This week, the City officially closed the Emerald St. encampment, which was adjacent to residential neighborhoods and posed a health and safety threat to those who stay there as well as to the neighbors. This marked the completion of a pilot encampment action plan for the Kensington area that targeted four encampments.

A mobile outreach and recovery van was on site during the encampment closure to provide medical care and immediate transportation to services. Outreach workers counted approximately 45 people in the Emerald Street encampment Thursday morning before closure operations started, with over half accepting some form of treatment or housing. The Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS) and Community Behavioral Health worked with non-profit providers to provide immediate access to treatment.  The Office of Homeless Services now has a total of 180 emergency, temporary beds dedicated to people who are homeless and living with opioid use disorder.

The Philadelphia Police Department conducted a three-day joint enforcement initiative that focused on combatting violence and crime in the city’s East Division. The initiative is part of ongoing efforts to deal with crime and drugs in the area. The initiative collaboratively engaged various department resources and outside law enforcement agencies to attack sources of the problems. Officers made arrests, confiscated weapons and drugs, and continued gathering intelligence. The drugs confiscated during this initiative had a street value of $262,640. The Police Department has also begun its planned initiative this weekend to remove hundreds of abandoned vehicles in Kensington from February 1-3.

Lastly, the next Community Advisory Board meeting will be on Monday, February 4. At this meeting, neighborhood leaders will be able to provide input on the City’s efforts to close encampments and reduce the unsheltered population.