City’s homeless live in fear of eviction from camps
Mitch Verheyen remembers the day last year police told him to pack up his things and move from a homeless camp under a trolley bridge deck along Arlington Avenue.
“The cops came through there one day and said, ‘You have to go. Everything’s going to get thrown away,’ ” he recalled.
“So we came over here and they pretty much have left us alone ever since.”
Mr. Verheyen, 33, formerly of Allentown, lives in the largest homeless camp in the city, nestled under an overpass along Second Avenue near the 10th Street Bridge. With 13 tents, the camp represents another stop in the road for a shifting homeless population that lives in fear of eviction from city officials.
“[Eviction] seems to be fairly arbitrary — when a few people complain that they can see homeless people, [city officials] respond and just evict them,” said Jim Withers, an internal medicine physician and founder of Pittsburgh Mercy Health System’s Operation Safety
Net, which serves the homeless population.
Several of the more than 20 inhabitants of the Second Avenue camp have migrated from settlements previously shut down by the city over the past five years. In 2013, the city’s public works department partnered with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to close homeless camps on the North Side that presented health or safety concerns.
After the closures, many former residents moved to the South Side to find shelter under bridge overpasses but were met with more threats of eviction from the city.
The Arlington camp was fenced off last year because of poor conditions. Some people, including Mr. Verheyen and Niki Rogers, 36, formerly of Masontown, were forced to find residency elsewhere, which led them to the area along Second Avenue.
The camp has been inhabited for at least eight months, according to Mr. Verheyen. It was cleared out early last summer by the city but repopulated in the fall, said Dr. Withers.
Dave Gloss, clinical outreach coordinator for Operation Safety Net, visits the site three to four times a week, bringing food and other supplies and checking for medical needs. To keep the camp clean, Operation Safety Net also provides garbage bags and cans and oversees garbage pickup.
Mr. Verheyen said the inhabitants try to keep the area clean because of fears the city will close the camp if it becomes an eyesore.
“There have been talks of this camp being shut down,” Mr. Gloss said. “I mean, I understand why they would want to shut it down. It’s not necessarily the safest place for a camp. But at the same time, they need a place to call home.”
The camp is underneath the overpass of Interstate 376 and neighbors busy Second Avenue, which fills the air with noise and pollution, Mr. Verheyen said. Between the camp and the road is a steep, rocky embankment that is littered with trash.
Drivers on Second Avenue can see the camp from the road, which leaves inhabitants vulnerable to harassment and abuse from the public. Dr. Withers is reluctant to disclose the locations of six other camps across the city because of fears of harassment.
“Homeless people are more often the victims of crimes than the perpetrators,” he said.
In the past year, Operation Safety Net has provided affordable housing for six of the camp’s former occupants. The organization has found housing for more than 1,200 homeless people citywide since its inception in 1992, Dr. Withers said.
A 2014 count by the Allegheny County Continuum of Care estimated that there are 110 unsheltered homeless individuals in the county. Another 1,463 people were found living in shelters. Both numbers were up from 2013, when there were about 90 unsheltered people and 1,402 in shelters.
Some of the homeless avoid shelters, even when temperatures dip below freezing.
Last winter, Ms. Rogers was one of nine Second Avenue campers who refused to enter a shelter during the winter months, citing concerns for her safety and comfort.
“People in [shelters] are drunk, and they stink. They don’t take a shower even though there’s a shower there,” Ms. Rogers said.
“I just don’t feel comfortable around certain people.”
Occupants of the Second Avenue camp have had to cope with unsanitary conditions. Ms. Rogers said there used to be a rat problem, but that it has gotten better with time.
Mr. Gloss said that although the homeless community has done a “phenomenal job” keeping the site clean, people often sleep in urine and are exposed to hepatitis A and B.
But Ms. Rogers said she likes living in the camp because she feels safe. According to Mr. Gloss, inhabitants of homeless camps typically create social support systems that encourage trust and safety.
With the future uncertain, Mr. Verheyen said he hopes there will always be a place “for people to go when they do fall down so they can build themselves back up.” Still, he lives in fear of eviction.
“Right here, you’re on bided time,” he said. “[When] you become a nuisance, inconvenience or eyesore, they say, ‘OK, it’s time to go.’ ”
Last winter, Niki Rogers was one of nine Second Avenue campers who refused to enter a shelter during the winter months, citing concerns for her safety and comfort.