In the heart of the Lehigh Valley.

Beneath the bridges along the creeks.

And in makeshift tents, hundreds of people are living without a home.

As encampments are cleared and shelters reached capacity.

Communities in Allentown and Bethlehem are searching for real, lasting solutions.

Tonight, city leaders, first responders, faith based organizations and journalists join us to confront the crisis and explore what it will take to ensure that no one is left without a place to live.

This is a community conversation.

The cost of home.

Coming to you from the Universal Public Media Center in Bethlehem, PA.

Here's your host, Brittany Sweeney.

Good evening and welcome to our community conversation.

The Cost of Home, presented by PBS 39 radio 91.3 FM and Lehigh Valley News.com.

Tonight we're exploring a growing crisis, one that's often hidden in plain sight, affecting hundreds of men, women and families right here in Allentown and Bethlehem, across both cities and the Lehigh Valley.

Shelters are full, encampments are being cleared, and local leaders are working to find lasting solutions.

We're joined by people on the front lines from City officials and first responders to outreach directors, reporters and advocates.

We begin the conversation in Allentown at the scene of a cleared out homeless encampment.

We're here along the Jordan Creek in Allentown, just near the Jordan Creek Greenway, and I am joined today by Allentown Council Member Ce-Ce Gerlach, as well as Lehigh Valley News.com Allentown reporter Jason Addy.

Thank you both so much for joining us for this conversation.

And we're going to start today with Jason.

As I just said, we're here along the Jordan Creek.

This used to be an encampment for folks who are unhoused.

Now it's a clearing.

You don't see anything here.

And so bring us up to speed.

How did this become what we're seeing here today?

Right.

So dozens, maybe up to more than 100 residents made this place their home in recent months and maybe dating back more than a year.

In early August, Mayor Matt Tuerk ordered this camp to be shut down.

He originally gave about two and a half weeks for residents to get out.

At that point, the city and the local United Way started talking about opening the YMCA warming station early.

It usually opens in mid-November.

Those discussions began and the mayor delayed the eviction here until September 29th, giving the Y just enough time to open.

Bulldozers rolled in on September night, 29th, the morning of, and that night, the Y's warming station opened.

So it was just in time.

But not everyone was able to go to the Y's warming station, and not everyone wants to.

In your reporting, what have you heard from the folks who are living here and the folks that are supporting the folks that live here?

Like I said, not not a great percentage of them said that they were going to go to the Y right away.

Some said they were going to look for other places to to set up their tents.

And some inside Allentown, some already made the decision to leave the city.

They felt that the pressure was clear, that they would just be pushed out if they went somewhere else.

So there's a lot of people still in flux right now because, you know, the Y isn't fully able to support everything.

At this particular location.

There was also a lawsuit that was brought against the city.

Can you tell me what you've learned about that during your reporting?

Sure.

Maybe 200 yards away.

The local landlord Nat Hyman owns an apartment building.

He's filed suit this spring, alleging that the city isn't doing enough to get people out of this area.

He said that the people who lived here were affecting his property values by urinating on it and trespassing and other activities that were driving down his property values.

He reached out to the mayor, he alleged, and got no response.

So eventually he filed a lawsuit.

Shortly after, the city deemed this to be a flood risk.

A fire chief came in and looked at it, looked at FEMA flood maps, and determined that people are living in a 100 to 500 year flood plain.

And based on that information, the mayor said he decided to shut this down.

Thank you so much for sharing your reporting and for sharing this information with us.

We're going to go over now to Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach from the City of Allentown, Ce-Ce, Thanks so much for joining us for this conversation.

Where do you stand right now on the homeless situation?

That's that's playing out in the in the city?

It's definitely a crisis.

And it's a crisis that will only continue to grow.

We have rents that are skyrocketing, food prices that are skyrocketing, the potential of food stamps being cut next month.

Homelessness isn't going away.

We will continue to see more and more people, people who you would never would have thought would become homeless.

You will continue to see them find themselves in situations like this.

Sure.

And how did this situation play out in council when it came to clearing the camp down here near Jordan Creek, and how to offer resources to these folks?

You know, I think one point of frustration from people on council is that we were not made aware that this was going to happen.

I was made aware by someone on the Commission on Homelessness.

She told me that she was in a meeting with members of the administration and other service providers.

And then I called a couple folks up on council and then mostly in the community.

And next thing you knew, we had over 100 people show up to a council meeting to discuss this very topic.

Sure.

And in our talking about the situation, you had said that some of the folks from this very camp had shown up to council.

What did they have to say?

Yeah, I mean, some of the, people that were living down here, they did show up.

And as it's been covered, they feel like goats.

They feel like they're not treated as humans.

They feel like no one sees them.

This from their perspective, was not a floodplain.

And then when you look at the map, it's not all a floodplain.

So there was a lack of, communication and understanding as to why their home had to be demolished and bulldozed.

Sure.

So recently at council, you've, introduced a new bill.

What would that bill entail?

As it pertains to the unhoused community?

Yeah, it would make sure that whenever there is a sweep, in case there is a hazard, like an actual hazard in the future, that it would be done so with dignity and procedures.

We do not have any internal or external meaning legislation in terms of how this happens.

It's it's just, as I say, willy nilly and it's just arbitrary.

And we cannot we cannot treat human lives like that.

We cannot treat people's property like that.

We cannot treat people's homes like that.

We must have clear operating procedures as to what is deemed to be a hazard.

We must try to mitigate that hazard instead of just immediately jumping to bulldoze people's homes.

And we must make every effort to actually house people, because it ends up costing the city more money to just continue to sweep place after place with no clear solutions, rather than slow down, take our time and do.

If we're going to sweep an encampment, let's make sure that the people end up in a better situation than what they were, and then we won't have to sweep them somewhere else.

What happens, when you need to give them resources?

Are they able to to get those resources?

No.

I spoke with a, physician from street medicine who told me about a gentleman who lived here.

And he has a mass.

An internal mass, I believe, on his colon.

The last I spoke with the the physician, they don't know where he's at.

And they finally convinced him to seek services, but they don't know where he's at.

He could die.

People could die.

These sweeps do not solve homelessness.

In fact, they make homelessness worse.

And if people are worried about lawsuits, as a council person, I'm worried that a family member will sue the city for us continuing to sweep people's homes without any solutions.

Someone's going to die.

Sure.

So, Ce-Ce, when it comes to solutions, a lot of times they cost money, right?

Solutions cost money.

And so, how do we how do we come up with the funds?

How do we how do we find the solutions and come up with the money to execute those solutions?

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely got to be a collaborative approach.

It cannot all be on the city.

It has to be the city, the county.

And then the other cities, Bethlehem and Easton and then Northampton County.

What I will say is though, when we need to find money for archways and statues and ambassadors to walk people to people, to their cars, we seem to find the money.

We seem to find the money for other, for other expenses.

But whenever it comes to the unsheltered community, we throw up our hands and say we don't have the money.

That that's a policy decision.

That's a budget decision.

That's a moral decision that we could change.

Ce-Ce Gerlach from the Allentown City Council, thank you so much for your input.

Again, Jason Addy from Lehigh Valley News.com.

Thank you for your input as well.

And since the recording of that interview, the city has started posting signs at another camp along Jordan Creek, giving folks there a deadline of November 10th to clear and leave the area.

Joining us now in studio to talk about more in depth about Allentowns unhoused populations and the resources being offered are Mayor Matt Tuerk, Allentown firefighter Adam Perrault, River crossing YMCA Allentown branch executive Tiffany Henning, and the co-chair of the Allentown Commission on Homelessness, Abigail Goldfarb, who also serves as the executive director of the Lehigh Conference of Churches.

Thank you all so much for joining us.

A lot to unpack here, mayor.

We're going to start with you first, before we get into answering some of the things that were just said, can you paint us a picture of what the unhoused population looks like right now in the city of Allentown?

Do you have any numbers you can share with us?

We don't.

And that's one of the frustrations that I've had in the four years or so that I've been the mayor of the city of Allentown, is that we don't have a way to accurately talk about the number of people that are experiencing homelessness in the moment.

What I'll tell you, though, is that there are a lot of people fundamentally, and that's one of the things that I want us always to focus on is that these are people who are experiencing homelessness, that people with names, they're people, families, they're people with hopes for the future.

So the people who are in the city of Allentown, who are struggling in many of the ways that, Councilperson Gerlach described in the video, are facing a an ever increasing challenge with, food insecurity, with the cost of housing, with access to health care.

And wherever we are right now, it is going to become more challenging.

But that's why we all have to come together to work.

Sure, mayor, is this an issue that is just getting more and more in depth now, or are we just hearing about it more now?

Has it been like this for years?

You know.

That's a hard question for me to answer.

I have experience with homelessness going back to the early 90s in Boulder, Colorado and Philadelphia.

Some of the folks who have been here in the Lehigh Valley longer than I have could better answer that question.

What I'll tell you is that having a conversation with somebody last night who is providing service in Allentown in the mid 90s said to me that she doesn't believe that the, the, the the challenge itself is more is greater in terms of numbers.

She thinks it is getting more complex.

But this has always been a crisis.

It's a crisis that I think more people are paying attention to now, and I'm grateful for the attention that it's getting.

Absolutely.

I want to get into this specific situation to Allentown.

We heard that some of the camps are being cleared for safety reasons.

And so what goes into making a decision like that, especially in a place where people have lived for a number of months or years.

That they're our primary responsibility in the city of Allentown is to create a safe environment for people, for all people in the city, to to live in.

So when we're making decisions about what to do with a, an area like that where people are camping out, our fundamental responsibility is to protect their safety.

When we evaluated Jordan Creek, we could see that there's portions of the creek and the area around the creek that are in a 100 year flood plain, which gave us concern in the past, prior to climate change being a really big deal.

Now, with increasing, extremity and volatility of extreme climate events.

I'm even more worried.

We have pictures from five years ago in 2020, when we had a flooding situation along the Jordan, where the water was four feet above where you might be standing.

That's enough to kill somebody.

And that's driving a lot of our decision making in the city.

Sure.

And I just want to make note that this came on the heels of a devastating flood in in Texas over the summer, and that, I think, caught the nation's attention.

And then the flood plain was announced.

And so, Adam, I want to bring you into this.

What do we have to be looking at when it comes to these, these camps that are along creeks and riverbeds and in other areas when it comes to safety?

So, I mean, let's start off.

Homelessness is not safe at all.

So, you know, trying to try to get in and serve them because they are citizens.

They are our our board.

We are responsible for protecting them as well.

It is a challenge.

There is a challenge to it to get back to them, to get when they have the those situations.

It's you have to be prepared for it.

You have to kind of.

We were going down along the creek prior to all these incidents and letting them know, hey, this coming, that type of thing.

Myself, Lieutenant Leonard from APD, you take a walk down the encampments and let them all know, so, you know, that was the start of it, and it.

But then it gets a little bit more complex because there's other areas of the city that, that you have to get in and out of.

And that's why we started a mapping program a long time ago, to try and give them an address for us to get to them more, quickly and as well as identify the hazards getting in and out.

So that way we were a little bit more protected, responding to them.

So we've been trying to take a proactive approach, to make sure that everybody's well protected and cared for in the city.

Just because you don't have an address doesn't make it doesn't change the fact that we have to, you know, make sure that you're still well protected.

Sure.

So right now we're citing flooding, but there are other hazards when it comes to people living unsheltered building these camps.

What are some of those other hazards?

For for firefighters, it's mostly terrain.

And then when we have to get back to any kind of fires or anything else like that, it makes it a little bit more difficult for not only firefighters, but as well as the, the occupants, because, you know, it is takes time for us to get back there.

And unfortunately, they're losing their all their possessions at that time.

So it's tough for us to get there in a timely manner.

So, yeah, terrain is very terrain and localities are a big issue to get to.

As far as serving.

I'm going there.

I just want to take a little sidebar.

As this was being deemed a floodplain, there was also something else that happened in the city.

A businessman brought a lawsuit against the city, saying these encampments were a little too close to his properties and bringing down the property value.

And so how does that all play out, play into this?

Did it have any impact on your decision making to move these camps?

Zero.

We're entirely driven by our commitment to saving lives and protecting lives in the city.

The cost of fighting the lawsuit from the individual that sued us is separate and apart from what we, the resource expense to the city and the challenge that we faced in protecting lives at the encampment.

So they really had nothing at all to do with each other.

Sure.

More importantly, and looking at this at a broader view, how do you balance the concerns of citizens of the city who are living there with the concerns of those who are unhoused and looking for a place to stay?

Yeah, I mean, this is something that I said to the folks down there or earlier on in the summer is that if you have nowhere else to go, it's it's challenging for us to ask you to leave the site unless there's a threat.

And this is where we had a significant threat to people's livelihoods.

We but we are also we're building a city that's for everybody.

We take safety, the the safety concerns of everyone under consideration and the health concerns of everybody under consideration.

So while.

You want to make sure that people are treated humanely and compassionately in sites like that, we're also working to make sure that they can they can live through the night.

And that does get balanced against the needs of people who are in neighboring properties.

But again, to Firefighter Perraaults point like ours, our responsibility is to serve everybody, whatever their address is, whatever their status is.

Sure.

And compassion is something that you've repeated in multiple news, news, articles and as well as in meetings and that kind of thing.

Why is it so, important to incorporate that compassion?

And on top of that, what resources are you bringing to the table to make sure it's there?

I mean.

The the simplest possible way of describing the approach that I take as the mayor of the city of Allentown to serving all of our residents is just don't be a jerk, right?

Think the way that you can approach the work, whatever the work might be, is lead with kindness, lead with compassion.

There's there are people across our city who are struggling in lots of different ways.

Our responsibility as public servants is to do what we can to meet their needs and put them in a position to succeed.

They we do that, and.

That's what I ask our folks to do.

I ask them to think with their hearts, as they approach the work.

Every employee of the City of Allentown has heard me talk about our commitment to respect for each other's work, to support each other's professional development, creating a welcoming work environment.

But fundamentally, more than anything else, caring for each other and caring for the people that we serve.

When you were clearing these camps, something that was done, you pushed the deadline and you offered a resource by connecting with the YMCA and Tiffany, that's where you come in.

The YMCA has opened early its warming shelter for these folks.

And so talk to me about what went into that process.

Sure, absolutely.

And thank you for having us here for this topic.

It took a community, right.

So when the city of Allentown came to us, we absolutely were like, absolutely.

It's going to be a lot of work to open early.

We ended our camp on August 26th, I believe, and so we had a month to pivot.

We pivoted, we, held hiring events.

We had to hire about 14 new employees.

Tat took us up to about 20 employees.

Tiffany I just have to ask where those employees did, where they needed any way, or were they in preparation because you believed you were going to get more folks because of the camps being.

They were needed anyway.

So we went from having two months to hire to about six weeks to hiring.

So we did hiring events.

We hired quickly.

We got through the hiring process quickly.

We were able to get our staff trained for the safety and positive experience for both our staff and our guests.

On top of staff hiring, we held community events.

But construction came in, and helped build our bunks.

We expanded our area.

We made a community room.

We expanded from 60 beds to, 80 beds.

So we got 20 more bunks built.

So it was a busy month of September.

Our goal was to open September 30th.

We were able to meet the deadline of September 29th, and we opened September 29th.

And are you seeing an influx of people come in and use those facilities since opening early?

Absolutely.

We started about the first two weeks.

We saw about 40 come in nightly, over the last couple days we're up mid 60s, about 65 individuals, and our max is 80.

So we've seen 95 new faces since we've seen in past years.

And believe yesterday when I looked at the number, we were at about 962 beds so far.

Wow.

What are some of the criteria?

What do they have to do to get in, and what are some of the rules they have to follow?

Sure, absolutely.

So if you are a first time guest coming to the warming station, we do have an intake packet that we need you to fill out that does include a valid photo, whether it's an ID, driver's license, some sort of photo identification.

We do run a background check once you have been there one night.

It's an easier process.

We open for our doors open to come in at 7 p.m.. They close at 9 p.m.. We take new intakes up to 8:30 p.m.. Just because there's a lot of paperwork that goes into that.

Once you are in bags, get locked up.

You are not allowed to be with your possessions until you leave in the morning.

Or if you do choose to leave in the in the middle of the night, you have to take your possessions with you cannot come back in.

We serve dinners.

We serve.

We have showers that are available for any guests who may want to take a shower.

And we have a community room that they can hang out, play cards, play games, watch TV.

And it is lights out at 10 p.m.

so you don't have to be sleeping, but you have to be quiet and in your bed in the bunk area.

All right, Abby, I'm going to bring you into this conversation.

You are part of the you are the co-chair of the Commission on Homelessness in Allentown, as well as, from the Conference of Churches.

And so what are you seeing firsthand when it comes to folks in the Allentown area living unhoused?

So first, you know, I mean, the Commission on Homelessness is really designed to inform city decisions, provide them with some data and some information.

So, I'm really thankful for the opportunity to just gather some of those providers from, you know, the health care sector, from the nonprofit sector, lived experience, a big voice in that group.

And so collectively, we try to make recommendations and share those.

And I think some of the things that group has really been looking for is maybe, Really trying to be more proactive in some of the things that we're doing.

I mean, you know, CC is right in saying we don't necessarily have a protocol when we're intervening in encampments.

There's no sort of set way to approach this.

And so we're just doing the best that we can.

From the Conference of Churches side, of course, we're, every day that is our main population served as those who are unhoused, particularly chronically unhoused.

We served more than 75,000 meals last year.

There were 1400 people who came through our Drop-In center.

And, we since Jordan Creek has closed, we've seen an influx of folks who have been rushing to us to kind of meet the needs emergency, whether they're at the Y or just, you know, generally still trying to figure it out or still have cited another location, we've been filling that role for them.

Sure.

And this is not just an Allentown issue, right?

This is this is statewide.

This is nationwide in another area of the state.

A similar scene is playing out with the expansion of a highway bridge.

Those living in the construction zone have been pushed out.

But as the deadline came, an effort to support those unhoused people came into fruition using a grant for housing.

It's called a miracle community.

Take a look.

There's no mortgage.

We bought this out, right.

Our goal has always been to provide an alternative to housing for those that are not able or willing at any particular time, to be in more formalized housing.

What has brought this particular space into motion is, during Covid, so many people had lost housing for various reasons and, found themselves living out in the woods and areas where they were not identified as housing, but they created a space that they called home.

According to history, they say six people can fit in here.

I beg to differ.

So this would be considered a single unit.

This would be for an individual that is just themselves.

No pets.

They get a housing unit, a cot.

We we started this analogous.

So a fan, a chair, a storage container and a solar powered light comes with the units.

None of the residents that reside here have to pay for any of those things.

The community donated those items so that we could provide the housing for the families that are here.

Over in the eating area.

We have a cooking station for them and a shooting station where they can sit, charge their devices and take care of those things, and then bring those things back down here into their living spaces through some form of street outreach.

Each management unit, word of mouth folks got access to the invitation.

The invitation had conditions.

People talk about, oh, how can you make rules?

There were some conditions to the invitation.

And if the individuals were open to accepting those conditions, they got a spot.

We spent a lot of money with Lowe's and Home Depot.

We have support from the county for water, but we have to think about what's going to happen when we no longer can get access to the fire hydrants that we've been using for water.

This vision didn't come with a budget.

Right now we are strategically planning.

Or what do we do when the snow starts to fall?

When the temperature starts to drop?

So those are the kind of discussions we're having around the table right now.

We have exceeded capacity.

We had set a goal for 80 units.

We now have 90 units.

We have started a waiting list for individuals.

So people do come and go.

An address humanizes change.

It makes you feel as if you matter.

You belong.

You have the right to do and live and be.

It is the community that comes together to address the needs of the individuals that are living in this space.

That means drug and alcohol.

That means.

Mental health.

Food services.

We got volunteers from faith based organization bringing meals to the community here.

It has to be a collective operation, otherwise it will not work.

And that particular camp has been up and running now for about 90 days, and we are going to come back to Allentown Mayor Matt Turk and ask, how feasible is that for our area?

Is that, a use of taxpayer money that we could use to kind of solve or improve the homeless situation that's playing out in Allentown?

So we performed a feasibility study for the city of Allentown, getting input from our, health department, our public works department, our public safety folks, our law department, our finance department.

And we couldn't find a site in Allentown that would work that would meet a lot of the needs, particularly around safety, keeping it out of a flood zone, access to various different resources.

But we did perform it for the whole Lehigh Valley.

Mayor Reynolds and I talk about homelessness a lot and things that we can do to improve the situation.

And Mayor Reynolds points out that Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton collectively account for about 6% of the total land area of Lehigh and Northampton County.

That leaves the entire 94% that we're not looking at yet.

And so what we really need to do is come together as a broader Lehigh Valley and do that kind of research.

The challenges associated with meeting the needs of people who are living without shelter are complex and myriad.

We must approach it with compassion, and we're willing to consider anything.

But we really as, the individual who's running this encampment in Harrisburg, pointed out we all have to come together.

It's not exclusively on the shoulders of the city of Allentown, or the residents of Bethlehem, or the folks in in Easton.

It's our entire region has to work to to figure this out.

So we should be evaluating sites outside of Allentown as well.

Sure, Abby, we're not building that miracle community here right now.

So what are we doing?

What are some of the solutions or what are some of the options open to our unhoused folks right now?

And so just like there's no one cause for homelessness, there's really no one solution either.

Everyone has a different preference or a different need.

And so the best that we can as a community, we try to account for all of that.

So someone utilize the why that works for them.

Some remain outside.

That's where they are now.

Some have, returned to different places, reunited with family, whatever it is.

But equally as important as where they're sleeping is where they're spending their daytime hours as well.

And so places like libraries, the Conference of Churches Drop-In center, to get warm, you can come to the conference, get a shower, along with numerous other agencies in the Lehigh Valley.

Make sure you have something to eat and you have someone compassionate to talk to you to try to resolve some of the things that you're going through.

Sure.

And so, Mayor Turk, homelessness, although we are looking at it from an Allentown perspective right now, it's not an Allentown or Lehigh Valley or even a Pennsylvania issue.

It's a national issue.

And so are there ways to work with people across the nation to find some improvements here?

Yeah, I mean, so in Council on the Gro ox comments, you mentioned how things are going to get more challenging.

And part of that is because of the increasingly difficult federal environment.

The federal government used to be much more supportive of local governments in their efforts to address homelessness.

That has changed, and it's making our life a little bit more difficult.

We don't have the institutional support that we used to have, and the the, the difficulties get increasingly more complex.

But but we are lucky that we have organizations like the Conference of Churches and the YMCA, and especially our public servants and our our first responders who are addressing this challenge head on.

And that's true across the nation as well.

I mentioned Providence before and Philadelphia and Los Angeles, but this is something that truly every city across the country is facing.

I sit on the U.S.

Conference of Mayors Task Force on Homelessness, which is led by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

And we spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff.

I think one of the things that sticks out to me now, as I speak to mayors across the country, is that while the the challenge might not have grown from 30 years ago, the awareness has increased.

And not just the awareness in the general public, but the awareness among local government elected officials who realize that they have to take action that they might not have been able to take before.

So it is it's very much on the lips of mayors across the country and have organizations like firefighters in other parts of the country, and nonprofit organizations and other local governments.

We're thinking about this and looking for all the help that we can get.

And those national conversations, I think are incredibly helpful.

There.

While we might not look exactly like Providence or like Los Angeles, there are lessons that we can learn their best practices, and part of that is all of us working together, from city employees to nonprofits to people in our community.

It is a community group.

Since I am, I'm new to this, comparatively speaking, to the panel, I've been doing it for about five, six years now, partnering with our community groups like Street Medicine and Daybreak.

And, you know, conference churches, YMCA, so on and so forth.

It's critical because as a firefighter in our fire and as a as, you know, in fire department, our world changes all the time.

We have to adapt, we have to change our tactics and so on, so forth.

That also goes with this.

This isn't another.

This is another crisis we have to meet and get to.

And, you know, partnering with them not only provides a more, point of service for the individuals on the street, but it also helps us get back there easier and helps us to deal with the communities we're working with.

Daybreak and everybody and Street Med, I got to know a lot of the community members, so it was easier for us to connect.

When we went in at 2:00 in the morning, had to help somebody out.

That's the key to the whole, the we have this issue and we just need to everybody needs to work into it.

Sure.

This is an ongoing conversation.

I really appreciate all of your input on the situation that's playing out, not just in Allentown, but across the Lehigh Valley.

We're going to continue to explore some of these resources.

But I want to thank all four of you for joining us.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Those who are often without a place to call home often forgo services that others may take for granted, like laundry.

But a nonprofit in Allentown has been lightning the financial load when it comes to washing clothes.

For close to a decade now.

Load by load.

A program in Allentown is washing away the stigma around homelessness.

When you dirty, you're homeless.

You're you're down as it is.

So any little thing that can bring you, like a clean bath, that makes a big difference.

Clarence Hamm is just one of the unsheltered people receiving free laundry services through Loads of Blessings, a nonprofit program started in 2017 by Jackie Howells.

She really.

Really support that community, which I like that it's hot.

Once you become and consider homeless and have high situations, a lot of people walks away.

But she starts off.

That's how I see it.

It's a very organized chaos.

It's an opportunity to connect with people and just to let them know that they that you see them, that you love them.

Howells runs the program at Family Wash, a laundromat on Linden Street Tuesday evenings.

This is like a hotbed for, like, drugs.

It's a hotbed for survival sex.

It's a hotbed for, a lot of our broken people.

So that is why we chose it.

In the eight years since it started, the program has grown significantly.

We've spent over $800 in two hours.

We asked people to be signed in by 530, because we want to make sure that we have enough time to pay for the dryer.

Then you don't get some germs that cause bacteria that have caused you to get sick.

So it's the same thing as why you should brush your teeth every day.

Yeah, I didn't listen.

And now I don't have any teeth, so I'm gonna try with the rest of the stuff to make sure that I feel good.

The opportunity to wash clothes is a luxury not always afforded to people like Roxanna Gonzalez Smith.

You're going to breaking broken down rooming house, but the city is finally getting under back to fix it.

We don't even have a living room in this rooming house.

People come here not just to do the wash.

What's wonderful is they come here just to feel part of the community.

They were nice.

And it's quite the community.

Loads of blessings.

Recently served nearly 80 families in one night with the help of volunteers, many of whom are area medical students.

We're on the ground on the front lines for it, so we pretty much run everything on the front end for the program.

So, you know, we're in charge of loading the cards, gathering the list of clients that come in and then.

Assign, volunteers to clients.

And then we basically.

Help people do the laundry for free every Tuesday.

Medical providers are also available for folks washing.

Their clothes while they're doing the laundry.

They can come out and speak to a doctor about their chronic medical conditions if they have high blood pressure, diabetes, if they don't even have a primary care physician, we can help them establish care.

Our clinic.

Saint Luke's University Health Network offers free or low cost services.

There through their mobile unit.

So we bridge access to care by providing our time and our services and, setting where the patients are.

We're comfortable making people comfortable by providing a simple service and basic medical care.

It's such a privilege and honor to be.

Able to, just come here for about two, three hours of my time, share my knowledge, and provide these services to our community.

The program now runs on referrals from around the region and is grant funded.

I wish there was more people and programs like this, because people like Miss Jackies are very, very special.

Not only to me, to the whole community and the staff and the students that come.

They are awesome too.

Although the list of those in needs keeps growing, Alice says they continue to find a way.

To keep washing.

Our goal is not to turn people away.

Our goal is to let people know that this is a very welcoming place and judge free and just pour loving on them.

And since starting the program, Loads of Blessings has partnered with other nonprofits to offer a variety of resources to those who may need them in the city.

Bethlehem is not exempt from figuring out where to allow homeless encampments.

We head out to a section of the city now where people are currently living, but have been given a deadline to vacate.

We're here in Bethlehem along Lehigh Street, just down from the Fahy Bridge, and we are joined today by the Lehigh Valley News.com Bethlehem Reporter Will Oliver, along with the executive director of Bethlehem Emergency Shelter, Bob Rapp.

I thank them both for joining us, and we chose this spot because it's just down from where folks are currently living unhoused, but they've been given a deadline to move out and get out of this space.

And that's where we bring in Will.

Will, you've been reporting on this unhoused situation in Bethlehem for the past few months.

Bring us up to speed.

How did we get to this point?

These folks have a deadline of December 15th at this point to get out.

So it's been a couple of months now since the railroad company, Norfolk Southern, reached out to the city police department for help in removing these individuals.

And really, the encampment sprawled about 20 or more acres behind us.

So you have some land over in Lehigh County that's closer to the Hill to Hill Bridge.

And then you have some that goes into Northampton, Northampton County in good ways.

But really the, the, the railroad company was citing, safety concerns.

So some of these encampments were getting a little too close to the railroad, obviously.

Some of the heating and cooking implements could raise a fire hazard, is my understanding.

And we're still trying to get more details on, like, where this came about, because my understanding is some of these people have been out here for over a decade or more.

And why now?

And that's something that we're trying to figure out a bit.

I spoke with the police chief, and my understanding is this did stemmed from some, community complaints, but that's something that we've also reached out to Norfolk Southern about, and we're trying to get some more details on and hopefully we'll have that soon ahead of the displacement.

Sure.

So what are you hearing and seeing and reporting, about this situation when it comes to the folks who.

Do live here?

Sure.

So so really the main the main thing I'll take away from this is like, there's more than meets the eye.

Oftentimes, you know, you really don't need to take it at face level.

You really need to go out and talk to these people and get an understanding.

And I've been speaking to a lot of the social services, like, New Bethany Bethel, an emergency shelter, and kind of get an understanding of, what it looks like as well.

And really, the main data that I can share at this point, is from the city that was shared at City council the other night.

So a mid-September report showed about 75 people in the affected area.

53 were counted as of last week.

But in September, 55 of those 70 plus people did express interest and heading over to the Bethlehem emergency shelter.

When that opens on November 1st, but 23 of those people also said they weren't necessarily interested in that option, and they would like to weigh other options.

So, but the police chief, they they do understand the situation.

The police department has this program called Community Connections, where they pair with with the, City Help Bureau, and they go out here and try to figure out exactly what these people need, whether it's, just housing assistance, obviously, or if it's, drug abuse.

Assistance, whatever services of that regard or if it's finding a job, there's more often that's it.

There's more to it than meets the eye.

It's that's that's what I found out.

In the meantime, you mentioned services in Bethlehem, emergency sheltering.

And so I want Bob Rapp to join into our conversation right now.

We just heard about some of the folks that are about to be removed.

Is this common?

Have you seen this kind of request in the past few years happen?

So not necessarily here in Bethlehem, but places in the valley.

We have seen this in the past.

This was unfortunate.

Our folks are going to have to pick up their homes and leave.

But we will try our best to to bring folks into shelter.

And so we are in contact with the folks that are out here to try to address those as well.

Did say that, some of these folks are being talked to through the city and that some of them said they didn't want to use the sheltering that's being offered.

What are the other options?

So that that is the other option we we pack up house and home and we move elsewhere in hopes that no one's going to disturb us or uproot us again.

Gotcha.

So shelter or you can go to another plot of land and.

And there's other shelters here in the valley, also Allentown.

The YMCA has a shelter.

There are two warming centers in Easton that can house folks in the winter.

But those are pretty much the alternatives.

Bob, you work a lot with these folks who are unhoused.

What are you hearing from them?

Since this all came about and the news broke that there's a deadline.

You have to get out by this time.

Oh, of course, it's it's rather unnerving.

A lot of folks are nervous.

Like I say, this is this is their home.

This is where they call home.

And so to have to get up and and move for some, they've been here for quite some time.

A number of years, others not quite so long, but it's still a big inconvenience.

Have to one find another place, which we've been trying to help them look for.

And then just to be able to pack everything up and move.

It's, Yeah, it's quite alarming for folks.

Sure.

And like the camp that we see behind us, it has a couple different tents there.

It seems like it's not just somebody setting up a tent.

It's a community.

It is.

And so this is kind of breaking up a community.

What kind of, you know, obstacles or, or barriers happened with that?

So there's there used to being together.

They look out for one another and now they need to move to another place.

They're once again alone or removed from other folks.

So the security is, is, is a is a big issue.

You know, we we all try to live in community, right?

But for for folks outdoors, it doesn't always work that way.

Sure.

The folks outdoors still need community as well.

Speaking of Bethlehem emergency shelter, you're getting ready for the season.

And so when are you opening your doors to these folks?

So we will open Saturday evening at 5:00.

Folks will come in, have a bed assigned where if they're staying in our shelter tonight, they're guaranteed that same bed so they can leave their belongings behind.

They'll get a good, healthy, hearty meal and have a restful night's sleep.

But the issue is we still turn them out in the morning.

So some of the folks who are already out here, either some may not want to follow rules or may not like the curfews.

Some may not like the fact that we have to get up in the morning and go back out in the cold.

And so and then there's other issues.

Some have pets.

So we try to foster pets for them.

But but again that that can become an issue.

Absolutely, absolutely.

And then there's the number of people who.

Maybe.

Get it be.

Having to remove themselves from these camps.

And then you have an influx of people at the shelter.

Are you preparing for more people?

Can you prepare for more people?

So we have a pretty hard and fast 70.

I don't know what that is going to look like by the end of this season, but right now we have 70 beds available at shelter.

And that's, you know, last year we averaged 65 a night at shelters.

So I'm thinking we're going to be up against some, some nights that were for sure.

Well, best of luck to you, Bob.

Thank you so much for sharing that information.

Bob Rapp from Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering, as well as Will Oliver, our Bethlehem reporter for Lehigh Valley News.com.

We thank them for joining us and joining this conversation.

A restaurant in Bethlehem has a unique pay model that helps feed those who may not have the means for a meal.

The Third Street spot is open five days a week, offering breakfast and lunch for those who may or may not be able to afford it.

A savory spot.

Egg salad.

Tucked on a side street in Bethlehem.

Eggs, bacon and bacon.

Orange juice.

Lemonade serving up delicious homemade dishes.

I think French toast bake is one of the ones for breakfast.

Lunch specials of lasagnas butternut squash, or some of our popular items.

Simple classics made from scratch.

So we're going to put it in the bowl.

Stuffed sandwiches, tuna and blts.

People love that.

And it's just to come eat in a warm, welcoming environment in a home versus a front store restaurant.

This is Essentials Cafe, where the food and friendliness don't come at a cost.

What's going on?

Essentials Cafe is a pay what you can.

Community cafe.

We have no set prices on our menu.

Folks come in, they order from the counter.

We give them a suggested price based on what they order, and they literally can donate whatever they can afford.

Whether it's zero, $2 or some people pay a little bit over the suggested price, and that helps cover the the expenses for those who can't pay.

The breakfast and lunch spot opened just about two years ago, and the model seems to be working.

Average about 1070 meals a month in 2024.

49% of those meals we're giving away, for free at reduced cost.

Right now, we are currently at 59%.

So there has been an increase, in need over that time that we've been open.

I like it here because it's like Christian, like family.

Helping all the people?

Low income, people are homeless.

Many of the regulars like Dottie Fortney are on a fixed budget.

Some are also unsheltered.

Its helped me a lot because I'm on a low income, on SSI.

I'm struggling, I don't know, I have it, I don't have it.

I give Fortney cant always pay for the meal, but she gives back in other ways, like helping to tend to the garden.

98% of our food is made from scratch.

We have our own gardens where we use that produce lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs and all our specials that we prepare parmesan.

And a little flat leaf parsley over it.

Who woulodnt like that?

Two years ago I found out about this place from friends.

You know, we're trying to help me out many years after I come here to.

And it's not just the fresh food that keeps customers coming back.

The people are nice, nice workers.

We have over 120 volunteers who donate their time.

Serving, cooking, doing prep night.

And without them, that's about $75,000 worth of income that we'd have to pay somebody.

Comfort food and camaraderie mixed with a healthy dash of volunteerism.

The perfect recipe for a pay what you can cafe.

We're here for our community to serve our community and want everybody to feel welcome and have a good meal.

Nobody should go hungry, and that's what we're here for.

Joining the conversation now in the studio is the co-chair of the Allentown Commission on Homelessness, Christina DiPierro, who is also on the State Interagency Council on Homelessness, along with the deputy director of community development for Bethlehem, Sara Satullo, sixth Street shelter director Tjwana Reed, and the director of Community Action Development Bethlehem, Anna Smith.

Thank you all so much for joining us.

Christina.

We're going to start with you.

You serve on the Governor's Board for homelessness.

And so I want to talk about that and what you're seeing statewide as it pertains to folks who are unhoused.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me here.

I sit on the governor's, Interagency Council of Homelessness.

Governor Shapiro established this agency, this council, as an advisory board to the state to, bring together government officials, state agencies, providers and individuals with lived experience to provide a housing action plan to, eliminate or reduce homelessness for everybody in a coordinated effort across the state and across the country, based on numbers on the annual point in time count that HUD does every year.

Homelessness has been increasing for years, increasing in many different sectors of individuals as well.

Not just single individuals, but families with children.

That is a large section of homelessness that's been increasing over the years.

Veterans homelessness, along with other, other, other parts of.

Homelessness.

Sure.

And you mentioned children.

That's something you work with directly at Valley Youth House, correct?

Yes.

Yes.

So along with being on the board in the cover councils, my day job, I. Am and.

I work for Valley Youth House, Valley Youth Houses, an organization that works with youth and family.

And we envision a future where all young people are part of a nurturing community.

The program that I work for is Synergy Project, which is street outreach for homeless youth in the Lehigh Valley.

Both counties Lehigh and Northampton, ages 24 and under.

Street outreach is really the, gateway into services for a lot of the individuals that all of the individuals that we serve.

Street outreach is an important piece to, connecting individuals that are unsheltered to services in the community, such as the Sixth Street Shelter, ripple, the Conference of Churches, YMCA.

We're really there to guide and support and to be there for the young people that are facing this, really, substantial, traumatic time of their lives.

Sure.

Tjwana I want to bring you into this conversation now.

You're seeing this firsthand day to day at the shelter.

And so what are some of the barriers that you're seeing right now for people who are unhoused and the barriers that are stopping them from connecting to housing?

Yeah, it's it's so many.

It's tied, you know, indirectly we're seeing it because when the encampments were closed down, the they couldn't go to family members, family members.

It could not house them because it was no room in there.

So now all of our apartments are full.

When I first started we had maybe 11 apartments that were available.

Now we have none whatsoever.

We're having to make choices.

We're having to even set up additional housing for our.

I guess we're having to make tough decisions and saying we can't house this game.

We may have to move this family to another apartment.

We're having to say, well, make choices about barriers that were created.

It's just it's very, very sad, you know, so choices have to be made.

Yeah.

Are you seeing more people coming into the shelter seeking housing?

Absolutely, absolutely.

And why do you think that is?

Because it's nowhere to go.

It's nowhere to go, no family.

It like I said, their families can't get, get them in the housing.

Their families have nowhere for them to go.

You know, families have extra people, their houses.

So it's nowhere for them to go, you know, barriers as far as financial barriers, you know, barriers as far as economical barriers.

So it's just a lot.

On the other side of the aisle in the Lehigh Valley, we're seeing rents and mortgages skyrocket, the price of houses are going up, the cost of rent.

And and that's kind of where you come in.

You're an advocate, so to speak, for the folks who are renting and that kind of thing.

So how can you help them?

What can you offer them to help keep people in their houses longer?

Absolutely.

So we know that in the city of Bethlehem these days, just over 50% of our households are one emergency away, essentially from potentially becoming housing unstable.

And so we seek to provide support to folks at any stage of housing instability, or that could potentially cause it.

So that means when someone's renting an apartment for the first time, we can sit down with them and go over a lease and ensure that they understand, you know, what their rights and responsibilities are and to make a proactive plan to be able to, you know, stay housed and understand they have supports if they come into difficulty, whether it's an emergency, that means there's a gap in their ability to pay rent, or a landlord who is taking a longer time to address some of the conditions of, their house or their apartment.

We can step in to provide mediation between those tenants and their landlord to ensure that, they can reach a mutually agreed upon solution to stay housed.

We believe this is in the best interest not only of the tenant, but also the landlord, because they rely on a steady income, from their housing unit.

And if we can keep someone in an apartment, you know, paying rent, it's good for them.

It's certainly much better for the tenant, and it's better for the stability of the community as a whole.

And finally, you know, we're able to connect folks with existing resources that we have in our Bethlehem community, like rental assistance that can cover a gap in maybe 1 or 2 month's rent.

There are fantastic partners in New Bethany who are able to provide that support.

Or if someone does get in a situation where they need legal assistance.

We work closely with North Penn Legal Services to ensure that folks who are eligible for representation can receive it, and can be provided with legal guidance to ensure that if there's any opportunity for folks to remain in an existing housing situation that is safe and affordable, they're able to do so and they do not end up unhoused.

Sure, keeping people housed is the goal here.

In order to do so, we have to have affordable housing within the Lehigh Valley.

That seems limited right now.

But Sarah, that's where I'm going to bring you into this conversation.

There are plans in the Lehigh Valley to build affordable housing.

And so tell us about some of those plans, like the Pembroke community in Bethlehem, to kind of increase that affordable housing, that's available.

We know, that across the Lehigh Valley, we are currently short nearly 10,000 housing units, which means that that's putting pressure on all ends of the spectrum, even for high income, folks who are either looking to purchase their first house or lower income folks who are really having to stretch their budgets further and further.

To afford those rising rents that Anna referenced.

So here in Bethlehem, we've been really focused on both, homelessness prevention and then also ways to increase that supply.

So one of those projects that we are really proud of, that we just completed the planning grant for was the, Pembroke Choice neighborhood, the city and the Bethlehem Housing Authority are partnering to reimagine what Pembroke, which currently has 196 public housing units.

They it is the oldest public housing development in Bethlehem.

They are definitely kind of past their useful lifespan, and through the choice planning process, we've come up with a plan that would create 456 units, a one for one replacement, of the existing ones, but also create a mixed income community that has more of the economic ladder, for individuals that live there.

But that is a, long term kind of project.

So we've been working also on innovative partnerships with our nonprofit partners like Community Action Development Bethlehem and New Bethany, both through, the alley House program, where we're looking to build our first, alley house.

That's an accessory dwelling unit, in West Bethlehem sometime in the next year.

And then also partnering, to rehab some blighted properties, on the, western gateway of the city over there, owned by Cathedral Church of the Nativity.

So we're trying to get at short term solutions, and also those kind of like long term, larger scale solutions.

Sarah, how do you balance the economic growth with the need for affordable housing?

How do you balance that?

So that is, you know, one of the great challenges, like one of, Mayor Reynolds often talks about that one of the greatest assets in our community here, right in South Bethlehem, is the Greenway.

But the expansion of the Greenway meant that South Bethlehem has become like a very hot place to live.

And that puts pressure on our existing residents to displace them.

So that is why we have partnered with New Bethany Community Action, to have those landlord tenant sort of supports, to fund rental assistance, to look at that as homeless prevention.

We also have housing rehab programs.

We're working on developing, rental rehab program, where landlords who are willing to rent out affordable rents, that they could get assistance in making their property safer and more welcoming to make sure that everyone has access to safe and affordable housing, no matter their incomes.

Ladies, I want to thank you all so much for your input and thank you for the work that you do day to day to help these different communities throughout the Lehigh Valley.

Thank you, thank you.

Homelessness doesn't have a single cause or single solution, but through collaboration, compassion and policy change, the Lehigh Valley is working towards a future where everyone has a place to call home.

That will do it for this community conversation.

The cost of home.

We want to thank all of our guests for joining us, and of course, you for watching from all of us here at PBS 39, 9 1.3 WLVR and Lehigh Valley News.com.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Have a good night.