POTTSTOWN — A lawsuit filed on behalf of homeless individuals residing on a stretch of land along the Schuylkill River Trail in Pottstown asserts the borough hasn’t offered viable alternatives in its decision to have people vacated from the area.
Signs posted in October along a roughly one-mile stretch alerted some 25 people that they have until Dec. 1 to leave the borough-owned property.
A federal lawsuit filed Nov. 2 with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania outlined the plaintiffs Alfredo Beltran, Daniel Wanner and Better Days Ahead Outreach Inc., and listed the Borough of Pottstown as the defendant.
The Community Justice Project and Legal Aid of Southeastern PA asserted that Pottstown has “violate(d) its citizens’ constitutional rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment and state created dangers.”
Advocates are seeking a preliminary injunction against the action “unless and until defendant genuinely offers all of the College Drive Encampment residents with adequate alternative shelter,” the lawsuit states.
75 to 95 without homes
Nonprofit advocates estimated there are between 75 and 95 unhoused people in Pottstown, according to the lawsuit.
Beltran and Wanner are two homeless people currently staying on the stretch of land in question. Wanner, 44, has been homeless for nearly one year and most recently carved out a space for himself in the woods just beyond the bike path.
“I’m worried about myself and all the other people down here. A lot of people down here are good people. It’s just they don’t know where to go either,” Wanner said in a recent interview with MediaNews Group.
“If Defendant Borough of Pottstown closes the College Drive Encampment, Mr. Beltran is afraid that he will be less safe and at greater risk of crime, especially theft,” the lawsuit states.
The posted notice at the site directed those in need of assistance to call 211 or Montgomery County’s mobile crisis unit at 855-634-4673. Additionally, the notice stated Beacon of Hope’s warming center that opened on Nov. 1 “will have shelter spaces accessible, and they can be contacted through 211.”
However, advocates have said the waiting list for shelter and housing is long due to the area’s low affordable housing stock and lack of shelters in Montgomery County.
Up to six-month waitlist for a bed
The June 2022 closure of the Coordinated Homeless Outreach Center meant a loss of 50 beds. Hoteling has been provided as a main resource, with funds provided by Montgomery County to Resources for Human Development, the former operator of the Norristown-based CHOC.
“The signs’ instructions for accessing alternative shelter, however, are misleading and will not enable most College Drive Encampment residents to access shelter. Specifically, dialing 211 connects callers to a call center for Montgomery County residents experiencing homelessness. But because Montgomery County has no shelter beds to offer right now … the operators of the 211 system cannot connect callers to immediate shelter right now and can typically do nothing more than place unhoused residents on a roughly three to six-month waitlist for a hotel bed, depending on the resident’s vulnerability factors.”
“Defendant Borough of Pottstown has taken an increasingly aggressive stance towards unhoused residents over the past two years, despite the fact that most unhoused residents are outside because they cannot obtain shelter housing,” the lawsuit states.
“Specifically, the Pottstown Police Department … has repeatedly conducted sweeps of homeless encampments in the Borough of Pottstown over the past two years,” the lawsuit states. “During these sweeps, Defendant Borough of Pottstown, via the Pottstown PD, has ordered unhoused residents to relocate without any offer of alternative housing, typically forcing residents to relocate to other, less safe outdoor spaces.”
“How (are) you going to push out the people that don’t have anywhere to go to begin with?” Wanner said.
Shelter efforts stymied
The lawsuit stated that the borough has “also sought to block or impede Beacon of Hope from providing overnight warming beds to unhoused residents.” Last year, Pottstown Beacon of Hope operated a 35-bed warming center from November to April out of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Pottstown, but the borough denied a zoning request to keep it open.
The plan was to build a permanent shelter off West High Street, but delays caused by property title complications forced the nonprofit agency to adopt a mobile strategy for this year. Beacon of Hope is partnering with other area religious institutions to provide overnight shelter for those in need. St. James Lutheran Church, Christ Episcopal Church, Bethel Community Church of Pottstown, Congregation Hesed Shel Emet, and First Baptist Church will provide shelter on a rotating basis.
Beacon of Hope will operate an intake center every evening at Christ Episcopal Church, registering those who are staying, and then transporting them to whichever warming center location is being operated that month where they will have a warm bed from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
“They have the basic human right to exist and function,” Legal Aid of Southeastern PA Counsel Carolyn Johnson said in a Nov. 10 statement. “Right now there is no alternative place to be. It’s not always possible for everyone to be indoors, but it should always be a goal to strive to achieve.”
Pottstown Borough Manager Justin Keller declined comment on the lawsuit, stating the borough does not comment on litigation.
