“No one approached us about this,” said Mr. McMahon, whose agency makes regular rounds to check on the homeless. Staffers noticed about two weeks ago that the compartments had been cleared of personal belongings, except for a painting left on the wall of one.
“All they’re doing is pushing people from one place on the street to another,” he said. “There’s nothing proactive here to use this time, money or effort to help these people.”
Dirt pile signals eviction for 16 homeless by Jon Schmitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
That’s my boss!
For the last 3.5 years that I have supervised our street outreach individuals have lived in these compartments (colloquially known as the apartments) - some have left them a mess, a few have cleaned them up in a way I thought was impossible but many have called them home.
As Pittsburgh continues to grow and succeed there comes the inevitable strains on the least influential and powerful and I’ve seen that happen repeatedly in the last few years - downtown, on the South Side, in East Liberty. I don’t begrudge whoever is finally filling in the apartments, its their property — its just amazing to know how much money is being spent on the project—$300,000—and what else that could pay for in terms of addressing the homelessness issue on the North Side.
