Second Avenue Commons has just opened just before Thanksgiving in Pittsburgh, a new comprehensive shelter providing services to the homeless. This is a low-barrier shelter that will accept pets and provide storage space to its clients. In addition to shelter, Second Avenue Commons will offer key services such as health care, food services, transitional housing, and other resources in a central part of the city. This compassionate approach to emergency housing eliminates some of the greatest barriers that keep people from accessing emergency shelters.
RHLS Executive Director Dina Schlossberg and former Senior Staff Attorney Rachel Hezel Rzayev provided representation for Second Avenue Commons, doing the key work to get the building operationalized. Dina called the project a “remarkable show of collaboration between the City Government, private philanthropy and the private sector. It will be a place of comfort, safety and hope for people.”
The shelter’s innovative approach was made possible because of the highly collaborative nature of this project. The City of Pittsburgh and the Urban Redevelopment Authority donated the land, a necessity in an increasingly competitive landscape of the city. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and Highmark Healthcare formed a partnership to provide healthcare services, and UPMC will open a medical and a behavioral health clinic on the premises, as well as contributing financial support to the Shelter.
The year-round, low-barrier nonprofit shelter, located at 700 Second Avenue, will be an adult-only shelter with 92 beds, with space for an additional 40 beds, and 45 single-room occupancy units (all of which allow pets). Second Avenue Commons will serve clients at the shelter and run a day-time drop-in center while working to transition their clients to a longer-term health care provider or other transitional housing.
In addition to the city and county officials, the $21 million project was supported by contributions of $10 million from the PNC Foundation, $6.75 million from Highmark and Allegheny Health Network, and $6.75 million of in-kind services from UPMC. Grants from the Hillman Foundation, Heinz Endowments, R.K. Mellon Foundation and the Pittsburgh Foundation were also funders.