The clearing out of the encampment beside the Fort Pitt Commons building by Pittsburgh Public Safety is another example of the city’s lack of willingness to help its unhoused population (“Pittsburgh to clear Downtown homeless camp due to drug problems,” Oct. 15, TribLive).
The sweep was chalked up to concerns over drug usage, but this is a thinly veiled and overused excuse. The Gainey administration has, since Day One, acted spinelessly toward the unhoused population in Pittsburgh while parading his support for housing rights to the public to save face. This was evident when he stood at the City-County Building proposing zoning changes behind a banner reading “Housing is a Human Right” a month before authorizing this sweep.
Gainey continues to promise tangible change in how the city handles its housing crisis but has not once delivered. Rather, his administration takes the easy way out by sending in the city officials and city police to beat down on folks at their lowest. If the Gainey administration really cared about the drug problems in the camps, they’d invest in harm reduction, not sweeping the camps. They would invest in housing these individuals for more than a few days in temporary shelters, and they’d stop pretending that they’re doing more than they are.
Henry Bard
Beechview