Open letter from advocates for unhoused people calls on Downtown shelter to stop kicking people out for ‘minor infractions’

Emerging from its second winter season, the Second Avenue Commons facility in Pittsburgh is facing criticism from housing advocates, homeless outreach workers and an elected official who delivered a list of concerns on Friday morning.

The county opened the five-story facility in November 2022, and it has 43 single-room-occupancy units, 95 year-round shelter beds and 40 overflow beds available for the winter months. Under a low-barrier model , the shelter’s operator Pittsburgh Mercy has said they serve people regardless of any substance use disorder or other behavioral condition.

But an open letter to the shelter, authored by the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Union of the Homeless and with 17 signatories, said there were numerous examples of shelter users getting kicked out for unspecified “minor infractions,” sometimes during severe weather and cold temperatures. The letter is signed by at least one person experiencing homelessness, members representing organizations addressing  homelessness including Bridge to the Mountains , County Councilor Bethany Hallam and the former County Council candidate Sam Schmidt, a co-founder of the mutual aid umbrella group Our Streets Collective. Schmidt and others delivered the letter to the facility in person on Friday morning and emailed it to Pittsburgh Mercy’s leadership.

“Second Avenue Commons was meant to be a low-barrier shelter and they’re not operating like that now,” Schmidt said, adding that the shelter’s policies are vague and aren’t being effectively communicated to shelter seekers and stayers who might fall afoul of rules without even being aware of them.

Michael Turk, vice president of community and wellness services for Pittsburgh Mercy, said, “I can’t speak to specifics in the letter and there weren’t a lot of specifics.”

Turk noted that the need for shelters is greater than the beds available.

“We want to be part of the solution,” he said. “We want to continue sheltering people while other shelter options come online.”

Turk said that operating a low-barrier shelter can often lead shelter seekers to have “the assumption that there are no rules. We have reasonable rules that anybody would follow.”

Stabilized, then told to leave

Second Avenue Commons has been hailed as Allegheny County’s central low-barrier shelter, but staffing, maintaining and managing it has proved challenging since its opening.

The Our Streets Collective is as project of Food Not Bombs, the Thomas Merton Center and other groups. Its open letter credits the shelter’s operators for “the kindness and professionalism of the clinic staff, positive feedback for residents from some compassionate staff members, the provision of food for both residents and non-residents, and the comprehensive wrap-around services” offered by agencies operating there.

But the letter asserts that when staff “exit” shelter users for violating policies, they do not clearly explain how long the violator is being barred. That leads some people to believe they are permanently kicked out and unaware if they can still access the shelter’s daytime facility and medical services.

Turk said the only reason people are normally restricted from using the shelter, typically for up to 30 days, is for making threats or committing assault in the building.

Howard Ramsey, 52, signed the letter and currently sleeps in a tent. He said he used the Second Avenue Commons overflow shelter. He was offered a room to rent in the facility’s single-room-occupancy section, but declined due to restrictions, including not being allowed to have a guest in the room. So for six months, he said, he stayed in the congregate section of the shelter and began rebuilding his life.

“After six months, after not begging for cigarettes off the street, after not having to ask people for food, after not having to be this nuisance to everybody,” Ramsey said he stabilized. For a time, he had a job. “I’m finally getting myself together.”

He said that in October, he was ejected from the shelter after someone accused him of a nonviolent offense, which he denies committing. He added that he wants Second Avenue Commons to ensure that there is an advocate on hand to mediate any time someone is told to leave, even for a short time.

Since then, he has largely avoided shelters, opting to stay in a tent.

Shelter operator: safety drives ‘exiting’

The letter claims that shelter staff aren’t applying uniform standards or adequately considering disabilities when deciding whether to remove someone.

“In some cases, folks with disabilities have been ‘exited’ without first consulting the healthcare providers they are regularly working with within the shelter. We find this discriminatory and demand that shelter management apply uniform policy to all residents, and consider the humanity of these folks when risking their lives to exposure,” the letter states.

Turk said Pittsburgh Mercy has had “some discussion of arbitrary exiting and, without details, I can’t speak to how those decisions were made.”

He said the key consideration the shelter applies when determining if someone should be removed is safety.

“We have to protect the safety of everyone: staff, visitors, other providers and shelter guests,” he said.

Turk said people staying in the shelter are given policies when they first arrive, outlining the house rules.

“Those are reasonable rules,” Turk said. Consequences depend on the severity of the violation, he added. “It depends on the infraction; if it’s an assault, people are restricted for 30 days and then reviewed by a manager.”

He said the removal can be extended in cases where the assault victim is still using the shelter.

“In those cases, we’re making sure that we give them resources of where to go and pathways to get them services,” he said.

Mercy on Wednesday announced the hiring of Becky Ludwig, a 25-year veteran of social work, as senior manager of emergency shelter services at Second Avenue Commons and Bethlehem Haven .

The release also announced expanded hours at the Second Avenue Commons Engagement Center, enhanced efforts to reunify people experiencing homelessness with their families, plans to provide dentistry at the facility and enhanced staff training.

Staff at the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, which chose Pittsburgh Mercy to run the publicly supported shelter, have “been monitoring Mercy’s operation of Second Avenue Commons since it opened and are pleased with recent changes, including the addition of an onsite operational leader,” a department spokesperson wrote in response to PublicSource’s questions. “This new position should help them achieve the environment they are looking to create there.”

Mental health episode leads to departure

Justin Peatman, 41, stays with his boyfriend in a tent a few blocks from the shelter. He said the two stayed in the Second Avenue Commons overflow shelter beginning in late December, but that staff discouraged him from showing affection for his boyfriend, and they clashed with other people staying there.

Peatman said his boyfriend suffers from mental health issues. Staff, he said, “laugh at people who are having mental health episodes.”

The open letter also says that “residents with mental and behavioral health issues seem especially susceptible to bullying and humiliation tactics by staff.”

When his boyfriend suffered a dissociative episode, Peatman said, staff provided a secluded room. But staff wouldn’t let Peatman go with his boyfriend.

Turk said the shelter’s “high acuity room,” where a client can ”recenter” themself, has one bunk.

Peatman and his boyfriend decided to set up a tent nearby, in which they could spend the night if another dissociative episode occurred. But they broke a shelter rule that, as he now understands, you cannot leave your bed empty for more than two nights. When the two arrived at Second Avenue Commons one morning, they found their belongings wrapped in garbage bags.

Peatman said he was grateful that they were able to stay in the shelter for the winter but he said during their time there they were never given assistance in trying to find more permanent housing.

“They’re supposedly this resource rich place,” he said, “but all they want to do is beat you down.”

Turk said that the shelter is always up for improving and changing their policies.

“If we think there’s inconsistencies, we fine tune it and we’re working through it now. It’s a continuous improvement,” Turk said. “We get feedback from all different sources, partners, stakeholders, DHS, staff so we take all that into account and if something is unclear or perceived to be vague we sit down, review it and figure out what we need to do to make it clear.”

Anyone with concerns or complaints about a service provider working for the Allegheny County Department of Human Services can reach out to the Directors Action Line at 1-800-862-6783.

Editor’s note: Information on the organizations involved in Open Streets Collective was added after initial publication.

Stephanie Strasburg is a photojournalist with PublicSource who can be reached at stephanie@publicsource.org, on Instagram @stephaniestrasburg or on Twitter @stephstrasburg .

Eric Jankiewicz is PublicSource’s economic development reporter and can be reached at ericj@publicsource.org or on Twitter @ericjankiewicz .

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