Committee Meeting on Encampment Closure Ordinance – February 4, 2026
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Committee Meeting on Encampment Closure Ordinance – February 4, 2026
A committee meeting of Allentown City Council was held on February 4, 2026, to discuss and refine a proposed ordinance that would establish standard operating procedures for the closure of homeless encampments on public property. The ordinance was introduced in response to the controversial closure of the Jordan encampment, which was described as chaotic, traumatic, and lacking transparency. Councilmember Gerlock, the sponsor, presented updated language incorporating feedback from colleagues and the public, aiming to make the ordinance more flexible, realistic, and focused on harm reduction. The meeting included testimony from Eric Tarz of the National Homelessness Law Center, as well as extensive discussion among councilmembers, the Commission on Homelessness, service providers, and city department heads about implementation challenges, the role of the county, and the need for clarity in definitions such as "immediate hazard."
Public Comments & Testimony
- Eric Tarz, Senior Policy Director, National Homelessness Law Center: Expressed strong support for the ordinance, stating it would create a "win-win situation" for housed and unhoused residents by establishing a clear process to move people into permanent housing rather than simply displacing them. He emphasized that 72% of Americans oppose jailing or fining people for sleeping outside when no shelter is available. He urged the committee to pass the ordinance as a first step toward evidence-based policy and noted that the city can provide leadership even if the county does not yet have similar procedures.
Discussion Items
- Feedback on Revised Ordinance: Councilmembers and stakeholders reviewed numerous provisions:
- Definition of Public Property: Concern raised that the ordinance originally applied to all public property, including county, state, and federal land. Councilmember Napoli suggested limiting it to municipal property; the sponsor agreed to add the word "municipal."
- Role of the Commission on Homelessness (COH): Several speakers questioned whether the volunteer commission has capacity for the duties assigned. The sponsor clarified that the revised language includes "COH and/or service providers" to allow flexibility. Christina, co-chair of COH, expressed nervousness about who would determine an "immediate hazard" and suggested that the unsheltered coordinator and street outreach workers should be involved in risk assessments.
- Immediate Hazard Definition: Councilmember Pongo argued that "immediate hazard" should be defined in Section 1 (definitions) to avoid misuse. Eric Tarz noted the term is an exception that could "swallow the whole" if not implemented in good faith, and recommended monitoring its use and amending if necessary.
- 72-Hour Timeline: Confusion arose over whether the 72 hours for the city to remediate a hazard runs concurrently with 72 hours for removal. The intent was clarified as sequential: first 72 hours to begin remediation, then 72-hour notice before removal.
- Training and Recordkeeping: Councilmember Pongo suggested training should focus on frontline staff only, and that data storage and access need clear guidelines. Christina noted that data from the Jordan closure is housed at the Health Department.
- Sidewalks and Right-of-Way: Concerns about including sidewalks in the ordinance; the sponsor acknowledged the need to narrow criteria in priority sections.
- County Collaboration: Councilmember Napoli asked about partnering with Lehigh County, which lacks its own SOP for encampments. The sponsor noted the county is mentioned in the ordinance as a partner. A joint committee meeting with the county is scheduled for March 5, 2026, which could facilitate discussion.
- Departmental Capacity: Vicki (Director of DCED) explained that the unsheltered coordinator, Danielle, is not a frontline decision-maker; her role is coordinating service providers. She stated that DCED lacks the personnel to perform many tasks in the ordinance, and that the burden of removing encampments falls on police, fire, and other departments. She also highlighted a lack of emergency plans among partner agencies and the absence of a year-round shelter in Lehigh Valley.
- Cost of Jordan Closure: Riley (street outreach manager) reported that the total cost of the Jordan encampment closure was $261,602.14, including parks, public works, police, and other departments. He described the closure as traumatic and ineffective, with people simply moving to new locations.
- Need for Harm Reduction: Multiple speakers emphasized that the ordinance aims to reduce harm to unhoused individuals, not penalize the city. Christina stated, "We need some kind of procedure so the people that are living there... reduces the harm to them." The sponsor agreed that perfect solutions are not possible given the lack of housing and shelter, but the ordinance is a step toward better outcomes.
Key Outcomes
- No vote was taken; the meeting was a work session to discuss amendments.
- The sponsor (Councilmember Gerlock) agreed to make further revisions, including:
- Limiting "public property" to municipal property.
- Specifying "representatives of COH" rather than the entire commission.
- Moving the definition of "immediate hazard" to the definitions section.
- Clarifying the risk assessment team composition after further thought.
- The committee will forward the revised draft to the city solicitor for legal review; an executive session may be scheduled.
- A joint workshop between Allentown City Council and Lehigh County is set for March 5, 2026, at 6:00 PM in council chambers, open to the public, to discuss collaboration on homelessness and other issues.
- The next committee meeting will address budget priorities, not this ordinance; the revised ordinance will be reintroduced at a future meeting.
Meeting Transcript
And living in the community surrounding some of these encampments that may or may not exist right now. So before I keep going, it looks like maybe technology is not working right now. What's up? I'm here. If you can hear me. Okay, he is on Teams. Okay, we can hear you, Mr. Tars. So what I'll just do is real quick, just kind of um before we uh cut to you, Mr. Tars. Um, we will I'll just kind of give a brief little overview. And then if you're able to hang on, hello. Um, if you're able to hang on uh throughout the meeting, great. Uh, because some of my colleagues may or may not have questions specifically for you. If you have to jump, it's okay because again, this isn't the last conversation. Um wonderful. Um, so um, like I said, a couple months ago, this first came up, and it came up because really the Jordan encampment closure, the chaos, the confusion, the anger, the lack of trust that uh got enhanced during that. Um, the idea came up to make sure that that doesn't happen again. Um the idea of this ordinance is to set standard operating procedures. We don't have any as a city, we don't have any at the administrative level, we don't have any at the legislative level. Um, and just we have standard operating procedures for what time we put trash out, we have standard operating procedures for how we go out to bid. Anything that we do as a as a city, we have procedures that we must follow. I think when we're bulldozing people's homes, we ought to have procedures. Uh so again, I I could go through all the different changes that I made um based on feedback from colleagues and uh some members of the public, but overall, the summary is uh the changes make the ordinance more flexible in terms of the administration's ability to um put people in place that would be best to handle this internally and more flexible with who the administration is working with. It's the Commission on Homelessness and possibly some other service providers as well. Um it also makes it more realistic, like something that could actually happen in the real world. Um, it clears up some of the concern about private property versus public property. This ordinance is only for public property. Um I have a footnote at the end. This is not handle private property. That's a whole other conversation. Um I would say um, yeah, I'd say those are the kind of overall areas that have been changed. Uh so with that, I'm going to out of respect for your time, Mr. Tarz, I'll just jump to you. And if you have any comments that you would like to make, feel free to do so right now. Thank you, Counselor Gerlock, for inviting me uh to Clerk Hanlin for enabling me to testify remotely, uh, and to the members of the committee for considering this important ordinance, establishing a clear and constructive process for addressing encampments in Ellentown. Uh I'm Eric Tarz, Senior Policy Director at the National Homelessness Law Center, but I'm based uh just a little bit south of you in Philadelphia. Um and I've worked across the country to help develop evidence-based policy to end and prevent homelessness for communities like yours. No matter our race, our gender, our income, or where we come from, we all need a safe place to sleep. We thrive and our communities thrive when everyone is housed. Homelessness is increasing as too many of us struggle to afford a place to live, and housing that people can afford paired with supportive services is if needed is the most effective way to ensure that everyone in our communities has that safe place to live and that encampments exist for as short a time as possible. While much more would need to be done, this ordinance is an important first step that sets Allentown up for a win-win situation where both housed and unhoused residents come out ahead by creating a clear process that will help move people off the streets permanently rather than simply moving people to a different park or street corner or worse, ticketing or arresting them and leaving them worse off and further from housing than they were before. I urge you to pass this ordinance and see for yourselves the better results that you will get. This ordinance is based on a similar one passed by Kit Sap County, Washington. And while it requires a shift in the approach the city will take to encampments, I cannot emphasize enough that this will result in benefits to all involved. No one is choosing to live in encampments. They are there because of the lack of better choices. We are all feeling the squeeze of rents rising faster than incomes. And we know that there aren't even enough shelter beds to get everybody inside. The people who are living outside in encampments are improvising imperfect solutions to their basic human needs in the absence of better options.
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