ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Many residents of a homeless encampment were left stunned by Allentown officials’ decision this week to push them out of the area.
They said they’d received promises from city leaders, including Mayor Matt Tuerk, that they would be allowed to stay.
But employees posted no-trespassing signs Thursday outside an encampment along Jordan Creek, where up to 150 people live in tents, according to residents.
They have until Aug. 25 to leave.
“We had so many promises from the mayor that … we were staying, nobody was pushing us out."Mike, a resident of the encampment
The move to clear the encampment comes as the city fights a lawsuit from landlord/developer Nat Hyman, who alleges residents are affecting his neighboring apartment buildings.
Allentown lawyers filed numerous objections but failed with their bid to have the lawsuit thrown out.
The mayor last fall ordered city employees to help clean up encampments instead of forcing out residents, a directive that gave hope to many of the camp’s residents but prompted Hyman’s legal challenge.
“We had so many promises from the mayor that … we were staying, nobody was pushing us out,” a resident named Mike told LehighValleyNews.com.
Potential floods?
A statement issued Wednesday by the city said the encampment is in an active flood zone, which is a “significant danger to those living there.”
“In light of recent deadly flooding events across the country, the city is taking proactive steps to protect the health and safety of individuals in these high-risk areas,” the statement reads.
More than 130 people were killed during extensive flooding in Texas last month, including about two dozen people who were at a summer camp in a floodplain.
But many who live in the Allentown encampment rejected that rationale Thursday as an excuse to get them off the property.
Mike, who helps organize the camp and connect other residents with resources, said he’s among those sleeping nearest to Jordan Creek.
He said he’s never feared his tent being flooded and believes it would take a massive storm for the creek to reach the encampment.
“You need to call Noah and get his measurements,” Mike said when asked how strong he thought a storm must be to flood in the area.
It’s “disgusting [to] use those deaths of that flood in Texas as an example” of what could happen here, he said.
“I trust our firefighters; I trust their professional opinion. And if their assessment is, ‘There's a risk of a loss of life or serious injury,’ I’m taking that seriously.”Mayor Matt Tuerk
Speaking Thursday to LehighValleyNews.com, Tuerk said he had little choice but to shut down the encampment after Allentown Fire Department deemed it a potentially fatal risk.
Some residents on Thursday called him a “liar” who broke his promise to let them stay. The mayor accepted they may feel betrayed by his decision while repeating his reasoning.
“I trust our firefighters; I trust their professional opinion,” he said. “And if their assessment is, ‘There's a risk of a loss of life or serious injury,’ I’m taking that seriously.”
“Our job is protecting public health and public safety,” he said.
He said the decision had nothing to do with Hyman’s lawsuit against the city.
‘Where do I go?’
Jessica Cruz voiced what many residents are feeling amid the encampment’s impending shutdown.
“Where do I go?” she said.
Cruz, 41, said she has Stage 4 cancer and wants to stay in the area to continue receiving treatment.
She said she found the camp this year and “was happy to be here” after “everything that I’ve been going through up to this point.”
The encampment is more than people living together in tents; it’s community, Cruz said.
“That's how I feel, like I'm going to lose them, too. I’m losing everything."Jessica Cruz, a resident of the encampment
She said she fears she will lose her neighbors whom she thinks of as “family” when the encampment closes this month.
“That's how I feel, like I'm going to lose them, too," she said. "I’m losing everything."
Residents of the encampment are “homeless, not hopeless,” Mike said.
But he said he worries their imminent eviction will crush any hope that remains.
