Homeless shelters are part of the carceral landscape, just like prisons, jails, schools and psychiatric hospitals. This post goes into some detail about how that works locally, using the then-new shelter next to Allegheny County Jail as a case study. Originally published on November 18, 2022.
In the summer of 2021, news dropped that the city had broken ground on a new homeless shelter downtown. Unlike pretty much every other shelter in the county, this one was going to be a low barrier facility – open around the clock, welcoming to couples, with room to store belongings, and even open to those with cats or dogs. Nor was the facility to be just a roof above residents’ heads. Showers, laundry, a medical clinic, and a daytime hangout area open to all were also on offer. The opening date was not specified exactly, but was said to be sometime in the summer of 2022.
Less celebrated in the media were the drawbacks. No one under 18 would be admitted, and there were only 95 shelter beds, plus another 45 single room occupancy rooms for longer term stays, nowhere near enough to accommodate Allegheny County’s growing homeless population. Residents would be charged $525 a month for the SRO rooms. Worse, Pittsburgh’s practice of opening warming shelters in the winter would cease once the new facility came on line. Regardless, Second Avenue Commons, the new shelter’s official name, was greeted by many leftists and nonprofits as a positive development. In some ways they’re right, but looking at it from a viewpoint of counterinsurgency and social control reveals a darker aspect.
Let’s start by setting the stage. Pittsburgh is a liberal city, a blue bastion where politicians of all stripes are more or less forced to be Democrats because it’s the only game in town. Since construction began on Second Ave. Commons, then-mayor Bill Peduto has been replaced by Ed Gainey, a Black liberal politician beloved by the city’s progressives, but who maintains a close working relationship with businesses and development interests. And as chronicled in our last post, former police chief Scott Schubert has been replaced on an interim basis by Thomas Stangrecki, who is presumably interested in holding the position permanently. Finally, we should not neglect Pittsburgh’s nonprofit corporations and foundations, who are major players in local politics.
One of the city’s largest nonprofits is the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, a hospital chain with its own health insurance provider. UPMC’s Mercy Behavioral Health arm will be running the new shelter and its associated medical services. Several other foundations contributed startup funds, and the land was donated by the city via the Urban Redevelopment Authority. This might seem like an odd decision at first glance. Why give away valuable property in Pittsburgh’s cramped downtown to a homeless shelter that could as easily have been shuffled off to Northside? It makes a lot more sense given Second Ave. Commons’ location – right next door to Allegheny County Jail, leading observers to unofficially rechristen the place Jailview Apartments. The area doesn’t get enough foot traffic to drive retail sales, office space is a drug on the market since so many local yuppies have been working from home, and nobody is going to drop a quarter million dollars on a condo beside a jail with a view of an overpass. Since there’s nothing else to do with the parcel, the city government gets to unload a white elephant from its portfolio and get a nice PR boost in the process.
The remote, yet central location is also convenient for the police, for a number of reasons. Jailview’s one stop shopping for services is a great way to keep the state’s homelessness surveillance database current. It also means that many homeless people who don’t live there will still be spending a lot of time in the place, making it easy for them to be picked up on outstanding warrants, especially if workers there tip off police about upcoming appointments. And since the shelter is supposedly taking a more tolerant approach to drug use, many residents and visitors won’t bother getting rid of illegal substances before checking in. The cops will have many opportunities to rack up cheap possession busts by posting up near Jailview and stopping and frisking anyone who looks like a client. But best of all, from a police point of view, is the opportunity to get homeless people out of sight where they won’t spark complaints. In other words, one of the reasons the homeless shelter is next to the jail is the same reason the jail was placed there in the first place – it’s tucked away in an isolated pocket of downtown where few yuppies will have to be reminded that it exists.
Jailview Apartments plays another role in invisiblising the homeless by giving the police an excuse to sweep camps. Unlike many cities, Pittsburgh doesn’t have a Skid Row. There is no single massive camp in the middle of the city, just small groups of tents strung along the riverbanks. Yet this relative unobtrusiveness has not stopped yuppies from complaining about having to see poor people while jogging on riverside bike paths. Local media amplifies yuppie whining while excluding any opposing narratives. The police, ever responsive to their true clientele, would like nothing better than to clear out every tent between 40th Street and the West End bridge, but there are complications. Mayor Gainey, less than a year into his term, is still in his honeymoon phase with the liberals that put him in office. He doesn’t want to risk the optics of his police force destroying the only shelter many homeless people have just as the weather has turned cold. Stangrecki can’t afford to piss off Gainey if he wants to preserve any chance of becoming permanent chief. The compromise they all arrived at was to wait until Jailview opened before doing widespread sweeps, regardless of the reality that it won’t have enough room for most of those evicted.
Fast forward to today, two months after the latest possible original completion date, and Jailview still hasn’t opened, even as temperatures have plunged below freezing. Promised move-in dates slipped to October, then to November 15, the traditional date when the city opens warming shelters at night. The latest promise from the city is November 21, the Monday before Thanksgiving, but this too seems likely to slip. Electricians were observed working in the lobby on Thursday, November 17, leaving only two working days to finish construction and get a final inspection from the Department of Permits, Licensing, and Inspection. If PLI doesn’t turn up before Thanksgiving week, we can expect further delays until personnel return from vacation.
Not surprisingly, the cops have been getting antsy. Despite the new shelter still not being open, they gave a seven day notice of eviction to a small camp located beneath the convention center beside the Allegheny Riverfront Park trail. (Keep in mind that the only reason they even bothered giving notice is that they were forced to by a lawsuit brought by the ACLU). Pittsburgh Union of Regional Renters describes the ensuing bureaucratic mess:
“A week and a half ago, multiple local news reports declared homeless neighbors would be swept off the side of the Allegheny River Trail, if not also away from other encampments in town. Here’s one. Here’s another one.”
“For days, the Ed Gainey administration chose to do nothing to correct this notion. It left us, and the homeless people we know to believe it was the truth. Many of us believe it was the truth — not least of all because even officials far closer to the mayor than any of us also could not get real answers, even as official notices of a sweep stood posted above the tents of homeless Pittsburghers. As a result, homeless people who still needed support and shelter scattered, fearing reports of a sweep. If this wasn’t intentional, it was extremely, predictably harmful. Or as one homeless comrade put it, ‘Yeah, they scared the fuck out of a lotta people.’“
“Because we had been to the camps, when members of the administration breathlessly insisted late in the day on Wednesday that everyone had been helped, we knew they were lying. We knew they would have no way of knowing if the things they were saying were true. We know they are not because we continue to work with former trailside residents who remain homeless. It was only as public backlash Tuesday and phone calls Wednesday rang into the mayor’s office did the administration even begin to give tangible answers to public officials and advocates. Only then did the public plan for Thursday begin to take shape, or – as we believe – change to something less inhumane.“
“A government – and let’s be clear, the county bears responsibility this too – should be responsive to our reactions. It also should not treat the people its already failed as carelessly and violently as it has for decades upon decades. Last week was no exception. The hotel stays for those that got them have since ended while the Second Ave. shelter (AKA Jailview) is still not open. This supposedly “low-barrier” shelter will not be accepting children, either. And the city plans to close its cold-weather shelter once the Second Ave. shelter opens — knowing full well there are hundreds more homeless than there are shelter beds in the city.“
“We continue to refer the homeless people we meet and eat with to the best city resources available through the best channels we’ve got. Many of us who were (re)activated by recent events are committing to bolster the ongoing autonomous and material support of our homeless neighbors. Part and parcel with that work is telling the truth of what we saw and keep seeing. None of us are particularly trustful of public officials in the first place. Last week’s attempt at “PC” homeless sweeps only deepens that distrust, and our resolve.“
All residents ended up leaving before the threatened sweep, but even the few who scored temporary hotel rooms from the city report being kicked out of them days sooner than promised, with the new shelter still not open. It’s hard not to see the rooms as a bribe for dispersing quietly, rather than a good faith attempt to provide temporary housing. Similarly, Jailview’s purpose is more to satisfy the political needs of a few powerful people and organizations, than to be a serious solution to Pittsburgh’s housing shortage. If the city and county governments really wanted to end homelessness locally, they could seize mostly empty office buildings by eminent domain and convert them to affordable housing. They could fund the Pittsburgh Land Bank. They could institute rent control. They could pass a law requiring hotels to make their vacant rooms available for temporary housing. Bare minimum, they could let people camp on city property without being harassed and evicted. Instead they opt to brush homelessness, and those who suffer from it, under the rug, while holding up a false solution to better pretend to be doing something useful.
Addendum: We have learned that residents began moving into the SRO rooms late on Thursday, November 17, but that the shelter beds and drop-in center will not be available until at least the 21st.
Addendum 2: The new occupancy permit for Jailview can be found on line. Currently it lists the SRO rooms, warming center, and lounge/storage – but not the shelter beds.
Addendum 3: Jailview opened the shelter portion of the facility at 2:00 PM on Tuesday, November 22. In unexpected good news, the city announced that the cold weather overflow shelter at 620 Smithfield St. would remain open, contradicting previous plans to shut it down when Jailview became available.