BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2013 Bethlehem City Council heard information Tuesday night about the potential for a year-round emergency shelter.<\/p>\n
A representative of the city\u2019s homeless population presented a letter with numerous signatures supporting such a year-round shelter and the city\u2019s broader efforts to address the affordable housing crisis.<\/p>\n
The speaker described challenges, including crime and harassment, faced by the city\u2019s unhoused population as spring approaches and the Bethlehem Emergency Shelter closes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to sleep soundly when anything can happen under the cover of dark,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Community and Economic Development Director Laura Collins said converting the city\u2019s volunteer-run emergency shelter to a year-round operation will require significant capacity building.<\/p>\n
Collins said the project is estimated to cost about $6 million. Of that total, about $4.5 million could come from public funding sources for which the shelter has applied with the city\u2019s assistance. A capital campaign would raise additional funds, she said.<\/p>\n
Zoning relief would also likely be required for year-round operation.<\/p>\n
Bethlehem Emergency Shelter is a faith-based partnership that provides a network of care and hospitality for the homeless, with overnight sheltering offered from November through April.<\/p>\n
Collins said the city is already moving forward with a year-round family shelter at 232-234 West Packer Ave. That project, she said, is fully funded and will feature 11 family units: six one-bedroom units and five studios.<\/p>\n
Last year, the city was awarded $1.45 million by the Pennsylvania Department of Economic Development to convert the apartment building into a shelter that the Lehigh Conference of Churches will ultimately run for the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2013 Bethlehem City Council heard information Tuesday night about the potential for a year-round emergency shelter.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2313,153,164,155,154,45000,391],"class_list":["post-141459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-affordable-housing","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-city-council","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-emergency-shelter","tag-homelessness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}