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<\/p>\nALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 An Allentown developer suing the city over a homeless encampment settled his lawsuit this week after crews evicted residents and bulldozed the area.<\/p>\n
Nat Hyman filed paperwork Tuesday afternoon to end his litigation over the encampment.<\/p>\n
Hyman had alleged camp residents trespassed, urinated and defecated on his properties, hurting their value, and stole water and electricity.<\/p>\n
Hyman said he sued after he reached out to Allentown officials, including Mayor Matt Tuerk, but saw no action.<\/p>\n
The developer was seeking $50,000 or more in damages from the city, as well as court costs and other relief. <\/p>\n
He settled the suit without receiving compensation for damages or legal fees, according to Lehigh County Court records.<\/p>\n
Camp was a flood risk: Mayor<\/p>\n
Tuerk has repeatedly said his move to close the camp was not related to Hyman\u2019s lawsuit. <\/p>\n
He pointed to an analysis by Allentown fire officials that deemed the area near the creek to be a flood risk as he ordered residents\u2019 eviction.<\/p>\n
Hyman\u2019s lawsuit challenged Tuerk\u2019s directive for city officials to clean up rather than clear out homeless camps.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not really addressing the problem, it\u2019s just brushing it aside.”<\/p>\n
Mayor Matt Tuerk in April<\/p>\n
A police sergeant this spring championed the mayor\u2019s move away from bulldozing sites.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as the community is safe, there’s no need for us to bother\u201d people living in encampments, then-Sgt. John Leonard said at a city Commission on Homelessness meeting in March.<\/p>\n
The mayor in April told LehighValleyNews.com he changed the city\u2019s approach because it solves nothing to \u201cclear people out without a place to shelter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not really addressing the problem, it\u2019s just brushing it aside,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy just bulldoze somebody\u2019s tent if they have nowhere else to go?\u201d<\/p>\n
Cleanup continues<\/p>\n
Some still at the camp Monday morning said about 30 residents still were living there as city workers moved into the camp with a bulldozer, backhoe and dumpsters about 8 a.m., when the mayor\u2019s eviction order took effect.<\/p>\n
Crews returned with the bulldozer before 8 a.m. Tuesday, and other equipment was unloaded shortly after.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s heartless.\u201d <\/p>\n
Allentown homeless encampment resident<\/p>\n
Two former residents who moved out of the camp after Tuerk\u2019s eviction order also were back, helping a handful of others load their belongings into a truck.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s heartless,\u201d said one, who asked for her name to not be used, as police watched a man push a wheelbarrow through piles of clothes and other items nearby.<\/p>\n
Much of the area had been leveled, and crews were working to clean up debris. But some areas of the camp remained just as their former residents left them.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jason Addy<\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
LehighValleyNews.com<\/p>\n
A portion of the homeless encampment along the Jordan Creek in Allentown remained untouched Tuesday, Sept. 30, a day after city crews evicted residents and started to clear the area.<\/p>\n
A city employee told LehighValleyNews.com on Monday morning that cleanup crews would \u201cbe [at the camp] a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
An Allentown spokesperson did not immediately provide comment Wednesday about Hyman\u2019s decision to end his lawsuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 An Allentown developer suing the city over a homeless encampment settled his lawsuit this week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,2456,121,2458,1777,120,6299],"class_list":{"0":"post-20910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-camp","10":"tag-allentown-headlines","11":"tag-allentown-homeless","12":"tag-allentown-lawsuit","13":"tag-allentown-news","14":"tag-nat-hyman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20910","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=20910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}