Allegheny County to tackle homelessness in Downtown with decentralization strategy
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Now that the shelter on Smithfield Street is closed, Allegheny County is seizing the opportunity to entice people experiencing homelessness to leave Downtown.
While some folks still congregate outside on Smithfield Street, others have left Downtown, taking the county's offer to find better shelter and services elsewhere.
"We've been making a lot of offers. It's going pretty well. Over 100, 125 offers have been made," Erin Dalton of Allegheny County Human Services said.
Over the past year, the county has reached out to Downtown's unhoused people to determine where they initially came from and has developed a strategy decentralize homeless services and entice people back to their communities.
To that end, some have already come to a newly opened shelter in the former Holy Rosary Convent in Homewood.
"People deserve to thrive and live in the communities they come from," said Robert Ashford of Unity Recovery said.
Under contract with the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, Unity Recovery will operate the shelter, providing 27 private rooms primarily to people from the Homewood area. Through a strategy of decentralization, the county is trying to steer others to shelters in Mon Valley and other places outside of Pittsburgh rather than people coming Downtown for support.
"Decentralization means it's spread out throughout the county. At any given time, somebody can access the services and support that they may need within close proximity to where they live," Ashford said.
Will it work? The county can only suggest. It can't and won't make anyone relocate.
"Not everybody accepts our offers," Dalton said.
Dalton added that the ultimate solution is to get people into permanent housing.
"The only way the system works is if people are exiting homeless, exiting to housing," Dalton said.
