Just after 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Denise Shawl was waiting outside Smithfield United Church of Christ for a hot meal and a place to rest. Some people gathered on the steps. Others lined up along the sidewalk on each side of the entrance.
What opened as a Downtown emergency shelter over the winter has become a reliable, year-round nighttime refuge for Ms. Shawl and dozens of others experiencing homelessness.
But that option is going away soon.
The Allegheny County Department of Human Services said Monday that the temporary shelter will close next month, leaving unhoused individuals in limbo as they lose the facility they slept in for months. No specific closure date has been announced.
“Where are we going to go?” Ms. Shawl said. “They don't think about that. They don't think about our safety. Give us heads up because we’re stressed. Now I have to worry about where we got to sleep.”
The Smithfield shelter initially opened seasonally to keep people out of the cold during winter nights, typically operating between November 15 and March 15. It has since expanded operations, and its 145 available beds fill up every night. There’s typically overflow, so people sleep on foam mattresses on the floor.
DHS said it’s identifying vacancies in other shelters, expanding capacity at existing facilities, looking for new shelter locations and may also utilize space in other facilities.
Multiple people waiting to get into the Smithfield shelter Tuesday said no other options had been presented to them yet.
DHS declined to comment.
"Thank you to the wonderful leadership and congregation of Smithfield United Church of Christ for their willingness to open their church in November when we had no other winter shelter. Their decades-long commitment to a very vulnerable population is unparalleled," DHS Director Erin Dalton said in a statement Monday. "We are grateful for their partnership."
Kim Paquet, who frequents the shelter, has epilepsy and feels comforted that staff members are close by if she experiences a seizure. She prefers to sleep on the floor, rather than a cot, because she worries about falling. She said staff get her medical attention when seizures occur.
“I let them know about it,” she said. “They know what to do.”
Ms. Paquet doesn’t understand why DHS didn’t first share its decision with the people who use the shelter. She found out about the news through murmurings and rumors — conversations that continued outside the shelter Tuesday as people considered when the closure might happen.
“It's your responsibility,” she said. “If they want to close, they need to tell us instead of letting us find out on our own.”
Ms. Shawl shared a similar sentiment, saying DHS should have found alternative shelter options before moving to close it down.
“If you don't want us in the street, at least help us with hotels or something like that,” she said.
“Second Avenue Commons, they don't have anything.”
Pittsburgh officials have touted the opening of Second Avenue Commons last November as a low-barrier shelter that created 90 beds for people experiencing homelessness. The facility reached full capacity about a week after opening.
A Second Avenue staff member said that as of Wednesday, the shelter had no openings, though it varies day by day.
This won’t be the first time Ms. Shawl has been displaced. For about a year, she lived in an encampment off Second Avenue that got cleared away. Police tore down tents, and officials didn’t offer her another place to go.
Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration has overseen cleanups of two large encampments, one on the North Side and the other on Stockton Avenue. Advocates have criticized the city’s approach to the Stockton Avenue cleanup, arguing it was done without proper notice and that people’s belongings were carelessly tossed away.
Forced out of her tent, Ms. Shawl has lived on the streets Downtown since.
“We have nowhere to go,” she said. “Open the campsites back up if you’re going to close the shelters.”
The stress has affected her health, she said, causing her blood pressure to spike, and she had a stroke about a month ago.
There’s no ideal option going forward, she said — no shelter space, no affordable housing, and if she sleeps on the street, police sometimes threaten jail time or fines.
The closure of Smithfield also concerns local activists such as Terrance McGeorge, the founder of Project Matters, which advocates for Black LBGTQ+ people in Pittsburgh. He’s also a case worker for the medical center Allies for Health + Wellbeing, the region’s largest AIDS service organization.
He’s had clients who stayed at the Smithfield shelter, using it for more than just a night’s rest.
“At the very least you can get a hot meal at night, take a shower for the day and go on about your business, whether it's a job application or mental health appointments,” Mr. McGeorge said.
He said if nearby businesses or residents have concerns, losing the shelter will only make matters worse. If people have nowhere to go at night, he said, it will only add to crime and more interactions with police.
“Public safety concerns should include our most vulnerable populations,” he said. “What you're gonna find is people who really don't belong in jail or shouldn't be criminalized for being homeless. That's exactly what's going to happen. This isn't going to create a safe space for people. This is going to make it so much worse.”
Melissa Ferraro, CEO of Sisters Place, worries that closing the shelter could make already limited resources more competitive and leave people in desperate need.
“If people are relying on a safe place to go and then suddenly, it's not available, it's a scramble to find second best,” she said. “And second-best sometimes is putting you in situations that aren't safe.”
Mr. McGeorge said local advocates will ensure people don’t get left behind. He hopes to see the city and county take action soon.
“Community activists like myself will make sure we hold them accountable,” he said. “But it's really important they come up with plans that make sure our citizens are safe.”
First Published: May 24, 2023, 8:35 p.m.
Updated: May 25, 2023, 11:09 a.m.
