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"Over the next several weeks and months, our community will be engaged in a conversation around how to properly meet this challenge. "
Earlier this week, to begin improving accommodations within our parks, I have directed Lansdale Police Officers to remove any person in the parks littering, defecating, and/or otherwise damaging our parks or the assets that are within them. Additionally, should weather reach unsafe conditions (code red/blue) officers have been instructed to help unhoused persons find safe accommodations away from the parks.
To be clear, the intent of this direction is not to criminalize being unhoused in Lansdale. Officers have been instructed to work closely with our Mental Health Co-Responder to address any person who is reticent to leave the parks at the time the request is made with the hopes of helping find the services they need going forward. With that in mind, we cannot continue to tolerate the misuse and abuse of our public assets.
In recent weeks, the state of the Memorial Park Gazebo, and other roofed structures, have been left littered and unfit for public use. Regardless of someone’s status, the expectation is that our parks will be respected during their use. These are public assets funded by taxpayers who have a reasonable expectation that they will be well maintained for everyone’s enjoyment.
It is my expectation that unhoused persons will still find respite in our parks and their assets. It is not my expectation that the police will be removing people from our parks for simply resting in these areas. This direction is instead focused on managing the disruption and damage that persistent littering and misuse can have on our assets. Additionally, and this has always been the case, any person disrupting the lives of others in the park using vulgarities or verbal abuse will be asked to leave the property. Our parks are designed for mutual enjoyment for all involved, including the unhoused, and we will continue to work with all parties to ensure that all can use them.
While this directive may help address some immediate challenges, like the state of the Gazebo and other roofed structures (which are being cleaned in advance of the Arts Festival later this month), it will not resolve the very real and complex issue related to the unhoused population in our community. Kicking people out of our parks and leaving them to wander our streets is not a solution.
Over the next several weeks and months, our community will be engaged in a conversation around how to properly meet this challenge. Undeniably, we will be met challenges related to funding such an endeavor and it is in this area that I feel Montgomery County, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the federal government play an outsized role. As I have noted before, unhoused people are rarely residents of Lansdale. They certainly are residents of the County and the Commonwealth and as such the funding for solutions related to this challenge should come from those institutions.
It is my hope that this direction to our police department will add clarity to an issue laden with nuance and complexity. I would ask that everyone in the community continue to support the efforts to find a lasting solution by engaging in the conversation in a productive way that recognizes the humanity of this challenge while also advocating for proper and reasonable access to taxpayer funded assets in our parks. If we engage each other in this way it is my belief that we will come out a better community for it and Lansdale will be moving forward together.
(Mayoral Musings is a weekly op-ed column submitted to North Penn Now, courtesy of Lansdale Borough Mayor Garry Herbert. The views expressed are his own and are not representative of North Penn Now or Lansdale Borough.)
