The Pittsburgh Zoning Board of Adjustment was set to hear testimony Wednesday on the Allegheny County Department of Human Services’ plan to convert a vacant commercial building at 3567 Bigelow Blvd. into a year-round low-barrier overflow shelter, replacing the seasonal Perry South site. Community Family Advocates would run 80 to 100 beds from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m., expandable to 150 in severe weather, with a Downtown Partnership shuttle to Second Avenue Commons for daytime services. Councilor Deb Gross said the interim-housing zoning use was intended for transitional housing and is being “misapplied” to an overnight shelter, and said the zoning administrator waived a required development activities meeting and management plan.
The interim-housing use the application relies on was added to the city zoning code by an ordinance passed in August 2025; the Perry South overflow shelter has operated for the past two winters.
The Jefferson City Council voted 6-3 Monday, with one abstention, to reject a rezoning proposal that would have allowed the seasonal shelter Room at the Inn to relocate and expand to 107 Adams St. The shelter currently operates 20 beds out of First Baptist Church during winter months; the new location would have housed 30 people a night and added a daytime resource center. Board president Scott Johnston said the group will continue searching for a location.
The Jefferson City Planning and Zoning Commission voted 4-3 in June against recommending the rezoning.
Denver's Department of Housing Stability submitted plans August 18 to build two 20,000-square-foot cold-weather shelter buildings holding around 200 guests each at 4001 and 4121 N. Monroe St. in Elyria-Swansea, the former site of the Monroe Tiny Home Village, whose contract the city declined to renew in the 2026 budget as part of a set of non-renewals of non-congregate shelter sites that saved $12.4 million. HOST executive director Cole Chandler said the goal is not to add capacity but to protect against buildings going offline or emergencies; if approved, the buildings would be the city's second-largest homeless facility.
The nearby 48th Avenue Men's Shelter is currently the city's largest homeless facility.
At a community meeting required during the zoning process, Denver's Department of Housing Stability presented plans for a 20-family homeless shelter near Columbine Street and 43rd Avenue in Elyria-Swansea. Residents said the area lacks grocery stores, childcare and green space, and questioned whether shelters are being distributed equitably across the city; neighbors also cited the proposed 400-bed cold-weather shelter about a mile away on Monroe Street, which has its own community meeting October 8.
The city filed site plans August 18 for the separate 400-bed Monroe Street cold-weather shelter about a mile away.
The Dutchess County Legislature approved 23-2 an agreement to move forward with a homeless shelter at 26 Oakley Street in Poughkeepsie, funded by a $13 million grant from the state's Homeless Housing and Assistance Program. Lawmakers also passed resolutions creating a county homelessness action plan and adding three staff to an outreach team for chronically unhoused individuals; residents objected that shelters and services are concentrated in specific city neighborhoods.
The shelter carries an eight-year sunset period, after which it transitions to serving single women and/or families only, and the county committed not to construct more emergency shelters in the city for 35 years.
Tucson's Planning and Development Services Department began the first of five public meetings on making permanent the shelter-friendly zoning changes adopted under the city's February housing and homelessness emergency declaration, which expires next February. City planner Amanda Smith said churches and nonprofits interested in opening shelters have made little progress even under the loosened rules, citing scarce viable sites and limited funding. Staff plan to draft zoning code amendments after the meetings conclude in October, with adoption targeted by spring.
The February emergency declaration shortened the shelter-approval process from several years to about six months; Tucson opened its first sanctioned encampment, STAR Village, in October 2025.