An Allentown City Council member who called the city’s evacuation of a homeless encampment last fall “chaos” and a “debacle,” is trying to ensure the city avoids future calamity when displacing homeless residents.
Ce-Ce Gerlach, a council member who has spoken about experiencing homelessness in the past, has introduced an ordinance that would outline rules and procedures for the city to follow when it decides to evacuate a homeless encampment.
Despite more than a month’s notice, on the day of the evacuation, dozens of homeless people scrambled to move their belongings from the area before public works staff bulldozed it.
Gerlach and advocates for homeless residents have said the city’s process of removal seemed chaotic and disorganized, without adequate communication with homeless residents and nonprofits that provide them with services before the evacuation.
“There were a lot of people involved, it was such an abrupt decision, and it really threw service providers into a spin, as well as City Council,” said Riley Kreuzer, a street outreach worker with the Lehigh Conference of Churches. “We had a lot of people here in August just trying to seek understanding and grant more time because it’s such a big decision that affects so many people, I can tell you, it was difficult for me as a provider watching people go through this. The days of the clean ups were traumatic.”
City officials including Mayor Matt Tuerk ]defended the evacuation and said it and subsequent camp cleanups were a matter of public safety.
Gerlach’s bill would require the city to give at least 60 days notice when planning to evacuate an encampment except for an immediate emergency. The bill also would require the city to coordinate with homeless service providers to conduct a “risk assessment” before conducting an evacuation, to determine the level of risk to human health and safety.
It also requires Allentown employees who interact with homeless people to be trained in deescalation, mental health and cultural sensitivity, and allows a homeless resident to file a grievance with the city if he or she feels protocols were not followed.
Gerlach introduced the bill last year following the evacuation, but it failed to receive support from then-Council President Daryl Hendricks. Tuerk also criticized the bill at the time, saying that City Council should not dictate staff procedures.
Gerlach made several amendments to the bill as a compromise, including reducing the amount of required notice to 60 days down from 90, and striking a clause that would require the city to find a new location for the residents.
She removed that language because she feared the bill would not pass with that provision included, she told The Morning Call. The city and region have no year-round low-barrier homeless shelters, so critics of Gerlach’s original proposal said it would not be possible to always offer an alternative location when displacing people.
“The title of the ordinance is to reduce harm, not to end harm,” Gerlach said in an interview. “Harm will still happen. It is not going to decrease homelessness. It’s going to reduce the harm, make a horrible situation a little less horrible, and that’s where we are at right now.”
During a City Council meeting last week, several council members asked questions and offered feedback on Gerlach’s ordinance. Council member Jeremy Binder, a newcomer who was sworn in at the beginning of the year, suggested that the city collaborate more closely with the county on homeless services.
Gerlach said she is encouraged that council members had “actual dialogue” about the ordinance, in contrast with its reception from council last year, when it never came up for a vote.
“Just based on the questions and the feedback, I can tell that there is a level of concern and agreement that [this ordinance] is needed, that it is not OK that we have nothing, I think the question is just the details of the actual ordinance,” Gerlach said.
She hopes to introduce the ordinance for a preliminary vote by the end of the month, she told The Morning Call.