Pittsburgh leaders look for ways to fight homelessness

Pittsburgh leaders are looking to combat what they say is a growing problem with homelessness in the city.

City Council President Theresa Kail Smith, D-Westwood, said she encountered the problem first-hand a few months ago in Mt. Washington, where people were staying in Fireman’s Parklet at Shiloh Street and Virginia Avenue.

“There was a lot of mental health (issues), a lot of addiction,” said. “I was driving up there and a gentleman tried to break into my car, tried to break my window, tried to pull me out of my car.”

Kail-Smith said that person has since received assistance for mental-health issues, but she said the incident is an example of how serious the problem is.

“People are getting hurt, and we are creating more victims,” she said. “Businesses are getting frustrated. They feel like our process is taking too long and someone is going to get hurt.”

Working with the Office of Community Health and Safety and police, Kail Smith said they have been able to cut back on the homeless issues in Mt. Washington.

Officials removed benches where people were sleeping and worked with members of the community to try to find long-term solutions for people living in the park.

Now, Kail-Smith said she’s hearing many concerns from the area formerly represented by Councilman Corey O’Connor, who left City Council to become Allegheny County Controller. He will be replaced in a special election in November.

“I started to take tons of phone calls about people on Forbes and Murray (avenues),” Kail-Smith said. “They ask for money and they follow (people). Some people don’t want to deal with that. They want to relax in their own neighborhood.”

Kail-Smith said she is working to find more permanent solutions to resolve the problem in a way that benefits business, residents and those who are looking for a home.

“I think it’s the most inhumane way to treat unhoused people, by allowing them to stay on the streets in all sorts of elements,” she said. “The whole idea of the way we’re doing it needs to be rethought.”

Kail-Smith said she wants the city’s homeless to go from living in tents or on park benches to “a place where they’re able to live with protection from the elements and protection from any kind of personal harm.”

She said she has been looking at approaches other cities have taken. For example, in Harrisburg, veterans’ groups and government agencies funded an initiative to build tiny homes for homeless people. She suggested such a project could be done on city-owned land where buildings have been demolished.

“There’s all sorts of ways we can put help together,” she said. “It’s just coordinating the efforts.”

Mayor Ed Gainey’s office said the mayor is willing to help.

“Pittsburgh, like many other cities around the country, has seen a rise in the population of our unhoused residents,” said spokeswoman Maria Montaño. “There are many contributing factors to this such as the lack of affordable housing, the end of the emergency rental assistance programs and the covid-19 pandemic.”

Montaño said the city has been “doing ongoing outreach to the majority of unhoused residents” and is working to connect them with necessary resources. The “vast majority” of the city’s homeless people are on waiting lists for housing, she said.

She said a new 24-hour shelter, Second Avenue Commons, is scheduled to open this fall. It will provide additional beds and shelter access.

“We hope that our city can come together as one community to do the work to help solve this longstanding and critical issue,” Montaño said.