New homeless shelter already at capacity
Second Avenue Commons, Pittsburgh’s newly opened low- barrier shelter that opened in recent weeks, is already full, community safety officials said Thursday.
The facility has 95 beds and an additional 30 overflow beds. The overflow beds are already in use, Dan Palka, Allegheny Health Network’s director of urban health and street medicine, told Pittsburgh City Council.
“Wait — repeat that,” Councilman Anthony Coghill asked in disbelief when Mr. Palka announced the facility is at capacity.
Mr. Palka, who is working with the city on outreach to those without housing, said the Downtown Commons cleared out another room in order to house another 25 people.
AHN is one myriad partners that collaborated on Second Avenue Commons along with the city government, county government and others.
It will also offer a daytime engagement center and primary care clinic. Pittsburgh Mercy and Pittsburgh Mercy’s Operation Safety Net will operate the shelter and the engagement center. UPMC will operate the primary care clinic, called the UPMC Second Avenue Commons Health Center.
A separate seasonal shelter that opened recently on Smithfield Street is also nearly full, Mr. Palka said.
Council members questioned why a $10 million contract with AHN — announced in 2021 by former Mayor Bill Peduto and using American Rescue Plan money — has yet to be signed. That money would have expanded housing for people who are homeless and provided vans to help transport them to shelters.
Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt said the contract hold-up is being dealt with by the parties’ lawyers, as the scope of the work has changed since initial funding plans were made.
Mr. Palka said planning has begun on those expanded resources but “insofar as we’ve been able to move forward on acquisition of the vehicles or executing lease agreements with the three additional sites … no, because we don’t have the contract in place.”
Mr. Schmidt says the contract has to be signed by the end of the year. Otherwise, he said, his department — which houses the Office of Community Services and Violence Prevention as well as the Office of Community Health and Safety — will have to look for a Plan B.
“It’s going to be a rough winter if we still have people on the streets and Second Avenue Commons is overflowing,” Mr. Coghill said.
Meteorological winter — which begins Dec. 1 and runs through the end of February — began Thursday. The dates make comparing weather records easier than using the astronomical seasons.
People experiencing homelessness, or those seeking to refer someone experiencing homelessness, should connect with Allegheny Link at 1-866-730-2368 for support and resource coordination.