Allentown YMCA to open shelter early after landing $50K in city funding

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Local leaders on Thursday committed to opening Allentown YMCA's homeless shelter by September's end.

The United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley and River Crossings YMCA are partnering to help some of the more than 100 residents of a homeless encampment near Jordan Creek that's being shut down.

Residents must leave the area by Aug. 25; many say they will have nowhere else to go until the Y opens, while some said they have no desire to spend nights in the shelter.

The announcement at the Y came just over 12 hours after Allentown City Council approved $50,000 in funding for the shelter.

Council is set to contribute $25,000 from its budget, while Mayor Matt Tuerk’s office will do the same.

“Cities and local governments have a moral responsibility to meet the needs of the people that they serve,” Tuerk said Thursday.

“We have to step up when people are hurting, when people are struggling. And right now we're in a moment where people are struggling.”

The Lehigh Valley Community Foundation pledged to provide $25,000 and other support to the Y as it works to open early.

‘One piece’ of the puzzle

The $50,000 grant from Allentown will cover about a month of operations at the Y’s Warming Station, according to officials.

“We're honored to be able to step up,” River Crossings YMCA President Zane Morris said Thursday. She thanked the “incredible partners” at the United Way and city.

Marci Lesko, chief executive officer for the Lehigh Valley’s United Way chapter, said she was “proud” her organization could help create “one solution” to the “complicated, difficult and heated issue” of homelessness.

“This is not the end solution,” Lesko said. “This is one piece of a much larger picture of things that we can do together.”

Lesko called for officials and nonprofits to explore other initiatives, such as temporarily housing people in vacant rooms at motels and hotels, incentivizing landlords and funding street outreach and other care.

The warming station provided shelter to 323 people and served more than 8,000 meals from mid-November 2024 to mid-April 2024, Morris said.

The Y is set to increase the shelter’s capacity from 60 beds to 80 this year after laying out cots last season to serve more people.

A regional issue

Lehigh County also will contribute $50,000 to support the facility's early opening, county Executive Phil Armstrong told LehighValleyNews.com.

Homelessness is a regional issue and the cost of solutions shouldn’t fall only on Allentown residents, he said.

If people are forced out of camps in the city, “they'd leave here and they'd go other places” such as Whitehall or Upper Macungie, townships Armstrong said.

Helping Allentown address homelessness is a “very smart investment” for municipalities throughout Lehigh County, he said.

“We can't just kick them out of one area or throw them in jail,” Armstrong said, alluding to President Trump’s executive order on homelessness.

“It is going to — in the long run — cost taxpayers even more money.”

“Big Mike,” a resident of the camp who helps connect others to resources, attended the news conference Tuesday outside the door to the shelter.

Some residents told LehighValleyNews.com they felt betrayed after Tuerk moved to shut down the camp, but Mike said many have “worked through” those issues with the mayor, thanks to “a lot of communication.”

Mike credited Tuerk for frequently visiting the camp over the past week and showing he’s “open to every solution.”

“The mayor is actually on our side,” Mike said. He said those visits have given residents some hope amid the ongoing eviction.

And residents of the camp could benefit in the long run from increased attention brought on by Tuerk’s decision to close it, he said.

“I think this tension is what needed to happen,” he said.