The proposed bill<\/a> also included standards and procedures for remedying unsafe conditions and protecting the rights and the property of the homeless population living on public property.<\/p>\nHowever, Councilmember Ce-Ce Gerlach \u2014 the principal sponsor of the bill \u2014 withdrew it from the table to allow one month for the administration to work with council to come up with a comprehensive ordinance that also incorporates and is consistent with a city policy.<\/p>\n
Gerlach said she has been working on the ordinance since October and pushing the administration to develop internal policies.<\/p>\n
The administration put forth an internal policy after council addressed the encampment evacuation notice two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow here we are, and it\u2019s almost May of 2026 and we’ve got an internal policy,\u201d Gerlach said. \u201cWe all probably have some thoughts on how this internal policy could be strengthened, changed, what-have-you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI went and I did some cross-referencing between this internal policy as it is right now and this ordinance as it is right now,\u201d Gerlach said. \u201cAnd I have to say, I thought I was going to have to change a lot in the ordinance \u2014 not really. They are both working towards the same goal, which is better communication, clear timelines and clear expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gerlach said she is encouraged by the fact the administration is now willing to meet with councilmembers to strengthen the policy and develop an ordinance to be consistent with it and city laws.<\/p>\n
City Managing Director Frank Kane said Mayor Matt Tuerk has agreed to move forward and be a part of the solution.<\/p>\n
Council President Santo Napoli said the issue has been challenging because of a lack of communication since last fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m confident and optimistic that with the addition of a managing director that we’re going to get better communication and better coordination, and I’m optimistic and anxious to see more [of that],\u201d Napoli said.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Candida Affa thanked Gerlach for moving the conversation in a meaningful direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had the opportunity to visit the encampment along with my colleagues, and that experience was important and gave me a better understanding of the conditions that the people are living in and the challenges they face day by day,\u201d Affa said. \u201cThese are members of our community, and it’s clear that any approach we take needs to be thoughtful and compassionate.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Affa said she understands there are some legal concerns which have been raised around conflicts with existing city codes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are not small issues, and we have to make sure that what we adopt is both efficient and legally sound,\u201d she added. \u201cWe need to work in partnership with the mayor and the administration and our community partners to develop a good policy that is clear and centered on both safety and dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2013 During a special meeting Wednesday night, Allentown City Council voted unanimously to approve a motion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[2748,153,155,154,14935,2750,12300,65151,61215,391,7879,2459,14932],"class_list":["post-179944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-allentown-city-council","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-candida-affa","tag-ce-ce-gerlach","tag-fountain-park","tag-frank-kane","tag-homeless-encampment","tag-homelessness","tag-jordan-creek","tag-matt-tuerk","tag-santo-napoli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179944","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=179944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}