The process includes posting notices at the sites, alerting residents to services, posting the locations and dates of cleanups on social media, and, on the advertised day, sending a team to try to coax any remaining residents into shelters or services before a trash truck comes in to clear away anything left behind.<\/p>\n
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The pattern was set with the first encampment resolution on Kensington Avenue in 2018, a monumental effort that took months of planning. Now, it\u2019s become routine, but an increasingly important tool as Mayor Cherelle Parker<\/a> pursues the ambitious goal of virtually ending street homelessness<\/a>.<\/p>\n The city is adding shelter beds so that one is available any time someone wants to come in. People may still choose to live on the street, but Parker is aiming for \u201cfunctional zero,\u201d meaning episodes of homelessness are rare, brief and nonrecurring. Thus, the outreach work at the cleanup sites is essential.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just about moving somebody off of that particular area,\u201d said OHS Executive Director Cheryl Hill. \u201cIt\u2019s also about trying to engage them and get them some resources so they don\u2019t have to be in the encampment.\u201d<\/p>\n * * * *<\/p>\n At the first stop of the day \u2014 a tunnel underneath old Reading Railroad tracks near Chinatown \u2014 the lone remaining resident would barely respond to Brown\u2019s offer of help. He gathered his belongings into a shopping cart and left.<\/p>\n The second stop, under I-95, was a little more promising. The young man Brown first approached was open to help.<\/p>\n \u201cI could use a meal,\u201d he told Brown.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can take you somewhere where they serve breakfast and lunch,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n \u201cI could use shelter, too, a roof over my head.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI can help with that,\u201d Brown replied.<\/p>\n The four others on the site presented a bigger challenge. They were two married couples. Couples are hard to place. Most shelters use large rooms with multiple beds and separate men and women. The relatively few spaces for families are prioritized for women with children.<\/p>\n One woman said she and her husband were willing to be in separate rooms if they can be in the same shelter, but she was skeptical it would happen.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll just set up camp somewhere else,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s always going to be a new place, a new home, keep moving, and a couple weeks, this\u2019ll be right back open. That\u2019s what we do all the time. They shut it down; a couple weeks later, they move it right back in.\u201d<\/p>\n That, in fact, has happened at this very spot, but the outreach team said it has shrunk considerably.<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/shoes-toiletries-and-a-tent-make-up-an-encampment-u00a0under-an-i-95-on-ramp.jpg\")
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