Smithfield Street business owners frustrated with shelter
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The owners of four businesses on Smithfield Street say the number of people experiencing homelessness has gotten so bad they now have to meet their customers outside the city to drop off or pick up items.
The Smithfield sidewalk is now filled with more than 100 people who are homeless who exit the shelter at 7 every morning and stay nearby.
Yuriy Bekman's seen his jewelry store's foot traffic drop 85%. After countless customers complained about coming to him, he's driving to them.
"We're meeting customers outside of the Pittsburgh Downtown. What is the reason to have a store if we need to meet them in Robinson, Beaver County, South Hills Village? Why even be here?" said Berkman, the owner of Yuriy's Jewelry.
They're staying because they own the buildings.
Carl Herrmann just lost two employees who no longer felt safe. He's now picking up 80 to 85 percent of his customers' coats for summer storage versus just 55 percent last year.
"A lady, a couple, children -- I wouldn't have a family walking down this street if I could avoid it. I'll tell them to park across the street and walk across the street," said Herrmann, who owns Carl Hermann Furs.
The county just released new data and it shows a 24 percent increase in unhoused people just this past year from 736 in 2022 to 913 in 2023.
The opening of the 95-bed Second Avenue Commons contributes to that increase since the count includes people who now stay there. The business owners believe the county needs another commons.
"At that point in time, you could have counted that many people in a two-block area, so it was patching a hole in a dyke that was not going to hold," Herrmann said.
Gina Means, the owner of Sports World Specialities, said she sees an overdose and calls for help daily. She's seen a 33 percent drop in her store's revenue. She's not sure if she wants keeping Narcan behind the counter to be her next step.
"Every time the Pirates are playing someone, all those out-of-towners come to our store, they ask -- every single person that comes in our store -- says, 'What's going on with this city? Why is it like this?'" Means said.
There are some, like Pittsburgh Union of Regional Renters, that call the relocation of these unhoused people cruel.
The group is criticizing outgoing County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, alleging the county knows there aren't enough shelter beds.
"Bringing everybody into the Central Business District is not good, to concentrate all of those services, and having people with homeless issues and mental health issues, drug addiction, substance abuse issues, all in the one area doesn't make a lot of sense," Fitzgerald said.
"I think it's inhumane, yes. Because it will be very hot down in the basement. Again, it was a cold weather shelter, that's what it was built for, that's what it's been used for for years."
And the county says it will find housing for these people who are willing to relocate by the end of June. Time will tell.
