Police say they're working to clear 'open-air drug market' on Fort Duquesne Boulevard

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - With fewer people working in downtown Pittsburgh, other problems are creeping in, creating a dangerous dilemma.

Large camps for people who are homeless have sprung up, and now, to cater to the addictions of some, drug dealers are gathering daily in large groups.

They call it "the wall," a ledge on the Fort Duquesne Boulevard promenade. Every day a large group of people, sometimes as many as 30 or 40, gather there for no readily apparent purpose. But for the past year, Pittsburgh police have responded to complaints of fights, noise, litter and occasional gunfire, confirming the wall is the place to sell, buy or use drugs.

"As you stated, what we believe to be a potential open-air drug market," said Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt.

Below the wall is a tent encampment of homeless people adjacent to the Warhol Bridge and along the Allegheny River, but the city says they are not those who gather at the wall. Rather, the people up top are primarily drug dealers who supply the homeless with drugs, and Mayor Ed Gainey says he wants them arrested.

"The ones that are homeless, the ones that are dealing with mental health, the ones that are dealing with not being able to get housing -- we don't want to arrest them," Gainey said. "The ones that are doing wrong and that are breaking the law, we definitely want them arrested and taken off the street."

But tenants in the Encore Apartment Building who did not want to be identified or appear on camera complained that the situation has been allowed to fester and spin into ever more violent encounters. 

A year ago, after an altercation at the wall, a young man ran down a nearby alley and was shot dead by suspects who pursued him. And just last week, a man who had been camping on a landing was shot and wounded. Though police have now arrested a suspect, the residents want stronger action and the drug market cleared out.

"The folks that are not necessarily homeless but engaging in activity, yes, we have been increasing patrols through there and engaging with those folks," said Schmidt. "We do have some other investigative activity we can't discuss."

Mayor Gainey and County Executive Rich Fitzgerald will soon be announcing their plan to address the homeless crisis in the city, starting with a tour of the encampments but Dan McCaffery, the Chicago developer who owns the Encore, says homelessness increased during the pandemic throughout the country when downtowns like Pittsburgh hollowed out. He believes the mayor will help the truly homeless and deal with those who prey upon them. 

"I have every faith in that happening and that it can be done in a humane and non-destructive way," he said. 

Police say they are planning action but won't say exactly what that is. People who live nearby say it couldn't happen a moment too soon.