The city launched a sweep of homeless encampments in Kensington this week, sending outreach workers to offer shelter and other services to people living on the street, and sanitation crews to clean up vacated sites.
The “service day” actions were scheduled for Tuesday and Friday on 11 blocks, including sections of Somerset Street and Allegheny and Kensington avenues, according to an announcement from the Office of Homeless Services.
The effort is part of the city’s broader attempt to suppress Kensington’s open-air drug market and reduce its population of unhoused drug users. Police are supporting the sweeps, but are not focused on making arrests, said Deputy Commissioner Pedro Rosario, who oversees the department’s Kensington initiative…