A fire at one of the region’s largest low-barrier homeless shelters displaced more than 180 people this past June. Allegheny County officials said Thursday that they don’t expect to be able to move residents back into Second Avenue Commons until mid-November.
“The timeline that we have suggests that it will open before the traditional opening of winter shelters,” said Erin Dalton, director of Allegheny County’s Department of Human Services.
A county spokesperson said water damage that resulted from crews dousing flames required extensive repairs throughout the facility.
Dalton cited supply-chain problems as another challenge that repair crews were contending with. And she predicted that the reopening would initially include only the first three floors of the facility. Those floors include the engagement center, the medical clinic, a 93-bed shelter and space for 40 additional beds, which would bring the total shelter capacity to 133.
The county says the top two floors, which hold several dozen dorm-room style units, will take longer to repair.
Officials have said the fire began on the roof of the facility when an air conditioning unit overheated. No one was seriously injured in the fire, but extensive fire and water damage meant the closure of the facility as well as lost belongings for some residents.
County, city and nonprofit leaders set up a makeshift shelter space inside the David L. Lawrence Convention Center the same day, with shuttles taking people to their temporary space. But not everyone from Second Avenue made it to the Convention Center. And when people needed to be moved again, even fewer made it to the current shelter offering: a gymnasium at Pittsburgh Mercy’s Reedsdale Street facility.
Some former Second Avenue residents appear to have moved into tents instead, and Dalton acknowledged that there had been a seasonal increase in the number of people living in encampments. But she claimed that the number of those who declined the Reedsdale shelter space have played little part in that trend.
“We see increases [in encampments] when it becomes warmer outside,” she said, adding that her office’s weekly count of tents has not turned up a dramatic increase in encampments compared to this time last year.
A mid-November time frame would align with the county’s usual procedure for expanding shelters as falling temperatures increase the danger associated with living outdoors. But there’s no guarantee that Second Avenue Commons will be ready by that point, Dalton cautioned.
“Obviously these are construction projects with supply-chain challenges and requirements around inspection and all of that,” she said.
In the meantime, Dalton said Second Avenue Commons’ board of directors have kept up momentum on repairs at the shelter while the county works with other partners to expand shelter offerings.
The absence of the 5-story facility sent shockwaves through the shelter system and required several providers to expand their capacity, she said.
“We had partners [including] Community Human Services and Light of Life and Unity [Recovery] open their doors, a little a little wider,” Dalton said.
Those partnerships will play a role in the county’s quest to open another overnight shelter ahead of this winter. Officials are seeking a provider to create a 75-bed capacity shelter that could be available every night between November and March. Dalton said the window for submitting proposals will close next week, after which the county will move forward with its selection process.
The uncertainty facing Second Avenue Commons echoes a series of delays that preceded its opening last year. Permitting processes and construction problems pushed back its opening repeatedly. That prompted the city and county to create a “Code Blue” program, which opened additional shelter capacity when the temperature was forecast to fall below 26 degrees.
“Our goal was to find a winter shelter where we could operate all throughout the winter,” Dalton said. “But when it became clear that that wasn't going to happen, we were able to pivot and, I think successfully operate, a shelter on the coldest nights of the year.”
