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Most tents removed from homeless encampment along Pittsburgh's Eliza Furnace Trail

Most tents removed from Pittsburgh homeless encampment near Allegheny County Jail
Most tents removed from Pittsburgh homeless encampment near Allegheny County Jail 01:24

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Most of the tents have been removed from what was the largest homeless encampment in Pittsburgh along the Eliza Furnace Trail. 

It was the largest homeless encampment in the city — some 40 tents located along the river trail on the edge of Downtown. 

Cyclists, runners and walkers had complained of the tents flanking the trail, but now, most of the tents have been taken down and everyone who had been living there has moved out into shelters or permanent housing. 

Working together over the past several weeks, homeless advocates and outreach workers from the city and county launched a concerted effort to find housing and help the people relocate. 

The homeless advocates had been critical of the city and county, holding protests at the mayor's office and at his home. But unlike the so-called decommissioning of other encampments, the city did not have to post signs giving the homeless a deadline to move out. 

Instead, Erin Dalton, the county's director of Human Services, tells KDKA Lead Investigator Andy Sheehan the cooperative effort succeeded smoothly. 

"We said we were going to do it together," Dalton said. "So, the mayor's office staff, with the advocates, with the county staff, so there was no posting that needed to happen there. We worked in a different order of events to make sure all those folks got housed. And now we can just do the cleanup together and the city can post no camping signs at this point." 

Public Works crews from the city are expected to clean up the rest of the debris in the next few days. 

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