ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Allentown City Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee voted Wednesday night to advance a proposed ordinance on homeless encampments to the next regular council meeting.
The proposed ordinance establishes requirements and procedures for the city’s response to outdoor encampments on city-owned property.
The proposed bill addresses encampments which are high risk and those that do not present a public health or safety threat.
For an encampment located in a high-risk location, the city must provide a minimum of 30 days’ written notice prior to removal and coordinate with appropriate service providers to provide outreach to individuals residing at the encampment.
To determine if an encampment is high risk, the city has established a risk-assessment rubric.
The City of Allentown is ordering those living along Jordan Creek in the Jordan Meadows area that they must vacate by August 25 due to safety concerns.
The rubric was provided separately to City Council members, but Councilmember Ce-Ce Gerlach requested that the rubric be included as part of the ordinance that comes before the full council.
For encampments where there is no public health or safety threat, the proposed bill will direct the city to continue to monitor the location and provide outreach and service information as deemed appropriate.
The city came under fire in August 2025 when it cleared a Jordan Creek homeless encampment because it was found to be a flood hazard.
In the spring of 2026, the city was once again criticized for attempting to evict a homeless encampment behind the wall in Allentown’s Fountain Park by giving residents 10 days to vacate.
In April, council voted to halt any removals of homeless encampments until an ordinance and a policy to address the issue were in place.
Managing Director Frank Kane said the administration worked on the proposed bill a long time.
“The language is ours, but all of you really had some contribution,” Kane said. “As we approach the unsheltered, we can ask people to move if we’ve tried really hard to help them, you know, find other locations, as well as helping people to connect to services. That’s basically the essence of what this policy says.”
Allentown City Council voted to halt removal of homeless encampments until an ordinance and a policy to address the issue are in place.
Gerlach credited the administration for meeting with many different organizations to weigh in on the proposed bill.
“I really appreciate that there was an effort and a focus on actually including all of the people who work on some of these challenging issues,” Gerlach said. “This is not the wording that I would want to pass, but nothing is ever what you always want. This is what we could come up with together.”
Several members of the public spoke to the committee and also requested that the rubric be made available to the public and be included in the final ordinance.
The next regular meeting of Allentown City Council is Oct. 21 at 6:30 p.m.
Workforce housing
In other business, the committee also advanced a bill to promote workforce housing in Allentown.
The bill was advanced to a future meeting of council, not necessarily the next council meeting, because several councilmembers and members of the administration said the ordinance still needs work.
The proposed ordinance would establish affordability requirements for certain new construction of multifamily rental housing developments that receive public incentives or assistance, including tax abatements under the city’s Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA) program, receive at least $250,000 in City Housing Trust Fund funding, or acquire or utilize publicly owned or controlled land subject to certain exemptions.
The concept is to ensure that the public incentives, financial assistance or land resources generate a corresponding public benefit through the creation of additional rental housing opportunities affordable to moderate-income households and are accessible to the city’s workforce.
Gerlach said the proposed legislation was modeled on a bill that was passed in Easton.
Vicky Kistler, director of community and economic development, said the bill needs work because there hasn’t been sufficient financial analysis on establishing a LERTA.
Kistler said it wasn’t a good idea to bring up the legislation at a time when the administration is focused on developing the 2027 budget.
Kistler said the proposed bill is a good first step for discussion, but not for passing as legislation in its current form.