ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Mayor Matt Tuerk and his administration have the month of May to whip up a “more robust” policy for how the city will clear homeless camps.
Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach for the past six months has pushed for what she calls overdue “standard operating procedures" for encampment evictions.
Allentown City Council on Wednesday considered Bill 21, which she introduced alongside Councilwoman Natalie Santos to improve communication among officials and established clear procedures.
It detailed how city officials should evaluate camps and work with homeless residents while laying out “clear timelines [and] clear expectations.”
Bill 21 was the second version of the ordinance Gerlach introduced alongside Councilwoman Natalie Santos. They proposed a similar bill in mid-October as crews worked to clear homeless camps along Jordan Creek.
Gerlach said Wednesday she received a wealth of feedback on the bill from the Commission on Homelessness and her colleagues on council last year, but heard nothing from Tuerk’s administration.
Gerlach said she made “so many amendments” to the first bill that she had to reintroduce the legislation in early March as “an entirely new ordinance.”
'Compassionate treatment'
Gerlach said she was prepared to lobby her colleagues to vote Wednesday on Bill 21.
But she agreed to give Tuerk’s administration one more chance to draft its own policy that will work in tandem with some form of the ordinance she and Santos proposed.
“We now have a managing director who wants to engage in a collaborative process. That's what I've wanted from the beginning. I think that’s progress — slow progress, but progress.”City Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach
The details about how to implement an ordinance should be laid out in an administrative policy and not the ordinance, Gerlach said.
The councilwoman said she wants to give Frank Kane, the city’s new managing director, an opportunity to show the administration’s stated commitment to “balance [its] enforcement authority with compassionate treatment of human beings.”
“We now have a managing director who wants to engage in a collaborative process," Gerlach said.
"That's what I've wanted from the beginning. I think that’s progress — slow progress, but progress.”
'Being part of the solution'
Kane immediately was thrust into the fallout from the decision to post eviction notices at a homeless camp along Little Lehigh Creek in early April, several days before he started.
“I appreciate the extra little bit of time because, for me, it's a very new process to look at this policy,” Kane told council.
“But I can guarantee that we'll get the right people together. … The mayor is looking forward to being part of the solution.”
“Actions speak louder than words."Allentown Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach
Kane agreed to Gerlach’s request to provide council with a full-fledged administrative policy on encampment evictions by June 1.
“Actions speak louder than words,” Gerlach said when asked whether she trusted the administration to follow through on that promise.
The city’s second-in-command also agreed Wednesday to council’s bid to halt any evictions until council and the mayor can work out a policy and ordinance.
“We plan no evacuations. There’s nothing that I’m aware of that’s on the horizon,” Kane said, though he asked for leeway to address “emergency” hazards.
