PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia police have cleared a homeless encampment in a city neighborhood where drug use has been rampant for years, but homeless advocates and others have raised concerns about how it happened.
The effort, which the city called an “encampment resolution,” began around 7 a.m. Wednesday in the Kensington neighborhood and was completed by 10 a.m. People living there, along with their tents and other buildings, were moved from the sidewalk along a two-block stretch.
City workers had connected 55 residents of the camp with housing services in the 30 days leading up to the eviction, officials said, and four people had been linked to drug and alcohol treatment. It was not clear how many people lived in the cleared area.
The move was the most visible action Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration has taken since she took office in January, in its effort to end the open-air drug market plaguing the neighborhood.
City officials said the eviction was carried out without incident and no arrests were made, but advocates for the homeless and others have questioned both the process and what would happen to the displaced residents. Officials had said the eviction would be led by outreach teams, but no city social workers were on site when police began moving residents.
In previous major camp clearances in the area, police did not lead the operations. Instead, on the day of the eviction, emergency responders spent hours offering residents assistance, such as giving them rides to treatment and shelter locations and helping them store their belongings.