As winter homeless shelters fill around Pittsburgh, City Council may look to zoning changes to allow for legally authorized homeless encampments. A bill set to be introduced Monday would create a new zoning use called a "temporary managed community" — areas that could host homeless encampments, with support staff, heat and food.
“We know [shelters are] full right now. … it’s just heartbreaking,” said the bill's sponsor, Councilor Deb Gross. “We want to make sure that we're not the obstacle for trying to achieve a temporary managed community.”
The bill would amend the city’s zoning code to create the new temporary managed community designation, which would authorize tent sites that meet a list of requirements including heated restrooms and medical facilities. It's an attempt to address the fact that the number of people who need shelter is larger than the city’s capacity to provide it — and it comes amid ongoing questions about the city's policies on homelessness.
The zoning change is the first step of a larger plan drawn up by Gross and Councilor Anthony Coghill, who chairs the city’s committee on homelessness. If the change is approved, the next phase would be a pilot site with 25 tents, electricity, a portable shower and restroom trailer, as well as medical services and food.
But overall, Gross said, the city desperately needs to create more affordable and transitional housing options. “People cannot live in the city of Pittsburgh on a disability check,” she said. “You cannot live indoors anywhere if you are on some of the lower levels of Social Security income.”
But in the absence of a rush of affordable units coming online, leaders must look to stopgap solutions, said Coghill. He said city-sanctioned camps could provide a safer alternative “just to get us through this winter, so people don't freeze.”
Though Allegheny County’s Department of Human Services announced last week it has increased shelter capacity by 65% over the last two years, officials acknowledge the system is overwhelmed. Coghill noted that even with more shelter beds, there will still be people living on the street this winter, either by choice or circumstance.
“They want to stay together, most of these folks,” and they could inside the sanctioned camps, he said.
“If they're in a safe community that they want to stay with, that is what we can provide with safe outdoor shelters,” Gross added.
Both said campsites with electricity and running water could be set up quickly. That's crucial as emergency shelters may be forced to turn away people with few other options — in part because a decades-old Downtown church shelter remains closed this winter.
According to data from Allegheny County’s Department of Human Services, as of last week nearly 200 people were known to be living outside. That's about the same number of people living on the street as last year, though some advocates argue the real number is higher. More than 700 other people are depending on an emergency shelter, according to the county's data.
Multiple sites likely
Though the bill sets a per-camp capacity limit of 50, Coghill suggested the first site could initially serve 25 people and build from there. Recognizing that a camp that size would could only account for about 12% of the estimated number of city residents living outside, Coghill said the city should seek to set up multiple sites this winter.
Not every site would need to be government-run. The zoning change also allows a nonprofit to manage a campsite. Before a site application is approved, the bill requires a public hearing and an operational plan that meets a list of requirements, including restroom and bathing facilities.
Gross said the idea to define legal campsites was inspired by a similar move in Denver which began during the COVID-19 pandemic but expanded in the years since. According to The Denver Post, strong pushback from nearby residents delayed additional sites from opening earlier this year. But Denver’s City Council made the outdoor sites permanent this summer and pledged to fund them through 2024, according to Denverite.
Though time is of the essence as temperatures drop, Coghill and Gross said Pittsburgh must also allow the public to weigh in on the location of the sanctioned campsites.
“The public will definitely have your chance to be heard and have your voice registered,” Gross said. “That's really important any time we do zoning changes.”
The legislation also sets a four-year limit on any camp permit. Gross said the limit is to ensure that the sites are temporary. “Our goal is not to have permanent tenant communities,” Gross said. “The people in those tent communities: that's not their goal either.”
The proposed zoning rules themselves will be sent to the city's Planning Commission for review and a recommendation, though council is not necessarily bound by the commission's opinion.
Council, mayor working from different playbooks
While council’s latest idea focuses on where camps can exist, the Gainey administration has been trying to better communicate where they can’t. Over the summer, the city's Office of Community Health and Safety established a new encampment clearance policy to clarify which camps would be swept. The first clearance under the new policy took place earlier this month along First Avenue downtown, after reports of assault and other violence in the tents.
The Gainey administration policy calls to clear camps in several scenarios, including when they are located in a public park or private property, or when there is visible use or sale of illegal drugs, or credible reports of violence.
But the policy has not yet yielded a widespread removal of camps. Officials say they’re treading cautiously with input from outreach workers and other service providers.
A Gainey administration committee — with input from the mayor’s office, public safety officials and the county — makes the final call before a camp is cleared. Multiple camps meet the criteria for clearance under the new policy, but the mayor’s office has pledged to find shelter offers for people before requiring them to move.
It’s not yet clear whether the mayor’s office will support the idea of city-sanctioned campsites. A spokesperson for Mayor Gainey did not respond to a request for comment about the zoning change legislation.
Gross and Coghill said they’ve identified multiple suitable sites along the city’s riverfront and downtown that could serve as a location for a pilot site. They declined to specify an exact location when the two spoke to WESA last week. And they both stressed a need for the city and county to get on board with the idea first.
“Getting the buy-in is very important. We don't know if the county or the mayor's administration has anything in the pipeline,” Coghill said. “But this is immediate. Like let's start doing this next week.”
Gross and Coghill said they had discussed the idea with the administration but had yet to hear back — part of an apparent broader disconnect between the two branches on homelessness.
Both council and the mayor have advocated for the city to invest in so-called transitional housing — where people can live for longer periods of time until they find employment and permanent accommodations. And in May, Gross and Coghill urged that the city devote its efforts into one of three ideas for longer-term accommodations for people experiencing homelessness: building a village of tiny homes, redesigning an office building into a dorm-style apartment complex, and constructing a long-term shelter similar to Second Avenue Commons.
But six months later, none of the three proposals have moved forward.
The Gainey administration has pointed to a lack of funding plan to bring the ideas to life, noting that Allegheny County’s Department of Human Services receives federal support for such projects. And Gainey officials told WESA last week that the mayor is working on a separate transitional housing proposal, though they declined to provide details.
But Gross said time is of the essence.
“We really need to move forward with expanding that deeply affordable housing,” Gross said. “But also in the meanwhile, there's no place for these people who are outdoors right now to get indoors. And so we need to make sure that they're safe, clean and warm this winter.”
