ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 A group of homeless people living near the Little Lehigh Creek say they were told this week to vacate the area.<\/p>\n
But they don\u2019t know when officials or police will return to make sure they\u2019re gone.<\/p>\n
A bill introduced Wednesday night by Allentown City Council would establish what co-sponsor Ce-Ce Gerlach called \u201cstandard operating procedures\u201d for camp clearouts.<\/p>\n
The measure \u2014 proposed by Gerlach and Natalie Santos \u2014 calls for a community response line through which homeless residents can request clean-ups and basic services.<\/p>\n
Allentown workers would be required to conduct a risk assessment of each area where they know more than five people are living unsheltered, according to the bill, which defines how the city should prioritize and respond to those camps.<\/p>\n
The bill also would ensure officials work with Allentown\u2019s Commission on Homelessness, which had members voice frustration about a lack of coordination with city officials before Mayor Matt Tuerk ordered the eviction of an encampment<\/a> along Jordan Creek.<\/p>\n And it would set clear timelines for contacting residents, ordering evictions and conducting them.<\/p>\n Policies and procedures needed, proposal says<\/p>\n The mayor in early August ordered the Jordan Creek camp to be cleared in less than three weeks. Residents said more than 100 people lived there some days. <\/p>\n Eviction notices left many stunned and without answers<\/a> after getting reassurances they\u2019d be allowed to stay.<\/p>\n Tuerk delayed the camp clearout<\/a> until the end of September to give the Allentown YMCA more time to set up and open its expanded shelter<\/a> ahead of schedule this year.<\/p>\n The measure proposed by Gerlach and Santos would require officials to notify the Commission on Homelessness about an impending closure at least 60 days before posting trespassing notices. Evictions could start 90 days later.<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Mayor, if my ordinance sucks, like you say it sucks, then fix it. Or write your own internal procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n Ce-Ce Gerlach, Allentown City Council<\/p>\n Under the proposal\u2019s terms, residents of the Jordan Creek encampment \u2014 bulldozed Sept. 29<\/a> \u2014 would have been allowed to stay there through Nov. 5.<\/p>\n The potential cost of the proposal is unclear. It would require city employees who interact with homeless encampments to undergo additional training and compel the city to establish a database and complaint process. <\/p>\n Gerlach said she is pushing to codify procedures and timelines in an ordinance \u201cbecause the [Tuerk] administration has no internal policies on how to manage all this.\u201d<\/p>\n The councilwoman said she met Wednesday with the mayor. \u201cHe\u2019s against the ordinance\u201d because he believes it to be unenforceable and a potential liability to the city, she said after the meeting to a group of homeless residents fearing eviction.<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Mayor, if my ordinance sucks, like you say it sucks, then fix it,\u201d Gerlach said. \u201cOr write your own internal procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you’re going to knock down a solution by working-class people \u2014 and literally unsheltered people themselves \u2014 at least come forth with a solution that’s better than what has been proposed,\u201d she said. \u201cThat has not happened. And that’s what’s infuriating.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the mayor did not respond Wednesday night to questions about Gerlach and Santos\u2019 proposal.<\/p>\n ‘Political manipulation’?<\/p>\n Several homeless residents showed up to council\u2019s Wednesday night meeting to support the measure. But none spoke as President Daryl Hendricks quickly referred the bill to a committee of the whole meeting, which is yet to be scheduled.<\/p>\n \u201cI know \u2026 why this is being sent to a committee of the whole \u2014 so that everyone can be there and then it will get tabled.”<\/p>\n Ce-Ce Gerlach, Allentown City Council<\/p>\n Gerlach urged Hendricks to reconsider and send the bill for a review by council\u2019s Parks and Recreation Committee, on which she and Santos serve.<\/p>\n Gerlach accused him of undermining her authority by often sending her legislative proposals to committees where she has no vote and cannot help push them through to the full council.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just had a couple, weeks ago, set up in West Park, which is parks and rec. We have many of them who are setting up along trails, which is parks and recreation. We have many of them who are setting up along waterways, which is parks and recreation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI know \u2026 why this is being sent to a committee of the whole \u2014 so that everyone can be there and then it will get tabled,\u201d Gerlach said.<\/p>\n Tuerk “doesn’t want this to go anywhere. He wants this to die. And I know that that’s what this effort is,” she said, accusing Hendricks of “political manipulation.”<\/p>\n But Hendricks insisted a committee of all council members consider the measure \u201cbecause of the impact this has on the entire city, not just parks and recreation.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘Just trying to survive’<\/p>\n One of the men fearing eviction from the area he\u2019s lived for the last three months told LehighValleyNews.com he\u2019s struggling to move forward after losing his wife to suicide in June.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t even really had time to grieve about it because I\u2019ve always got to worry about\u201d other things, like \u201cmaking sure my site\u2019s cleaned up” and staying ready to move at a moment’s notice, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just trying to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n By giving homeless residents more time and notice before evictions, the proposal offers a chance to work toward a better situation, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to worry about moving every so often; it doesn\u2019t help us because then we\u2019re concentrating on that and not concentrating on getting ourselves in a better situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The man, who moved back to the Lehigh Valley from North Carolina this summer, said he and many others want better but need some help to get there.<\/p>\n \u201cThey want you off the streets, but they don\u2019t want to give you a place to go.” <\/p>\n A homeless man who attended Wednesday’s Allentown City Council meeting<\/p>\n He praised local advocates, including the Lehigh Conference of Churches and Valley Health Partners\u2019 Street Medicine team. But he questioned whether the city shares the same commitment to homeless residents.<\/p>\n \u201cThey want you off the streets, but they don\u2019t want to give you a place to go,\u201d he said Wednesday night outside City Hall, criticizing officials’ failure to find a place for homeless residents<\/a> to safely camp<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 A group of homeless people living near the Little Lehigh Creek say they were told…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,2456,2748,121,2458,282,120],"class_list":["post-3894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-camp","tag-allentown-city-council","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-homeless","tag-allentown-housing","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3894","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=3894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}