Pittsburgh officials give people experiencing homeless deadline to vacate Stockton Avenue encampment
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A patch of greenspace off Stockton Avenue on the North Side has become the largest homeless encampment in Pittsburgh.
It has grown through the summer and become a small city itself. Over the past few weeks, social workers have tried to coax those who camp there to avail themselves of shelter at the newly opened Second Avenue Commons in Downtown Pittsburgh. Now the city has posted the site with signs telling those who remain to clear out.
Come Wednesday morning, Pittsburgh Public Works crews will descend on the site to clean up any abandoned tents and garbage. In early November, crews did the same at another encampment on the Allegheny Riverfront.
Though the signs say the people experiencing homelessness can stow their belongings in storage and call a helpline for shelter, those who live there say that may no longer be an option.
KDKA-TV's Andy Sheehan: "What are you going to do?"
Man: "No idea. Like the rest of everybody, nobody knows."
Sheehan: "Did they give you the option of going to a shelter?
Man: "They said the shelter was full."
The county did not confirm, but sources said Second Avenue Commons is near or at capacity. The city says it has moved about 35 people experiencing homelessness from the Stockton Avenue encampment into the shelter and should be able to find alternative housing for the dozen or so who remain.
The city said it can't delay in taking the encampment down, sharing the concerns of neighbors of drug activity at the site.
"They're always around panhandling, but then you know they're going to use it for drugs," North Side resident Bill Patton said.
"I think it's really a complicated issue," North Side resident Sam Smelko said.
Like cities across the country, Pittsburgh isn't alone in struggling with rampant increases in homelessness and encampments, trying to balance keeping neighborhoods safe and clean while addressing the underlying causes.
"Mental illness, drugs addiction, those are things that need to be addressed in association with the actual housing," Smelko said.
In the short term, the city says it plans to continue this process at other sites, trying to move people into shelters and take the tents down.