Montgomery County authorize a lease agreement during a Dec. 19, 2024 council meeting for a new “short term supportive housing facility” on Main Street in Lansdale. (MediaNews Group)
The building will welcome homeless to Lansdale Borough in 2025.
More than two years after Montgomery County’s largest homeless shelter closed, commissioners have signed a lease to open a new one.
The unanimous action taken Thursday by county commissioners was a step to further the supportive short-term housing concept with a facility run by Philadelphia-based Resources for Human Development, which also operated the previously closed shelter in Norristown.
The action came after months of negotiation between the county, Lansdale borough and RHD.
“I know Lansdale has seen a growing number of unhoused in their community, and so they’ve been out in front really working collaboratively with the county to come up with … tangible solutions,” Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Jamila Winder said in an interview with The Reporter ahead of Thursday’s vote.
“I am here today because I believe we stand at a pivotal moment. A moment where what once seemed impossible is now within our grasp. Through unwavering dedication, collaboration, and some sheer will, we have brought us to this point,” Lansdale Councilman BJ Breish said during the county commissioners’ meeting Thursday.
The lease agreement with the Lansdale-based Liberty Bell Realty Co. for the space at 1107 E. Main St. was set to begin on Jan. 1, 2025 and run through Dec. 31, 2034, according to Montgomery County Deputy Chief Operating Officer Dr. Tamra Williams. Rent was established at $6,800 per month.
The 20-bed facility will include “single and double occupancy rooms,” and will have capacity to house “up to 20 people at any given time,” Williams said. She estimated that “on average, it takes around 45 days to get people into permanent housing through rapid rehousing.”
Montgomery County authorize a lease agreement during a Dec. 19, 2024 council meeting for a new “short term supportive housing facility” on Main Street in Lansdale. (MediaNews Group)Montgomery County allocated financing for the initiative in the 2025 budget, also approved Thursday, designating $1.3 million for operational costs as well as a $2 million investment from the 2025 portion of the Montgomery County Capital Improvement Program.
“There were some people who didn’t think we could pull it off this quickly, but we did. It is pretty amazing. Normally, these things don’t work this quickly, but it just goes to show you when people work together and work at something hard, good things can happen. I hope this is a game changer not only for the residents of Lansdale, but helpful for the county as well,” said Lansdale Borough Council President Mary Fuller in an interview Wednesday.
Winder agreed.
“I’m feeling proud that we’re at this moment where we can celebrate just a little bit [of] this small step towards progress. People may look at this shelter and say, ‘well it’s only 20 beds,’ but the journey to get to this moment was hard fought,” she said.
Winder underscored a goal of “prioritizing those that are currently in Lansdale,” and anticipated the shelter could be operational within the first half of next year.
“We want to be first in class and provide a wide range of services with the goal of getting people back on their feet and back into the community,” Winder said, stressing the need for comprehensive resources related to behavioral health, food, security, job search, and other supportive services.
Resources for Human Development will also serve as the provider agency. This comes a little more than a month after securing a roughly $2.7 million contract related to this effort.
“Homelessness is a complex public health problem, and it really can happen to anyone. We also know that our communities are strongest when all of their members are getting their basic needs met,” said Christina Jordan, program director of Resource for Human Development’s Montgomery County Homeless Services.
Closing of CHOC
The Philadelphia-based agency previously operated the Coordinated Homeless Outreach Center, known as CHOC, the county’s largest and only homeless shelter for single adults, on the grounds of the Norristown State Hospital. It was situated on a piece of state land conveyed to the Municipality of Norristown for development. It closed in June 2022 when the lease lapsed, and no new facility has been built in the two years since it closed.
RHD had proposed a supportive short term housing development project on the grounds of Eagleville Hospital. However, Lower Providence Township officials paused proceedings in late April following staunch public opposition by township residents.
In Lansdale, local officials said government, community and resident partners have all expressed concern over people experiencing homelessness.
“You’re always going to have ‘NIMBY-ism,” Fuller said, but added that “I didn’t get any of that feedback when the Code Blue shelter opened. I’m optimistic.” Fuller was referring to the recent opening of a county Code Blue shelter for women in Lansdale, also on East Main Street.
Winder added that continued dialogue with local partners is key.
“We can’t just stand up the homeless shelter and not engage the community in a meaningful way,” Winder said. “[We’ll be] making sure they understand all that we’re doing, and ensuring that we lift the most vulnerable up in Lansdale, but we protect a thriving and vibrant community of family and friends, and I think we can do that.”
Homelessness in Montgomery County
More than 1,000 single adult county residents reportedly experienced homelessness last year, according to figures from Resources for Human Development. Local officials have estimated around 30 people are homeless in Lansdale.
“It will help us … address 50 to 75 percent of the known unhoused population,” Fuller said.
“I’m happy to say that the county and the Lansdale borough government have come together and started working hand and glove on some of these issues of housing affordability, addressing housing, addressing the unhoused that our community faces,” Lansdale Mayor Garry Herbert told The Reporter.
Proximity to nearby social service agencies was a priority when settling on the facility’s location. Herbert and Fuller noted the nearby Manna on Main Street and the recently opened women’s Code Blue shelter at the Wissahickon Park facility are both within just a few blocks walking distance from the proposed supportive housing site. Manna provides food for those in need, including the homeless.
“One of the reasons the two locations that we picked to focus on were their proximity to other services that folks in these two locations will need, one of which is food,” Fuller said.
Elected officials noted the rising rates of homelessness within the borough as they searched for ways to best assist those in need. Herbert had written a scathing opinion in his September “Mayoral Musings” column blasting the county for having turned down a site Lansdale suggested. His outrage appeared to get their attention.
“I can say from the time I penned that article to now, their involvement has been amazing, and they’ve been really engaged and looking for those solutions,” he said. “So sometimes you just have to ask for help and the right people will present themselves and help.”
Winder took a moment to credit her predecessor, former Commissioners’ Chairman Ken Lawrence Jr. She emphasized the role he played in “laying the foundation on this work by doing the homeless task force and earmarking dollars in last year’s budget toward this effort.”
Winder also pinpointed a critical housing summit that took place earlier this year where nearly 150 advocates, developers and municipal leaders came together to brainstorm possible solutions to alleviate homelessness. Interested partners have long acknowledged homelessness to be a “complicated issue,” as Herbert noted. “If it were easy, this would have been resolved long ago and it’s just not,” he said.
Pottstown and Norristown
Homelessness remains evident countywide but has been most visible in the larger towns of Norristown and Pottstown, as homeless encampments have increased in the two years since CHOC’s closure. With a concentration of social services agencies in the two boroughs, they often bear the weight of the burden. Elected officials have urged more municipalities to step up.
“One of the reasons that I advocated so strongly and … called the county to help be part of the solution is the people most engaged in being unhoused and experiencing homelessness are transient in nature … and that really does require the involvement of the county because if a person is going to move from place-to-place than they’re more a resident of the county, then they are of, say, the borough of Lansdale,” Herbert said.
‘Putting our money where our mouth is’
Montgomery County’s 2025-29 capital improvement program fund earmarked $10 million for a homeless shelter over the next five years. Winder stressed that action “should signal to the community that we’re serious about making the investment to bring more shelter beds online but more importantly that transitional housing model that went away for single adults with the CHOC.
“So this is us putting our money where our mouth is intending homelessness is not going to go away in the next five years — hopefully it declines by some of the programs that we’re doing,” she continued. “We’re confident that it will. We just want to be prepared that we need to make this investment … the budget reflects that.”
More shelters needed
The future work to mitigate homelessness in Montgomery County may accelerate in the months to come with plans for additional shelters. Winder stressed that “Lansdale is just the beginning and a capacity of 20 beds is just the starting point” and acknowledged that “20 is not enough.”
While Winder couldn’t disclose specifics surrounding upcoming plans, she noted there’ve been conversations with municipal representatives in Norristown, Pottstown and West Norriton Township.
“We’re proactive in recruiting shelter operators for up to three because there’s a real possibility that we are going to be in a position shortly after Lansdale to open additional shelter, and we wanted to be proactive and be ready for that,” Winder said.
As conversations continue, Winder stressed the importance of “thinking through what’s the right solution for their community because I truly subscribe to the notion that you can lift your most vulnerable friends and neighbors up, and still have a community that’s vibrant and safe.”
“The two are not mutually exclusive, and I want to be able to say at the end of next year that we not only have one but we have multiple transitional housing facilities in different parts of the county that are helping people get back on their feet,” she said. “We’re providing them services and they’re well on their way to be able to transition back into the community and live on their own and be contributing members to our society.”
