Philadelphia to clear homeless encampment at ‘open-air drug market’

Philadelphia will clear a homeless encampment out of its Kensington section of the city, an area known as the East Coa st’s largest “open-air drug market” and the “center of Philadelphia’s opioid crisis.”

Clearing the encampment was a campaign promise of recently elected Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker. It was an initiative specified in Parker’s 100-Day Action Plan to address the violence associated with the rampant illicit drug use and homelessness in the area.

The clearing will happen on Wednesday and cause a closure in part of that section of the city for several hours.

“The temporary closure is needed to ensure the safety of City outreach teams as they engage individuals during the final day of encampment resolution on Wednesday, May 8, during which individuals residing at the encampment have been notified to dismantle any tents and structures that pose public health and safety hazards and obstruct sidewalk passage,” the city announced in a press release.

The decision to remove the encampment has been controversial among the city's politicians, according to reports.

Drugs and violence have been a problem in Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood for years, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported . An illegal billion-dollar opioid trade has led to commonplace drug use and gun violence.

Between 2015 and 2022, the city reported 1,270 fatal overdoses in just the Kensington area alone. During that same time frame, there were more than 1,400 shootings in the same area, according to reports.

Moreover, many of the residents of the homeless encampment are reportedly drug addicts . Recent estimates revealed that there are at least 675 known homeless people in just this one section of the city, with many city officials believing that number is actually much higher, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported .

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The city’s efforts to remove the encampment will be the final stage of a “month-long encampment resolution process” that began in April, CBS News reported .

Parker’s initiatives are an integral part of her declaration to make the City of Brotherly Love the nation’s “safest, cleanest, greenest, big city.”