Around 25 people gathered on Saturday to rally for safer and more affordable housing in the Lehigh Valley. They met at the New at Mechanic NB bus stop before marching across the Fahy Bridge to Payroll Plaza.<\/p>\n
Coordinated by the Lehigh Valley Stands Up, the local chapter of a nationwide organization aiming to address issues in local communities, the housing committee\u2019s\u201cRight to Roof\u201d rally followed the creation of a community art exhibit on Friday about experiences with rising costs of rent within the Lehigh Valley.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Organizers said the events are part of an ongoing effort to bring residents together and pressure local officials to prioritize affordable housing. The City of Bethlehem has identified affordable rental housing<\/a> as its most acute housing need.\u00a0<\/p>\n The city\u2019s Opening Doors: Strategies to Build Housing Stability in Bethlehem<\/a> plan, completed in 2023, found that the city\u2019s rental vacancy rate was 2%, a level the city described as a crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n More than 3,500 Bethlehem residents and housing stakeholders participated in the planning process. The city ultimately allocated $5 million from its Community Recovery Fund<\/a> toward implementing the housing strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gillian Wenhold, a local organizer with Lehigh Valley Stands Up, said she works in the Lehigh Valley but lives with her parents, and commutes an hour each day because she can\u2019t afford local rent.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to live in the community that I invest so much time in and that I organized in, but I can\u2019t because I can\u2019t afford it,\u201d Wenhold said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wenhold said she has heard similar concerns from people working multiple jobs, working overtime or leaving communities where they have lived for years because of rising housing costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kaitlyn Arroyo, a member of the Lehigh Valley Stands Up housing team, said she\u2019s worked three jobs at once while attending school and still hasn\u2019t been able to afford moving out of her family\u2019s home.\u00a0<\/p>\n She said her story of affordability struggles is one of many.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve heard countless stories of people who are unhoused, of people who are one paycheck away from being unhoused, one medical emergency away from being unhoused,\u201d Arroyo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Participants in the march were invited to share personal stories on a door marked with the words, \u201csafe housing is a human right.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Organizers plan to move the visual exhibit to different locations throughout Bethlehem so residents can continue adding their experiences and see others.\u00a0<\/p>\n Arroyo said she hopes the events will help Lehigh Valley Stands Up expand its network of residents interested in housing advocacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to see people come out and care about fighting for affordable housing, and joining us in our fight to make that a reality,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Organizers\u2019 concerns come as Bethlehem continues to see new apartment development, including projects marketed toward higher-income renters.\u00a0<\/p>\n Five10 Flats<\/a>, a 95-unit luxury apartment complex in South Side, was developed by Peron Development. Its neighboring Six10 Flats<\/a> adds another 75 luxury apartments. Six10 Flats lists one-bedroom units starting around $1,866 and two-bedroom units around $2,375.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Boyd Apartments<\/a>, a 205-unit development completed in 2025, also offers contemporary apartments and amenities in Bethlehem. The project was developed by DLP\/Monocacy Builders. The Armory<\/a>, a 70-unit luxury apartment community in Bethlehem, currently lists rents ranging from $2,226 to $2,934 for its available studio through two-bedroom units.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing housing development happen that\u2019s either at or above market (rate), which people can\u2019t afford,\u201d Wenhold said. \u201cSo the people who live here that need housing don\u2019t have it because what\u2019s being built is not affordable for them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n She specifically pointed to large developers operating throughout the Lehigh Valley, including Jaindl and Hyman, as examples of the development group organizers are monitoring.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amy, the housing team lead for Lehigh Valley Stands Up, said organizers want local officials to listen directly to residents experiencing the housing shortage and make policy decisions based on their needs. Amy said the crisis can also affect people who currently have stable housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNot one person is too far from this crisis,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Around 25 people gathered on Saturday to rally for safer and more affordable housing in the Lehigh Valley.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5877,153,155,154,524,1197,4736,294],"class_list":["post-291035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-4-minute-read","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-community","tag-feature","tag-housing","tag-public-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291035","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=291035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}