ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Allentown City Council on Wednesday night implored Mayor Matt Tuerk — through his deputy — to slow down the city's push to clear another homeless camp.
Council voted unanimously to approve three resolutions.
The first calls on Tuerk and Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel to find a plot of land where people can camp without fear of eviction and immediately release approved funding for emergency hotel stays and other initiatives.
That request was made with particular urgency, as the Allentown YMCA prepares to close its shelter that's served more than 100 people this winter.
“They're not bothering nobody. They're just living their lives.”Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach on residents of the Little Lehigh camp
The second resolution was passed to give council some oversight over the administration's process of identifying and addressing homeless camps.
And with the third, all seven council members urged the mayor to postpone the eviction of a small camp hidden along the Little Lehigh Creek behind a retaining wall at Fountain Park.
City crews on Friday posted eviction signs that declare the area a flood risk and give the nine residents until April 20 to vacate.
Council members decried the mayor's move to quickly clear another camp, hours after several of them visited it.
“They're not bothering nobody,” Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach said. “They're just living their lives.”
Councilwoman Cynthia Mota called the pending eviction “inhumane.”
“We have to have a heart, and we should not kick them out,” Mota said.
The mayor is “causing more homelessness” by shutting down a longstanding camp where people have formed a “village,” Councilwoman Candida Affa said.
Councilman Jeremy Binder commended city Managing Director Frank Kane for taking the “proverbial hotseat” Wednesday night in place of Tuerk.
But Binder lamented not being able to get immediate answers to his questions, with Kane in his first few days on the job and Tuerk out of town at a conference.
Kane pledged to council members that Tuerk’s administration would decide by Friday evening whether to honor their request to delay the eviction.
'People first'
Many in Allentown City Council’s chambers Wednesday night also criticized Tuerk for giving the camp’s residents less than two weeks’ notice.
“Ten days is not enough,” Mota said.
“Giving people ten days to move what they have left is immoral,” West End resident Regina Padilla told council.
Padilla urged officials to “think about people first and money second.”
And Gerlach said she worried the city could face potential claims of housing discrimination if homeless people get only 10 days to vacate their living spaces while most tenants get more notice.
“We don't feel like citizens of Allentown. We feel like we're trash; we're pushed to the side.”Resident Michael Johnson
She is pushing for homeless residents to get at least 30 days in her bill to establish what she calls “standard operating procedures” for camp evictions.
Tuerk’s administration on Wednesday countered with an internal policy to codify its responses to some of council’s concerns.
Among the crowd Wednesday was about a dozen people who have relied on the YMCA’s shelter throughout the winter.
Several spoke before they marked their last night together with a Chinese takeout dinner back at the shelter.
A woman who identified herself as "Tina" told council members she and her 20-year-old daughter — who stood by her side — “are scared” because they “have no place [to go] tomorrow.”
“Please help us,” she said.
Michael Johnson urged officials to establish a year-round shelter for homeless residents.
“We don't feel like citizens of Allentown,” Johnson said. “We feel like we're trash; we're pushed to the side.”
