ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A last-minute amendment to the city’s 2026 budget is set to provide some basic support for homeless residents after a monthslong battle between officials put that funding in jeopardy.
Allentown City Council last week unanimously voted to spend $100,000 on a host of short-term initiatives and services.
“We can't say we want people to uplift themselves and pull themselves up by the bootstraps and then not give them some straps to pull up.”Allentown City Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach, on Nov. 7
Half will be used to temporarily house people in hotels, an alternative to a shelter for people facing imminent homelessness.
That money would let about 75 households each spend five nights in a room, at an average rate of $125 per night, Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach said last year.
The city will use more than $21,000 to buy water stations and outdoor restrooms, which were among the most common requests from residents of several city homeless encampments that were bulldozed last year.
Officials earmarked $10,000 to shelter pets, which often stop homeless people from seeking or accepting help or going to a shelter.
Specificity needed
Also, $10,000 will cover laundry services.
“How do you hold down a job if you smell, if your clothes are dirty?” Gerlach said Nov. 7 as council weighed the $100,000 funding request from the Commission on Homelessness.
“We can't say we want people to uplift themselves and pull themselves up by the bootstraps and then not give them some straps to pull up.”
“This is really spelling it out exactly how that $100,000 should be spent to make the most impact with the unsheltered community.”Christina DiPierro, who runs Allentown’s Commission on Homelessness
Officials plan to use the rest — $8,500 — to buy gift cards for volunteers who help them establish a Homeless Advisory Board.
Previous budgets allocated $100,000 for “homeless services,” but their lack of specificity caused issues with spending that money, according to Christina DiPierro, who runs Allentown’s Commission on Homelessness.
“This is really spelling it out exactly how that $100,000 should be spent to make the most impact with the unsheltered community,” DiPierro said.
Advocates say the six-figure investment could save up to seven times that amount in prevented emergency medical care, law enforcement and shelter costs.
