The overnight homeless shelter at the Smithfield United Church of Christ in downtown Pittsburgh will close in June.The Allegheny County Department of Human Services said in a statement Monday that the temporary shelter had continued operating past its normal March closure date. The shelter normally operates around and during winter.”The Smithfield shelter is typically open from November 15 to March 15, we’ve seen it as a winter shelter all of these years,” said Director of DHS, Erin Dalton. “Just giving the need, we wanted to make sure people were sheltered while we find other options for them. We have seen an increase in homelessness and we want to make sure we are offering good shelter options to folks.”The DHS said the Smithfield Shelter could not maintain a population during the warmer months. One reason for this is that the church has no central cooling system.”The folks at Smithfield are incredible partners here but the actual facility is not a very good facility for Summer. We are paying for temporary air conditioning that can be brought in, but big HVAC is not recommended given the age of the building,” Dalton told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4. “So it’s not only the cost of that, it’s also the challenges of the architecture of the building.”The agency said that, along with its partners, it has been “identifying naturally occurring vacancies within the shelter system, expanding capacity at existing facilities, identifying new shelter locations, and may also utilize overflow in other facilities where appropriate.”The statement noted the 90 beds created with Second Avenue Commons’ opening last year.The county told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 there was confusion with the extended closure date so they wanted to get the message out to settle any misinformation spreading around about the shelter. The county added that they didn’t have the opportunity yet to provide clients using the shelter, with as much information as they should have received. When asked if the decades-old winter shelter will reopen come November, Dalton said it’s too early to tell: “I don’t want to make decisions now about how we’ll use the shelter come November. The issue of homelessness is ever-changing right now.”The county encourages anyone in need of resources because of this change to contact the Allegheny Link at 1 (866) 730-2368. They’re open weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Folks can also head over to the Second Avenue Commons for further assistance.
The overnight homeless shelter at the Smithfield United Church of Christ in downtown Pittsburgh will close in June.
The Allegheny County Department of Human Services said in a statement Monday that the temporary shelter had continued operating past its normal March closure date. The shelter normally operates around and during winter.
“The Smithfield shelter is typically open from November 15 to March 15, we’ve seen it as a winter shelter all of these years,” said Director of DHS, Erin Dalton. “Just giving the need, we wanted to make sure people were sheltered while we find other options for them. We have seen an increase in homelessness and we want to make sure we are offering good shelter options to folks.”
The DHS said the Smithfield Shelter could not maintain a population during the warmer months. One reason for this is that the church has no central cooling system.
“The folks at Smithfield are incredible partners here but the actual facility is not a very good facility for Summer. We are paying for temporary air conditioning that can be brought in, but big HVAC is not recommended given the age of the building,” Dalton told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4. “So it’s not only the cost of that, it’s also the challenges of the architecture of the building.”
The agency said that, along with its partners, it has been “identifying naturally occurring vacancies within the shelter system, expanding capacity at existing facilities, identifying new shelter locations, and may also utilize overflow in other facilities where appropriate.”
The statement noted the 90 beds created with Second Avenue Commons’ opening last year.
The county told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 there was confusion with the extended closure date so they wanted to get the message out to settle any misinformation spreading around about the shelter. The county added that they didn’t have the opportunity yet to provide clients using the shelter, with as much information as they should have received.
When asked if the decades-old winter shelter will reopen come November, Dalton said it’s too early to tell:
“I don’t want to make decisions now about how we’ll use the shelter come November. The issue of homelessness is ever-changing right now.”
The county encourages anyone in need of resources because of this change to contact the Allegheny Link at 1 (866) 730-2368. They’re open weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Folks can also head over to the Second Avenue Commons for further assistance.
Source
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