Officials shut down South Side homeless camp

Officials this week shut down a homeless camp along the Southside Riverfront Trail in Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood, making it the latest in a string of closures meant to relocate people from streets to shelters.

Close to 50 people lived along the trail at its peak, Councilman Bob Charland, D-South Side, said.

He said more people had moved to the camp since other sites closed, raising concerns that tearing down camps simply meant some people would move from one outdoor location to another.

Abigail Gardner, an Allegheny County spokeswoman, said officials engaged with about 45 people living on the trail over several months before closing the camp.

By last week, only about 10 people were still living there, according to Emily Bourne, a Pittsburgh Public Safety spokeswoman.

The city and county officially closed the homeless encampment, stretching from Color Park to the Hot Metal Bridge, at noon Tuesday. Some cleanup work continued Wednesday.

Everyone living at the site was offered indoor shelter, Bourne said.

All 10 who still lived there as of last week accepted those offers, Bourne said, with six of them moving to shelters this week.

At least 30 other people living along the trail accepted offers of shelter or housing, Gardner said. Four more moved in with family or friends.

Whack-a-mole

The shutdown was part of a broader effort by the city and county to proactively move people into shelters rather than closing camps only after problems arise.

Camps have been torn down in Downtown and the North Shore in recent months, too.

“It’s really time for people to come in,” Allegheny County Department of Human Services Director Erin Dalton told TribLive when a North Shore camp was closed in December.

Bourne said officials received some complaints about trash along the South Side trail, but there were no major issues or violence reported at the camp.

While Charland said he always felt safe using the trail, he acknowledged that some people were wary of walking by the tents.

The councilman said there had been people living along that trail since the covid-19 pandemic, but he said the population grew after officials closed other homeless camps.

Charland and others have voiced concerns that moving people from camps to shelters simply forces those who prefer to stay outdoors to set up camp elsewhere in the city.

“The city and county are playing some level of whack-a-mole with humans here,” Charland said, though he also credited the city’s Office of Community Health and Safety for their efforts to find safe homes for the homeless.

Since the Southside Riverfront Trail camp closed, Charland said, he’s received calls about homeless people living outside in the Allentown neighborhood and along a railroad track that separates South Side Slopes from South Side Flats.

He could not say for certain whether people who had once lived in the Southside Riverfront Trail area had moved to those locations.

The mayor’s view

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey lauded the city’s efforts to address homelessness.

“As housing options have become available, we have been able to find shelter for our residents and begin restoring our trails — making transformative strides Downtown, on the North Side, and now on the South Side,” Mayor Ed Gainey said in a statement.

“We know there’s more work ahead, and we remain committed to collaborating with our partners to build a city where everyone has a place to call home.”

Throughout Allegheny County, the number of people experiencing homelessness has increased in the last year.

In 2024, the county reported 857 people staying in emergency shelters and 169 unsheltered homeless people.

The most recent count, completed in March, tallied 924 homeless people in shelters and 281 unsheltered homeless people, Gardner said.