For the past several months, bedding, trash and makeshift shelters have begun lining the sidewalks around Second Avenue Commons in Downtown Pittsburgh.
The building provides shelter and 92 beds for people in the region experiencing homelessness. But for months now, the sidewalks outside the Second Avenue Commons have become their own kind of encampment, where people congregate and sleep in makeshift shelters. The trash and the bedding have now spread along Second Avenue and down other blocks.
“We can’t let go the way it is right now,” said Lee Schmidt, the director of Pittsburgh Public Safety. “The mattresses and the belongings that are obstructing the sidewalk that remain there and any biohazard, we need to be able to clean up on a regular basis.”…