Allegheny County’s Department of Human Services is seeking proposals to build a homeless shelter in Carrick that would house about a dozen people.

The move comes as the Department of Human Services is seeking to fund multiple small, low-barrier shelters across the county. Homelessness in Allegheny County has been increasing slightly, and a new, large shelter that opened Downtown last fall has been consistently at capacity.

The Carrick shelter would be located at 2230 Brownsville Road. It would be open around the clock and serve a nighttime population of 13 people. The county’s request for proposals said the shelter would offer a “safe and welcoming place to stay.”

Department of Human Services spokesman Mark Bertolet said Carrick was chosen because it is one of the largest city neighborhoods and a frequent previous address listing for many shelter users.

He said the Carrick proposal is part of a broader push to create smaller shelters in communities where people have more community ties, and for shelters that don’t make people vacate during the day.

“Our current system is fairly centralized, but people experience homelessness all over the county,” said Bertolet. “Creating smaller, 24/7, temporary housing spaces in communities where people are living is in line with our commitment to surround people with appropriate services and supports, including familiar community supports.”

The building is a converted nursing home located about a block from a small business district and the Carrick Regency affordable housing complex. It also is two blocks from Carrick High School and Pittsburgh Concord K-5 elementary school.

It contains about seven bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen and office, according to the request for proposals. The county said the building’s landlord is now completing repairs to improve the bathrooms and kitchen and installing window air conditioning units in the bedrooms.

The proposal has already attracted criticism from a Carrick community group.

Members of the Carrick Community Council spoke at Tuesday’s Allegheny County Council meeting, voicing opposition to bringing a homeless shelter to Brownsville Road. Some said it was located too close to Pittsburgh Concord K-5 school. Others said they didn’t object to the idea of creating more homeless shelters, but thought Carrick wasn’t a good place for one because it is not centrally located in the county.

Laura Doyle of the Carrick Community Council said the community was “blindsided” by the proposal and criticized the county for not meeting with neighborhood members before submitting a request for proposals.

“I think that this lack of information leads to fear and I can see that fear on social media. Lots and lots of fear of the unknown and I think people feel a loss of control of their neighborhood,” she said.

Doyle said a better site for a homeless shelter might be something outside of the residential part of the neighborhood. She suggested a methadone clinic on Route 51 on the edge of the neighborhood or the Western Penitentiary site in Marshall-Shadeland on the city’s North Side. That site is owned by the state, which recently put it up for sale. It has already attracted multimillion-dollar offers.

The request for proposals was first issues on Aug. 10 and proposals were being accepted through Thursday.

As for potential additional shelters, Bertolet said the county doesn’t have any specific locations in mind but is looking at areas with access to public transportation and community services.

The county’s relationship with the Smithfield United Church of Christ overnight shelter in Downtown has come under controversy, and the Department of Human Services may be rethinking its relationship with the shelter.

The shelter typically welcomes people in the evenings to stay overnight from November through March, though it extended those stays through June before closing for the season this year. The closing was met with pushback from advocates and some politicians.

The area immediately outside of the shelter has garnered headlines for illicit activity. A fatal shooting occurred outside the shelter Thursday night.

Bertolet said the county has not yet made a decision about its relationship with the Smithfield shelter.

“We are still exploring our options,” he said.

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