New Downtown Pittsburgh homeless shelter already at capacity

Second Avenue Commons, a homeless shelter that opened last week in Downtown Pittsburgh, is already at capacity, officials said.

“We’re now into the overflow space, which is the cafeteria that’s downstairs,” said Dan Palka, Allegheny Health Network’s director of urban health and street medicine.

Palka is collaborating with the city on homeless outreach and other community initiatives. AHN is one of several partners that worked to bring Second Avenue Commons to fruition.

The year-round shelter, which opened Nov. 22, has 90 beds with room for 30 additional overflow beds. There are 43 single-room units. The shelter also offers a daytime program, known as the Engagement Center, and a primary care clinic operated by UPMC.

Palka said officials at Second Avenue Commons cleared out another room in the facility that will be able to accommodate an additional 25 people.

“Every accommodation is being made to make sure no one is being turned away, but we are certainly in need of more options,” Palka said.

A winter shelter operating on Smithfield Street is “also nearly at capacity,” Palka said.

This comes as the city is awaiting finalization of a contract with AHN that would expand homeless outreach throughout the city. Council members on Thursday expressed frustration with delays in finalizing that contract, which Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt said must be signed by the end of the year. If it is not, he said, the city would begin to look for alternatives to address homeless outreach.

“It’s going to be a rough winter if we have people on the streets,” Councilman Anthony Coghill of Beechview said.

Related:

• Second Avenue Commons shelter opens in Downtown Pittsburgh

• Pittsburgh officials hoping to move homeless people from encampments to new shelter

• Pittsburgh leaders look for ways to fight homelessness