Dear Editor,
I am grateful for the ROOTS (Reaching Out On The Streets) program that the City sponsors under its Office of Community Health and Safety. For many years I have been picking up litter in Allegheny Commons East, below East Ohio Street. I try to engage with the people I see as I am doing my rounds.
Near the end of July two homeless people began sleeping on blankets in the park, behind the Hampton Battery monument. Before long they had a tent, along with three huge plastic bags of their belongings. The two people told me that they had been working with Allegheny Link and ROOTS to get a better place to stay.
I walked to the ROOTS office on East Ohio Street and spoke with two staff people who told me they knew the homeless couple and would talk with them again soon.
Two days later, the homeless couple thanked me for contacting ROOTS, whose staff people had visited them the previous afternoon. Within a few days the tent and all of their belongings were gone from the park.
We have to be vigilant to keep the park from being taken over by encampments like we had on Stockton Street just a few years ago.
The staff at ROOTS can help our neighborhood, as well as our homeless people.
— Lynn Glorieux East Allegheny
