Pittsburgh won’t remove homeless encampments after U.S. Supreme Court ruling

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Do people experiencing homelessness have the right to camp out in cities like Pittsburgh?  

Over the objections of advocates for those experiencing homelessness, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled cities can enforce no-camping laws and take down tent encampments, even if there is no offer of alternative shelter or housing.

In Pittsburgh, the tents will stay.

Tucked behind the Allegheny County Jail is a sprawling encampment of 35 tents along the Eliza Furnace Trail.

“It’s getting ridiculous. We have our two kids and I don’t even really want to take them past it. They’re definitely encroaching on the trail. You know, it’s definitely unclean. It’s a little scary,” said Ross Lapkowicz from Regent Square. 

For the past three years, encampments have sprung up in various parts of Downtown and on both the North and South sides, but even though this is perhaps the biggest one yet, the city has no plan to decommission it or take it down, despite last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision saying cities have the power to do so.

“We have to be strategic about any encampment. If we close it, where will those people end up? Where will they go? Because we don’t have enough places to put them,” said Pittsburgh Public Safety director Lee Schmidt. 

In a decision homeless advocates say criminalizes being poor, the Supreme Court has ruled cities can enforce bans on camping, even if there isn’t a sufficient number of shelter beds to offer those living in encampments. But Schmidt says Pittsburgh’s policy will stay in effect. The encampments will remain until it can make each resident a credible offer of shelter.

“Obviously with Second Avenue Commons and the fire that occurred there, that’s complicated the issue even more so we have try to work with people where they are and continue that process,” Schmidt said.

The tents are in violation of city guidelines requiring they be 6 feet back from a public right-of-way. But unlike others, encampments, the city says this one has not been the site of rampant open-air drug use or fights, police often patrol it and both the city’s ROOTS team and Public Works Department have staged cleanups, though that hasn’t assuaged all the concerns. 

“I don’t know what the solution is,” Lapkowicz said. “I think that Pittsburgh has a lot of a vacant space and somewhere right next to something Pittsburgh has done really well with the creation of these trails is the not the spot they should be allowed.” 

“We understand it can be frustrating for some folks and others feel unsafe but we’ll do our best to continue to work with everyone involved to come up with solutions that are realistic and don’t just move the problem around,” Schmidt said.  

The city and county have a committee that continually reviews conditions at these encampment, deciding which ones should be taken down. It has decided that this one will stay for the foreseeable future.