or so we are going to start posting the trails," Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt said. 

Schmidt says with the reopening of the Second Avenue Commons and working with the county to secure additional new shelter space, the city will begin posting and taking down the encampments along the city's river trails and begin to make a significant improvement in the homeless crisis.

Pittsburgh City Councilman Bobby Wilson, who has pushed for the clean-up, says he'll hold the administration's feet to the fire.

"I'm going to make sure this whole operation that's going to happen is going to follow through," Wilson said. 

It remains to be seen if the city, in partnership with the county, will finally make significant inroads into dealing with this problem, both for the residents and the people experiencing homelessness.

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