Residents and activists angered by plans to abruptly close an overnight shelter in downtown Pittsburgh packed the county courthouse Tuesday to register their frustrations with council and appeal for the plan’s reversal.
“With the closing of the Smithfield shelter, [Allegheny County] has chosen to make the homelessness crisis worse,” said county resident Sarah Chandler at Tuesday’s meeting.
The shelter, located in the gymnasium of the Smithfield United Church of Christ, provides a low-barrier place for people experiencing homelessness to sleep each night and typically operates only during the winter. This year, the Department of Human Services had decided to keep the Smithfield shelter open indefinitely due to increased demand. On May 22, however, DHS announced that the temporary overnight shelter would close at the end of June 2023.
Team PSBG, which operates the shelter, has stated 600 individuals used the shelter at least once in May 2023. DHS recently announced it has identified beds at other existing shelters, including Light of Life and Second Avenue Commons, for some but not all of the approximately 125 people who sleep at Smithfield more than a few days per month. But advocates have expressed concerns about the further displacement of an already displaced and vulnerable population.
“The county is consciously making the choice to shift the burden of basic survival needs of 600 people a month from the collective responsibility of our society back onto the individual, and that is unacceptable,” said Dan Galvin at Tuesday’s meeting, a public commenter who identified himself as an educator, veteran, and someone who has previously experienced homelessness.
Other speakers called the decision cruel and questioned the county’s plans for the people who had been sleeping at the shelter.
“Closing a homeless shelter feels like the kind of thing you shouldn’t need to argue against, especially when so many of our unhoused neighbors have nowhere to go and there is already a shortage of beds,” said Eliana Beigel. “It’s just cruel. It’s heartless. We know that. So, what? People will be displaced, They’ll end up at an encampment that the county will just tear down anyway? They’ll be downtown, they’ll get hassled by police for loitering, they’ll end up in the county jail? God forbid an unhoused person make a tourist feel uncomfortable. Where are people supposed to go and what are people supposed to do? And If the county doesn’t have a good answer, is that just because y’all don’t care?”
Another speaker, activist Tanisha Long, laid blame for the decision at the feet of Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, suggesting he was yielding to monied interests who have expressed disapproval of the presence of unhoused people in the city.
“The problem isn’t whether or not we have a Smithfield shelter. The problem is the county’s inability to provide wraparound services and access to resources. It’s our lack of interest in housing people who are unhoused. It’s our prioritization of businesses,” Long said. “The problem is we have a county executive who is beholden to the interests of PNC Bank. The problem is we have a county executive who is not interested in interacting with county council before making big decisions.”
Amie Downs, spokesperson for Fitzgerald, tells Pittsburgh City Paper in an email that Department of Human Services, not Fitzgerald, made the decision to close the shelter.
“The basement of the church is not meant or built for long-term housing of people,” she writes, adding that the shelter typically closes in March of each year and that DHS “remain[s] focused” on “transitioning individuals to more permanent, and then permanent, housing.”
Council did not directly address the proposed closure of the Smithfield facility on Tuesday, but members scheduled an upcoming public hearing on the decision to close the Smithfield shelter.
Councilmember Bethany Hallam introduced legislation that would establish new procedures governing how future decisions regarding shelter capacity would be made. The bill was referred to the economic development and housing committee for further review.
Hallam, who also made the motion for a public hearing on Thurs., June 15 at 6 p.m. to discuss the planned closure, insisted council had no previous involvement in the discussions about the shelter’s closing.
“The reality is, we have as many questions as you all do. We were not included in any discussions about the plan to close this shelter. We were not given any heads up that this was about to be announced,” Hallam said. “We were not included in that decision, so I’m sure a lot of us up here are feeling a lot of the same frustration as you are and we want answers. … We want the county to tell us what happened. Why did we announce that Smithfield was going to remain open indefinitely and then suddenly propose an arbitrary timeline to shut it down?”
The motion for a public hearing passed unanimously.