Lansdale continues to seek solutions for homelessness in town

Residents are continuing to sound off about the town’s homeless population, as borough officials reported that a gazebo in Memorial Park has been cleared of those living there.

“Last week, I implemented an action plan with our partners in parks and rec(reation department) and management office, to close the gazebo, to have the folks relocated from there, and to get that gazebo cleaned,” said police Chief Mike Trail at a borough council meeting on Wednesday.

“Over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be addressing that. And, as a parallel conversation, we are going to start trying to find more alternatives and solutions. This is a very complex problem,” he said.

Lansdale’s council and staff held lengthy talks on homelessness in 2023, building on discussions that began at the county level after heavy flooding in summer 2021 damaged low-income housing near Norristown, then the only county homeless shelter was closed in 2022.

Lansdale officials began talks with the county in summer 2023 on the topic, and borough police updated council through that fall on how they’ve helped people found sleeping in local parks, including at Stony Creek and in the gazebo at Memorial Park, and referred them to local service agencies.

So far this year, the borough has partnered with a mental health co-responder to help respond to those experiencing mental health challenges or other problems not typically addressed by police when they respond to calls, volunteers staffed a Code Blue shelter in town all winter providing a place to stay on chilly nights, and local residents have mobilized on social media to raise money for permanent housing for those in need.

In July, Trail gave council and the public an update on a U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding whether a municipality can ban people from sleeping or camping in public areas, such as sidewalks and parks, as residents outlined their own private efforts to help, and those living in the park described their own situations and suggestions.

The debate continued on Wednesday night, with about 30 residents there to share their thoughts, and borough officials outlining recent steps they’ve taken to clear the park ahead of the town’s Founders Day and Festival of the Arts there on Aug. 24.

Residents sound off

Park neighbor Ken Wieland kicked off the discussion by reiterating his worries about trash left by the homeless in the park, reports of their defecating there, and worries from neighbors about their safety, before asking a series of new questions.

“Do we know who these homeless are? Are there any psychological or criminal histories of these people? The park is right next to a school, and I measured the distance to the gazebo as 460 feet to Penndale Middle School. State law states that registered sex offenders must be greater than 2,500 feet from the school. Do we know who they are?” he said.

“If a shelter cannot be built, an alternate, nonresidential, non-school-proximity site should be found. I know these people have a lot of issues, and it’s hard just to turn them out, but I think Memorial Park is not the ideal place for them,” Wieland said.

Chief addresses gazebo

Trail answered that while he can’t share medical or confidential info, “for lack of a better term, the answer is yes: we do know who’s in the parks,” and said police and/or the co-responder interact with them nearly every day, before detailing the recent steps police have taken to clear the encampment.

“As of tonight, right now, the gazebo is empty. It’s being cleaned. It’s getting fixed. Because of the work we’ve done with the members of community, the unhoused, and our co-responder, we went out there last week and we implemented a plan, and they worked with us,” Trail said.

“When we arrived there this morning, there was nobody there. It was empty. It was relatively clean. And I think that speaks to the work that we’ve done, through our co-responder and our officers, to treat people with dignity and compassion. I understand the sensitive nature. If I lived across from the park, I’d be very upset. But we are making positive steps.”

    Sleeping bags and belongings of men living inside the gazebo at Memorial Park in Lansdale are seen on Tuesday, July 23 2024.
 By Dan Sokil | The Reporter   

Long-term answer?

Any long-term answer will only be found via input from the community, borough council, and help from the county and the state level, the chief added, plus one more key ingredient.

“At the end of the day, it’s going to take the one thing that no one seems to have, which is money to throw at the problem. So we’re working through it,” he said.

Gregory McCullough, another park neighbor, said he’s recently heard of a man sleeping in the front yard of a house near the park, and said he’s started locking his car every night due to a new concern.

“I’m not afraid somebody’s going to steal my car, I don’t want to wake up in the morning and find somebody sleeping in my car,” he said. “This park is like the last crown gem you’ve got in this town, and it’s embarrassing, that when you drive down Main Street, people come into Lansdale, and they see that.”

Sandy Watson said she worked in the human services field for decades, and felt differently.

“To me, the agony of another human being is not an embarrassment. It is, what do we do about our fellow human being? How do we help them? What do we do? And we don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” she said.

During her career working with those who have mental illness, “the first thing they wanted was to work,” and she knew of many regional and county agencies and efforts to address the problems of housing, medical and mental health, and employment.

“I give a blanket, I give food, or money or whatever. The stories that I hear would break your heart — human beings who, just by some horrible chain of events, are left in this position. Your daughter, your son, yourself … you would want other human beings to say ‘how can I help you?'”

‘It’s not just what we think’

Alexis Moyer, the mental health co-responder, then shared what she’s seen while interacting every day with those being discussed.

“It’s not just those who have mental health issues, substance abuse issues. I work with people who are unhoused, who work fulltime jobs. In today’s economy, any person in this room could be one paycheck away from living in a park,” she said.

“It’s not just what we think — people who don’t want to work, who are just lazy. It’s many layers, and barriers. People sometimes have a criminal background; people don’t want to hire criminals. People can’t get to mental health providers, because of eight-month waitlists to see a psychiatrist,” Moyer said.

Others may want to work, but may be unable to get a photo ID because they don’t have a birth certificate, and can’t get the birth certificate without a Social Security number or other ID they may not have.

“There is no easy solution for this. Trust me, 22 years I’ve been doing this. In today’s economy, being a social worker, if I didn’t have my husband’s income, I’d be sleeping in Memorial Park as well. It’s not just what society thinks unhoused people are,” Moyer said.

“I have people trying to live in a park and go to work, trying to figure out where they’re showering, where you’re going to lay your head down at night, how are you going to try to work, and figure out these barriers. These are people’s parents, children, neighbors,” she said.

Carole Farrell said she’s been following the discussion closely via Mayor Garry Herbert’s Mayoral Musings column and coverage in The Reporter, and asked if the town was going to enforce their law about parks being closed from sundown to sunup.

“I think at this point, we are being reactive, versus we should’ve been proactive in the beginning with this,” she said.

‘We need to find a balance’

Trail answered that the recent Supreme Court decision has given the town more leeway to be able to do so.

“It is my position that we should enforce dusk to dawn (closures). We are working through that as a group, but that is my position as chief of police,” he said.

“We don’t want to necessarily criminalize the unhoused, but we need to find a balance, that allows us to enjoy our public spaces, allows us to feel safe in our community, but also help these individuals move forward in their lives,” he said.

Herbert was unable to attend the meeting, but said afterward that the town’s crime rate is currently at a 30-year low, and addressed the gazebo cleanup by saying “by directing the police to enforce the anti-littering and anti-property damage ordinances in our community it is my hope that we will be able to better preserve and protect our public assets from further damage from anyone who would seek to do so.”

“However, we must also acknowledge that this approach is not a comprehensive solution to the challenges our community faces regarding unhoused persons. We must seek a solution that meets our modern needs and brings in larger partnership from both the County and the Commonwealth. This will be a process for our community, and one that will take us time to navigate properly, but it a road we must travel nonetheless to ensure we keep moving forward together.”

No quick fix

Farrell then asked about Founders Day, and if the town would find a solution for the homeless after, as winter approaches. Committee chairwoman Meg Currie Teoh said no fix will be quick.

“I understand that we have ordinances, and the police responsibility is to enforce the ordinances. I also feel that, this might be a case of fixing one ‘problem’ and in turn creating another one,” she said.

“There is no shelter bed available anywhere in Montgomery County. So if people have to leave one space, I think we need to think bigger picture here. Where are we sending people? There is nowhere to send people. We can move people along, and I’m not sure what that actually accomplishes,” Teoh said. “I appreciate you all being here, because frankly, we need all the good ideas we can get.”

Harry Henning said his son Bill helped raise the funds to install the gazebo in 2022 to honor late former ‘Mayor Mike’ DiNunzio, and said he felt “it’s disgusting to see what’s been happening with it, and that we can’t do anything about it.” Their business Henning’s Trains, on the corner opposite from the park, helped by storing trash bags full of belongings from one homeless man, and he offered jobs to two of them; both turned the jobs down.

“He told us, he didn’t want to work. He was fine just being a homeless person, and living in a park. He got free food, washed, showered,” Henning said. “The people that are there because of unfortunate circumstances is one thing. I feel for them. But these other two characters that don’t even want to work when they’re offered jobs, something’s gotta be done about that,” he said.

Rachel Gill asked about reports in July that the town may have a surplus of funds or unassigned reserves that could be put toward a solution, and Teoh said the town’s staff are still working to identify if those funds are already earmarked or assigned to other projects or priorities.

“The county has closed the Montgomery County shelter in Norristown. Where are people going to go? It is not the human thing to do, to just push the problem somewhere else,” Gill said. “If they’re here, I don’t care where they came from originally. I’m not from Lansdale originally, but I’ve lived here now for the last four years. They’re in Lansdale now, they’re our citizens, and we should take care of them.”

Ross Harris thanked council, the police, and Moyer for their efforts, asking if other levels of government could step up.

“It’s not just bad optics. It’s an embarrassment those people have to be there, and there’s nowhere else for them to go. That should be what we’re embarrassed about. I don’t want to see those people there, but they’re human beings. They need help. Some of them refuse help, but they need help anyways,” he said.

“Why can’t we form a regional committee of people looking at this problem, and addressing it? And are able to take this to Montgomery County, the state, Governor Shapiro, wherever it has to go. These are human beings. We have to treat them humanely. We can’t just kick them out.”

Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Aug. 21 and the public safety committee next meets at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 4, both at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine Street. For more information visit www.Lansdale.org.

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