A proposal by the Allegheny County Department of Human Services to transform a vacant building along Bigelow Boulevard into a low-barrier overflow shelter has put Polish Hill residents at odds with each other.
For some residents, the ACDHS proposal follows a natural arc for Polish Hill: A tight-knit community with resources to share and access to Downtown has a vacant building up for sale. But some residents see drawbacks to a low-barrier overflow shelter along a busy road, even as they say they’d support a longer-term housing facility for people experiencing homelessness.
“I would feel strongly about any neighborhood they put it into that doesn’t have the resources or facilities that they need to support that shelter,” said resident Mike Duray.
The Pittsburgh Zoning Board of Adjustment is set to hear testimony today on whether to change the building’s use to interim housing. Pittsburgh’s Public Source will update this story after the ZBA meets.
Replacing the Perry South winter shelter
After operating an overflow winter shelter in Perry South for the past two years, ACDHS plans to replace it with the proposed Polish Hill site, which would operate year-round.
The new site would offer immediate, low-barrier shelter daily between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m. at 3567 Bigelow Blvd., a commercial building that’s been used in the past for events and video production.
Similar to the Perry South location, the nonprofit Community Family Advocates would run the new site, which would offer 80 to 100 beds year-round with the option to expand to 150 beds during severe weather events. The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership will also shuttle clients from the site to the Second Avenue Commons shelter in Downtown for daytime services.
‘The perfect site doesn’t exist’
Chris Soult, the deputy director of the Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations, said the original Perry South overflow shelter was difficult to get to and far from the services needed by people experiencing homelessness.
“The perfect site doesn’t exist, but this one is more centrally located and that is better for those who need to use the shelter,” he said.
In addition to the site’s proximity to Downtown, ACDHS chose the building because of “its mixture of accessibility, proximity to transit, and a building layout well-suited for congregate sleeping, that was not inside of a residential or retail zone,” said the agency spokesperson in an email.
Some Polish Hill residents who fully support the shelter said they have lingering questions about mobility around the site and how it’ll be managed. For Lizzie Anderson, creating a safe place for people to sleep at night takes precedence.
“The reality is that homeless people don’t get perfect things. This is not going to be a perfect thing. But it’s a life-saving thing,” Anderson said.
At a September meeting at the West Penn Recreation Center organized by Anderson, homelessness services experts described the importance of overflow shelters to a room of roughly two dozen Polish Hill residents.
For one, conducting case management is easier when people are established at a shelter, said Kwabena Danso-Ayesu, the senior director of housing and community services at Goodwill of Southwestern PA.
Maisie Taibbi, a behavioral health nurse and the outreach team lead for Pittsburgh Mercy’s Operation Safety Net, said she knows people who only receive medical care from November to March, the timeframe in which overflow shelters typically operate. Providing care in a sheltered setting is easier than in a “chaotic” outside environment, she said.
Councilor: Wrong housing, wrong use
At a public hearing held by Pittsburgh City Council in August 2025, Councilor Deb Gross said that during the COVID-19 pandemic many of the body’s conversations centered on the rise of homelessness.
The bill on the table that day sought to curb the rising number by establishing interim housing — or facilities “that provide housing for homeless or those facing homelessness” and where “shelter and support are provided for individuals to facilitate transition to more permanent housing” — as a new use in the city’s zoning code.
“What we have in front of us now is not solving all the problems, but it does address one narrow portion that was problematic in our zoning code, which is that in areas where you could have apartments and multi-family and hotels, why not make it easier to also apply to have … supportive services, transitional housing shelters?” she said at the time.
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The original intent of the ordinance, passed in August 2025, was to allow for transitional housing, she said. The county defines transitional housing as a place where people experiencing homelessness can stay and receive supportive services for up to two years.
She said it’s now being “misapplied” to the proposed Polish Hill site, which she sees as overnight shelter, not transitional housing.
“Where is more transitional housing?” she said in a Sept. 28 interview. “They seem to be overly investing again in the congregate overnight shelters.”
Duray, a longtime Polish Hill resident who lives a few streets away from the proposed site, said he’d prefer “something provided that they can live in and have some sense of permanence.” Otherwise, “it’s dehumanizing to shuttle people around,” he said.
And despite its proximity to Downtown, Polish Hill has limited resources for people experiencing homelessness, said resident Dana Dolney.
“We have three bars and a coffee shop. And a church. And a park,” she said. “That’s pretty much the resources in Polish Hill.”
As part of its Bus Line Refresh, Pittsburgh Regional Transit also plans to remove four Downtown-bound bus stops along Bigelow Boulevard, including one that currently sits in front of 3567 Bigelow Blvd.
Residents such as Duray and Dolney say they didn’t receive ample time to voice their concerns about the site. Gross also contends that Zoning Administrator Carolyn Ristau waived requirements for a development activities meeting and management plan, which the ordinance requires.
Ristau and the neighborhood’s registered community organization, Polish Hill Civic Association, could not be reached ahead of publication.
Mia Hollie is the economic development and housing reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. She can be reached at mia@publicsource.org.
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