Montgomery County Partners with Municipalities to Form Shelters After Task Force Effort Concludes

Rachel Ravina | The Reporter•

A homeless encampment is pictured June 9, 2023, just off the Schuylkill River Trail in Norristown.

It’s been almost a year since Montgomery County launched a task force dedicated to address the area’s homelessness.

The initiative brought 46 people together who met over the course of several months on Zoom. Their backgrounds and experiences varied, ranging from those in the advocacy, education, government, and religious spaces to area residents and others who’ve experienced homelessness themselves.

It launched in April and concluded in November. While the entity itself had an expiration date, county officials stressed its purpose would instead lay the foundation for future work. It translated to plans to partner with Lansdale, as well as Lower Merion, Upper Moreland and West Norriton townships to further efforts to assist the homeless.

"While the task force itself has ended, I think we’ll see the fruits of the relationships that were developed by that, and that’s really what I wanted to do — put a spotlight on the issue and to bring people to the table to discuss it,” said former Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairman Ken Lawrence Jr. in a December 2023 interview.

Officials have attributed several factors to the area’s uptick in homelessness, including increases to cost of living, high housing costs, a lack of affordable housing stock, as well as aftereffects from the COVID-19 pandemic and Hurricane Ida flooding in 2021.

But people agree the issues surrounding homelessness are complex.

"I think there’s different factors that lead to it,” Lawrence said. "I think there’s sometimes short-term homelessness, which we don’t talk about as much, when people are couch surfing. We have sometimes people who are living in cars for short periods of time.”

"I think there’s been a lot of focus on the encampments, because that’s something visible that you can see, but I don’t want to lose track of those other issues, and we’ve done things with tenant issues and other things,” he continued. "I think the best way to prevent homelessness is for someone to never end up on the street, and can we continue to look at methods to keep people with a roof over their head?”

Housing Investment

The county has invested more than $30 million in federal COVID-19 relief dollars to aid affordable housing measures locally, and $22 million toward hoteling, rapid rehousing and other outreach programs to help the homeless.

During a HealthSpark Foundation conference earlier this week at Bryn Mawr College, Montgomery County Housing and Community Development Administrator Kayleigh Silver said there were nearly 3,000 people experiencing homelessness throughout the 2023 calendar year.

Task Force Origins

The idea to form the task force came from Lawrence in early 2023, as he made addressing the county’s homelessness crisis a priority for his final year in office.

Lawrence served in a leadership role, along with county Health and Human Services Director Tamra Williams, and Kim Krauter, the Walter Group’s director of development in Pennsylvania.

Williams categorized the group as a "vehicle to address homelessness in Montgomery County,” when addressing elected officials during a winter board meeting.

"It sparked a lot of conversation and action in some positive ways,” Williams said. She stressed the task force "was not intended to solve all issues related to homelessness (and) not really created around one specific issue.”

Pam Spence, a real estate broker from Pottstown, was among the task force members.

"Overall, the mood was optimistic,” she told MediaNews Group. "We’re coming together to solve a complex problem. There are so many angles (and) dynamics to look at criteria … but we were able to put together a mission plan.”

"This was clearly not work that could be done alone,” Williams said. "The goal was to bring people to the table to identify goals and implement solutions, while also recognizing that with this diverse group, we might not always agree on the ‘how’ of accomplishing our goal, but it did provide a forum for a diverse group of voices to be heard.”

While homelessness is evident across Montgomery County, boroughs such as Norristown and Pottstown bear the burden. Noting that 62 municipalities make up Montgomery County, Williams stressed that "homelessness is not really the responsibility of only two or three of those.”

CHOC Closing Effects

The Coordinated Homeless Outreach Center, a 50-bed homeless shelter and resource center for single adults operated by Philadelphia-based Resources for Human Development, was previously located in Norristown, on the grounds of the Norristown State Hospital.

Situated on a portion of land conveyed to the Municipality of Norristown for Development, the facility effectively closed when the lease lapsed in 2022.

"It’s going to take all of us to be able to make an impact on homelessness. So I thought that this was the opportunity to be at the table with people who aren’t always at the homeless table,” said Resources for Human Development Regional Director Owen Camuso, of the task force.

A proposal for a new short term housing space with supportive services was introduced last month in Lower Providence Township, but as of now, no new facility has been built.

"I think when this started, this was viewed as a primarily Norristown and Pottstown issue, which I think we’ve dispelled that myth,” Lawrence said. "I think people have recognized that we have homeless people throughout Montgomery County.”

"Maybe they tend to congregate in some areas more than one, but if every municipality in Montgomery County had some level of affordable housing, and we certainly don’t need 62 shelters … but we focus on the one that closed,” he continued. "The one that was there was not enough, and we have other shelters as well, but we’ve had conversations starting with that where I think municipalities have recognized that everyone needs to step up.”

Krauter agreed and said she was pleasantly surprised by the levels of municipal participation.

"I’ve worked in Montgomery County for 17 years doing affordable housing, and that’s the first time that we’ve had real conversations with municipalities, and I think you can see it was very impactful,” she said.

Municipalities ‘Step Up’

Williams spotlighted the efforts of Lansdale, as well as Lower Merion, Upper Moreland, and West Norriton townships that have brainstormed ideas for temporary and permanent shelter solutions.

"Each municipality is different and they tailored their plans … based on their needs and their resources,” Williams said.

Lower Merion Township opted for a Code Blue shelter this winter that would aim to serve between five-and-10 adults through a "rotation of shelter amongst different faith communities,” run by a mixture of nonprofits, faith-based organizations and clinicians.

West Norriton Township has plans for a 30-to-35-bed shelter potentially within the township’s section of Norristown State Hospital land aiming to help "those living in encampments,” according to county documents.

The shelter would include space for temporary and "longer-term use until permanent housing can be found. The objective will be to include services that will ready the person for permanent housing.”

In Lansdale, a concept searching for a "nonprofit provider with 24/7 monitoring and staff” was discussed. Code Blue operations were explored for the winter months, and a permanent facility has yet to be disclosed.

Upper Moreland Township had plans for a winter Code Blue shelter, but did not include a location or operations model. However, nonprofit organizers would like to have capacity for five-to-seven people, but it’s unclear if it would serve single adults or families.

Ongoing Efforts

Williams stressed the work is not done even though the task force wrapped up in November 2023.

"We are committed to continuing to facilitate meetings with the four municipalities and collaborate until the projects are implemented,” Williams said.

She added that conversations would be facilitated by the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services’ office of housing and community development.

"Look I’m sure some people are saying, ‘well it didn’t end homelessness.’ That was never the intention of the task force,” Lawrence said. "It’s taken us a long time to get to where we are. So I hope in the future that we can have folks advocating for affordable housing and shelters with the same energy that sometimes comes up around the encampments and … this is a countywide problem that needs a countywide solution and that doesn’t mean just county government.

"That means our local municipalities, that means our state government, that means our federal government, our faith communities, our nonprofit organizations all need to rally. So I hope that continues even beyond the task force,” he said.

This article appears courtesy of a content share agreement between North Penn Now and The Reporter. To read more stories like this, visit www.thereporteronline.com.