A sweep of Kensington homeless encampments is underway

The city launched a sweep of homeless encampments in Kensington this week, sending outreach workers to offer shelter and other services to people living on the street, and sanitation crews to clean up vacated sites.

The “service day” actions were scheduled for Tuesday and Friday on 11 blocks, including sections of Somerset Street and Allegheny and Kensington avenues, according to an announcement from the Office of Homeless Services.

The effort is part of the city’s broader attempt to suppress Kensington’s open-air drug market and reduce its population of unhoused drug users. Police are supporting the sweeps, but are not focused on making arrests, said Deputy Commissioner Pedro Rosario, who oversees the department’s Kensington initiative. 

The service days are happening as nightly temperatures regularly descend to the low 20s, and as the city begins enforcing controversial new restrictions on where and when mobile service vans can provide medical care, food, and harm-reduction supplies in the neighborhood. 

City Council is also considering a complete ban on the mobile units in Harrowgate and other nearby areas.  

Here’s what we know so far about the latest city actions.

What’s happening, and where?

The “Service Connection/Site Clean-up” activities are happening at these locations, according to OHS:

Reach Street and Allegheny Avenue

800 E. Allegheny Ave (multiple locations on block)

1800 E. Harold St.

1800 E. Orleans St. (both sides)

1800-1813 Hart Lane (both sides)

1800 E. Somerset St. (multiple locations on block)

400 E. Somerset St.

2800 Kensington Ave (multiple locations on block)

2000 E. Sterner St.

2000 E. Silver St.

1800 E. Clearfield St.

“The teams post signs in advance to alert people living in tents, RVs, makeshift shelters, or none at all, on sidewalks, under bridges, in parks, empty fields, lots, etc.,” the agency said. They “visit the encampment sites to offer individuals services, such as rides to a city intake center where staff can help find shelter space, Stranded Traveler Assistance, behavioral health, drug or medical treatment, and other similar services.”

This week’s “service days” are different from the formal “encampment resolutions” that the city has been periodically conducting since spring 2024, OHS said. 

The exact differences weren’t specified, but the encampment resolutions involve many more city departments and nonprofit partners, and “follow specific protocols regarding personal property storage, notification, and other requirements,” the agency said. 

The city staffers on the ground are from the Office of Homeless Services Encampment Resolution Team, the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services’s Homeless Street Outreach Team, and the Department of Sanitation.

Has this happened before?

After she took office in January 2024, Mayor Cherelle Parker launched linked efforts to crack down on drug sales, shootings and other crime in Kensington; address nuisance businesses and other civil enforcement issues; expand the city’s drug treatment and recovery infrastructure; and move unhoused people off the street and into shelter.

She pledged that it would be a long-term effort with lasting impact, unlike the many abortive attempts of past decades to “clean up” Kensington and address the drug market.

The city launched the first large-scale encampment sweep in May 2024 and has since conducted many smaller such actions. Sometimes it gives advance notice and posts signs alerting unhoused people that a sweep is coming, and sometimes it does not. 

Deputy Commissioner Rosario said this week’s action is no different from the work that has been going on continuously for the past few years, except that the Office of Homeless Services has started publicly announcing its service days.

What effect have the sweeps had?

The number of people living on the area’s streets has steadily fallen over the past two years, according to the Police Department’s weekly count.

The number living in and around the Kensington Avenue corridor, between Huntingdon and East Tioga streets, is now at 195, compared to 338 a year ago, Rosario said. In the larger East police division, covering several neighborhoods, the number is down to about 300, from 445 previously.

In addition, overdose deaths in the city have dropped to pre-pandemic rates, drug seizures are way up, and the number of homicides and shootings have sharply declined. 

However, some health providers and outreach groups have warned that access to care could be significantly limited and progress on helping unhoused people could stall due to the new mobile service ban. 

What’s going on with mobile units?

City Councilmember Quetcy Lozada pushed for passage in May of a bill that bars providers from operating on residential streets or near schools and recreation centers in her council district, which covers parts of Kensington and several other neighborhoods.

As of Dec. 1, groups operating vans or mobile units need new city permits and are only allowed to operate in two locations, or for a limited time, while providing wound care, harm reduction supplies, food, clothing and other services. 

She contends the work by mobile units results in “excessive litter, large unmanageable crowds, and disruption to everyday life.”

Now residents and councilmembers in nearby District 6, including the adjoining neighborhood of Harrowgate and a large part of lower Northeast Philadelphia, want to ban mobile service providers entirely. A City Council committee approved the bill, but it has not yet been considered by the full council.

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