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.