Because of lightning in the weather forecast, Indivisible Blair County postponed a sit-in it had planned for Friday evening at Tuckahoe Park, to protest a three-month-old city ordinance that the group says “criminalizes” homelessness.

The group intends to reschedule the sit-in, which is intended to draw attention to what the group believes is a wrongheaded and counterproductive measure, according to group President Carol Taylor.

The “urban camping” ordinance adopted in April is not meant to criminalize homelessness, and is paired with policies that are intended to help, not punish homeless people, according to city officials.

It doesn’t make sense to impose a fine that takes money from people for already not having enough to pay for a place to live, according to Taylor.

“It essentially punishes unhoused individuals” for being poor, according to Taylor

The intention is actually to clear the streets of homeless people, to make the problem “disappear,” which city officials regard as a benefit, according to Taylor.

But that is not a solution, and only makes the problem worse, she said.

The planned sit-in exemplifies one of the best qualities of living in the U.S. — the freedom to protest, said both City Manager Chirstopher McGuire and Councilman Dave Ellis.

But under the ordinance, no one has been arrested yet, according to both men.

Ellis, the city’s recently created Homelessness Task Force, along with Majors Christopher and Jenn Blessing of the Salvation Army, working with other nonprofit agencies, have made “tremendous progress” in helping homeless people move toward “more permanent solutions,” McGuire said.

“We’ve gotten a few homeless people placed,” Ellis said.

Three weeks ago, Ellis, Mayor Matt Pacifico and the Blessings encountered a group of homeless individuals, all from Altoona, including two veterans and a married couple, according to Ellis.

One of the veterans, who had already been working with Van Zandt VA Medical Center, has found a place to live, while the married couple has been connected with a housing facility operated by Blair Health Choices, Ellis said.

Such encounters with homeless individuals have been amicable, Ellis said.

Officials first ask whether such individuals are from out of town, and if they are, whether they would like to be transported back to their home communities, Ellis said.

That would be done by the Salvation Army or AMED — but only if those agencies can confirm there is some party, perhaps a family member, willing to accept and help the person when they reach their destination, Ellis said.

If they don’t want to go or there is no one to receive them in their home community, Altoona officials refer them instead to agencies around here that can help, he said.

One day this week, Pacifico — who, along with Councilman Bruce Kelley, had dissented in the adoption of the urban camping ordinance — interceded on behalf of two homeless individuals in separate cases, Pacifico said.

In the first case, Pacifico found a man sleeping mid-morning next to the front entrance of the Transportation Center downtown, woke him up, asked if he needed help, and upon the man nodding yes, introduced himself, then got him a breakfast sandwich from Tom & Joes, and called Christopher Blessing, who sent two Salvation Army workers over to help, Pacifico said.

In the second case, Pacifico saw a man outside the Transportation Center with bandages on his arm, IV bandages on the inside of his elbows, medical tape around his head, a massive bruise on his face and blue hospital pants — carrying a clear bag with medicines and what turned out to be hospital discharge papers, the mayor said.

“Everybody was walking by him, looking at him,” but not helping, Pacifico said.

The man was unable to balance himself, and was holding himself up on a UPS dropoff box, the mayor said.

Pacifico called the Blessings and spoke to the man, who said he’d been released from a hospital in another county, had fallen and bruised his face on the ground outside the hospital, then had been sent on an Uber to the Greyhound station in that county, where he’d caught a bus to Altoona, the mayor said.

He had nowhere to go, Pacifico said.

The Blessings arranged for him to get to UPMC Altoona, where he is receiving care and where arrangements are being made to transfer him to a nursing home, Pacifico said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.