Allegheny County awarded $1.2M for homeless programs
Without $1.2 million in federal coronavirus funding announced Wednesday by Allegheny County officials, providing shelter and services to the county’s homeless population would be tougher.
“We would not be in the best situation,” Cynthia Shields, assistant director of the county Department of Human Services Office of Community Services, said. “If we did not have this money coming in, we would be looking at how we could minimize expenses as much as possible.”
The region’s first dose of wintry weather came this week, a time where it becomes more important for those facing homelessness to find shelter.
There were just under 900 homeless people in Allegheny County in January, when the county does a federally required single-night count of the homeless population.
The coronavirus pandemic has been challenging the places that serve the homeless, Shields said.
Capacity levels have been changed to allow for social distancing and some shelters have been used to house people who are quarantining and have no place to go, she said.
The $1.2 million in funding was awarded to the county by the state Department of Community and Economic Development and it’s part of the federal coronavirus funding that was allocated to Pennsylvania earlier this year.
Allegheny County received the largest allocation and the county will “put it to immediate use,” Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said in a statement.
“It is quite a lift for the county and its partners,” Fitzgerald said.
To serve the homeless population, there’s a men’s winter shelter at Smithfield United Church of Christ Downtown and a women’s winter shelter at Shepherd’s Heart Fellowship in the Bluff that are both operated by Pittsburgh Mercy Behavioral Health Services.
A shelter in McKeesport run by ACTION-Housing will also be supported by the funding, Shields said.
The money, along with support from foundations in the region, is helping to keep these programs running.
“We’ve had a lot of folks who donate and help out,” Shields said.
Tom Davidson is a TribLive news editor. He has been a journalist in Western Pennsylvania for more than 25 years. He can be reached at tdavidson@triblive.com.
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