Unseen and invisible.

Desperation.

Hidden in plain sight.

Ignored by those who pass you every day.

That's how people report feeling as they try to survive.

Unhoused with no safe place to call home.

On this community conversation.

Unhoused in the Lehigh Valley will address homelessness with our local political representatives.

Community leaders and advocates for the homeless population will discuss the root causes, the short term remedies and long term solutions, as well as some of the programs and resources that help.

Coming to you from the Universal Public Media Center in Bethlehem.

Here's your host, Brittany Sweeney.

Good evening and welcome to our Community Conversation unhoused in the Lehigh Valley, presented by PBS 39 and Lehigh Valley News.com.

The number of people facing homelessness across the country is on the rise, and so is the number of people who, for a myriad of reasons, are one paycheck away from losing their home.

Statistics from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development show more than 770,000 Americans lived without housing in 2020 for a nearly 18% increase from 2023.

Here in Pennsylvania, around 14,000 people, both sheltered and unsheltered, were reported as homeless last year.

That's up by 12% from the year prior.

And that number includes families with children.

So who are the people that are experiencing homelessness?

Along with photojournalist Jeff Frederick, we hit the streets in Bethlehem to meet some of our unhoused neighbors and find out how they got where they are today.

At first glance, the tarps sticking out of the brush under the Hilda Hill Bridge in Bethlehem go unnoticed.

I've been out here since 2001.

Unnoticed, just like the people who call those tarps home.

Those who need to know and understand homelessness.

They need to come out here some time and actually see it for themselves.

Christine Baso is one of those people.

You're out now almost every day.

Every day, whether it's hot, cold, raining, snowing.

On this frigid January day with temperatures in the single digits.

We talked to Baso Loveless and wearing two heavy sweatshirts about how she got here.

It's hard getting into a place where you don't have a check every month, and there is a long the list for housing.

The Taremi native showed us around her camp, where she's been living for nearly five years.

This one's mine right now.

I don't have no light inside because of the fact that I need to charge stuff.

Lena charged white along with my phone and my other devices.

That is a storage that I'm okay with there being behind me.

His tent is insulated and he keeps it warm.

But see, with mine, it's too big to keep warm.

So he has me staying with him and his tent for me to keep warm because of my health problems.

I have with the asthma, the allergy problems.

I am a breast cancer survivor and I also am a colon cancer survivor.

So in all the other health problems, I learned to deal with it.

She says those health problems limit her ability to travel to seek shelter or food.

We go to soup kitchens, but as in weather like this, you don't want to walk in.

For many people who are unsheltered, walking is their only form of transportation.

But without proper footwear, some in this situation end up with feet problems like David Mares.

David, you want to come over to the couch, maybe, and I can work on your dressing.

Oh, for walking off.

You walk on it.

I got a blister.

Without even having your boots on or whatever I had on a no and not have a clean area to to be able to give them proper medical attention.

And then he got infected and went down to the bone.

Well, it's looking really good.

Mares, who grew up in Allentown, is also experiencing homelessness.

He has not had a place to live for the past few years.

After my mom got in fights here.

For the time being, he's in a medical respite program while his foot heals.

Feeling nice now?

But anything can happen.

Can we go with one good one and be an X?

Once he's given a clear bill of health.

He says he too will be back on the streets.

I know he's.

My biggest challenges, and I always keep warm because I have seizures and seizures.

And when I get too cold, I going to seizures.

It's my biggest challenge.

When it's cold at night, I go to the YMCA, you know, warming, warming.

All you have to do is walk in and give them your ID and they'll run your name.

Make sure you have no warrants from nothing like that.

And if they have a bed, don't give you a bed.

A couple rules you got to follow, but don't give you a bed.

You know, you should have a warm place.

Please stay in.

So how?

Despite the statistics, work is being done to address the problem and bring different sectors together to fight back.

As one Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, recently signed an executive order to create Pennsylvania's first Comprehensive Housing Action Plan.

We are going to lower costs in order to give Pennsylvanians more affordable housing options.

We will give real, concrete suggestions on how to repair older homes and help our aging neighbors stay in the homes and communities that they love so much.

The plan is to bring different state departments together to address PA's housing shortage, expand affordable housing options, and combat homelessness.

This executive order also requires the Department of Human Services, under the leadership of Secretary Val Arkush, who joins us today to bring together stakeholders from across multiple state agencies, local and federal government partners as well, and our community partners to have finally, a comprehensive effort to address homelessness across Pennsylvania.

Just because you may not see people who are unhoused in your community, it doesn't mean they aren't there.

The issue touches towns and cities across the country, including here in the Lehigh Valley.

Joining us now to talk about what the issue looks like in the area's three major cities is Bethlehem Mayor Willie Reynolds.

Allentown Mayor Matt Turk and Easton Mayor Sal Panto.

Gentlemen, thank you all so much for joining us for this conversation.

Mayor Reynolds, let's start with you.

So what does homelessness look like in Bethlehem?

I think it's the same thing, it looks like throughout the Lehigh Valley, and it takes many faces.

You have people that are homeless or unsheltered, that have full time jobs, that have part time jobs that are getting out of medical bankruptcy.

You have people that are dealing with a variety of issues.

But it all comes back to the same one.

And the bottom line is people want to live in Lehigh Valley, and right now we don't have enough housing for everybody.

And we have successful, programs with our community Connections program with the Health bureau and some of our partnerships with our nonprofits.

But the bottom line is, you know, with these two, you know, fantastic leaders to the right of me, the Lehigh Valley needs to be doing more across all 62 municipalities to be able to get to what the root of this problem is, which is housing instability caused by a lack of housing supply.

Sure.

I want to get into that a little bit more.

But, mayor, talk, what does homelessness look like in Allentown?

Yeah, similar to what Mayor Reynolds said, it it looks like it looks like in the rest of the Lehigh Valley, which means that the people at the center of it.

So in Allentown, it's people like PCU.

It's people like Susie.

It's people like Vanessa.

It's people that you got to you must understand them and the challenges that they face, which are the challenges that we all face.

It's the cost of housing that that affects us.

It's there's various different debts that we can find ourselves in.

It's mental illness.

It's substance abuse, disorders.

But fundamentally it's about people.

And it's not just street homelessness.

That's you mentioned the visibility of homelessness.

It's people who you might not realize are living in precarity, either precariously housed or living without a house.

And I think it's important to be clear about what those terms are when we talk about homelessness.

We talk about people who are living unhoused.

And when we talk about people living unsheltered, they all look very different.

But they're all very, very significant challenges to people in Allentown and across the Lehigh Valley.

Sure, different backgrounds, different genders, different cultures of people.

Mayor, male.

Mayor pants.

What does it look like?

Sorry.

In Easton, you.

Know, we're we're we face different challenges as well because new Jersey is right across the border.

They don't have any shelters in Warren or 100 and County.

100 County is a fifth wealthiest county in the United States.

It does not even have a homeless shelter.

Our homeless shelters at capacity.

Our goal there at Safe Harbor is to try to move them out, get them housed for short term, no more than six months, and get them educated if they have a if they need a GED and then train them for interview to get a job and then move out.

Right now we're building, transitional apartments.

So that the people who move out of the homeless shelter can move into a transitional apartment for maybe two years as they get on their feet financially.

But we have the same issue that Allentown and Bethlehem Easton have are all three urban cores.

And we are we we are where the services are.

So the unsheltered will come and congregate in our city and we see a rise in that.

I mean, we see a rise in it coming from Belvedere in New Jersey and Warren County and county and we have to prepare ourselves this year.

Hopefully we're gonna have community on a block, grant money again to give more money like we do.

We would do a warming center and we got to change the codes.

We don't talk about codes.

For example, in codes, if you have a bed that you want a shelter these people in, you have to provide so many bathrooms and so many showers where.

So now we what we did is our, our, code blue.

Warming shelter is chairs and they can sit in a chair.

We have bathrooms available to them, but not with codes.

Sure.

Okay, so it's a matter of not moving these folks to different areas, fixing the problem locally.

Housing is a big one.

We've seen the Lehigh Valley housing market skyrocket.

Great for a lot of the people who live here.

It drives up housing prices, but not so great for the people who are already struggling to cover their bills.

And so, Mayor Turk, let's start with you on this one.

And what do we do to to address this housing issue and, and add more housing for the folks who may need it?

We have to build a lot.

Allentown was recently recognized by Zillow as one of the hottest housing markets in the nation.

A couple months ago, I think we received the region received a similar recognition for how how much people want to be here.

And if people want to be here and we're not building enough housing to meet that demand, it results in higher prices.

So we need to add to the housing supply in Allentown, in Bethlehem and Easton, but across the Lehigh Valley to meet that demand, in order to do that, we have to get smart about how we how we permit housing, how we regulate housing, how we zone for housing.

And we're all of us under way under zoning reform to help improve the ability of developers to build housing in our communities.

But again, we also have to meet the needs.

It's not just about preventing homelessness from occurring.

It's about meeting the needs of people who are living without shelter at the moment.

And that means more people who have to, to invest those precious HUD funds.

It's leaning on our partners to support us, but it's a whole of city.

It's a whole of region effort.

Mayor Reynolds, I want to piggyback on that question.

Okay, so we need more housing.

We need to get more housing.

How do we make that housing more affordable and guarantee that there's going to be affordable housing?

Yeah.

One of the things that people often don't realize is our housing crisis in Lee Valley is based on the idea that, right now, people want to live in Lee, have Valley people enjoy our quality of life.

There's an economic opportunity that you have in the Lehigh Valley that you don't have in many regions across the country, and the issues that we are dealing with, with housing are the same that metro areas across the country are dealing with.

And for a long time, people wanted to move out of cities.

They did not want to live in cities.

Now people want to live in cities.

So it is about defining what the problem is.

And, you know, we're talking today about people that are unsheltered, but it is a big important point that we talk about is there are a lot of people that fit into this same area that are struggling because of our lack of housing supply, that are housing unstable, that are living in a car, staying with their parents longer than they want to, staying short term for a month here, two months here.

And they might not technically fit into this definition of what it means to be homeless or unsheltered.

But they're a big part of this group of people that are being affected by this.

So we really have to define this for what it is.

And it is the fact that in a market, people want to live here, people are going to move here.

The Valley Planning Commission keeps talking about how people are going to come.

They're going to move here because there's an economic opportunity, and we welcome that economic opportunity.

You look at where Allentown, Bethlehem, Neeson are compared to where they were ten, 20, 30 years ago.

Our pension funds aren't struggling.

Our infrastructure is getting invested in.

We are doing a better job of keeping up with all the things that cities couldn't do 30, 40 years ago.

But the flip side of that is now that people want to live here, people want to take advantage of the quality of life in our cities, in our region, there's not enough places for people to live.

And all of the different things that people are talking about in Lehigh Valley traffic, homelessness, things like that, they come down to the idea that we need to build more housing.

And until we're able to define this as a 62 municipality problem and not a three municipality problem, we're going to struggle on a systemic level to make a lot of progress with a lot of the issues having new housing.

Sure.

Mayor Panto, do you see the same issue in your city?

More housing is needed.

More affordable housing.

The affordable housing problem in the Valley is exactly what Willie said.

I mean, there's no doubt about it that we have a great quality of life in the cities and in the suburbs.

But the suburbs have to be a player, and if they're not a player, we will never solve it.

The cities alone cannot solve this national problem.

And we need all municipalities across this great country of ours to care about the housing.

I mean, look at the tragedy in Los Angeles right now.

When I was in Los Angeles, I had 35,000 homelessness.

There were right down on the city on sidewalks.

This is going to create even more.

And some of them are going to be very wealthy, which is unusual.

We always think there's a poor being unsheltered.

That's not true.

Sure.

And you mentioned you know, California and what's happening there in a mild climate.

We are in January.

We are in the depths of the cold weather right now.

And so what are some of the resources for people in Easton right now if they find themselves unsheltered?

Well, Shiloh, just open up.

They're warming their their shelter.

They have beds and, Shiloh Baptist Church on the south side has always been very good to our homeless people.

This this summer, they provided, showers.

And Redding mayor came down to look at how we did that.

And it was all done by volunteers.

And they're a great group.

They're having a community.

And it's really our our faith based nonprofits that are really addressing the issue.

We do have safe harbor, which is funded and supported by the city and is a city building that I created back in the 80s when we had 23 beds, was more than enough.

Today, 40 beds isn't enough.

Sure.

Mayor Reynolds, what are some of the resources folks in Bethlehem?

The emergency shelter is a new one, so talk to us about what they can do if they find themselves, especially when temperatures drop this low.

What can they do to find themselves some shelter?

Yeah.

Our Bethlehem Health Care does a great job.

Our Community Connections program, who goes out, talks to people, visits them where they are to be able to offer them services and the resources that are out there.

And we do, as you mentioned, have the Bethlehem Emergency Shelter, which has been in existence for many years, who are a bunch of individuals, who at the center of their consciousness about this is the idea of faith.

And I think that's one thing.

And, you know, Mayor Panta talked about this is like they think that following their faith means making sure that everybody has an opportunity to be able to live a life of dignity.

And they have set a great example for our community.

And I give Mayor Turk and Mayor Panto a lot of credit for talking about these issues over the last couple of years.

I think one of the things that we look at is how do we expand, how many, how many people, and our faith community has been leading in this for, for, for many years.

But the Bethel Emergency shelter, gives it a place for people to go tonight.

And as Mayor Panta said about an East and I'm sure downtown same way is like they're full.

They they have as many people as they can get almost every night here, especially when it's cold.

So we do talk about those long term solutions, but it's also often times issues of housing come down to success.

Is finding a place for somebody to sleep tonight.

And that's something we're focused on as well, I'm sure.

And I know the Bethlehem emergency shelter and they're they're looking to expand.

And, it's a program that does not run through the summer.

But I've spoken with them and they wanted to expand.

That is that's something you hope to see in the future?

Yeah.

Because they need some stability and I think one of the keys to this is the idea that every municipality or across the region, we have people that have stable, long term solutions.

One of the challenges with funding, one of the challenges with, a lot of the, you know, lack of resources comes down to a lack of stability in these institutions or in these groups or and these initiatives that allow people to understand at state and federal level, these are things we need to invest in.

So best is trying to do their part to be able to be a permanent, resource for people in the city of Bethlehem, but also kind of just like lead the way in saying that, like we're doing our part.

It's time for everybody else to do their part as well.

Great.

And, Mayor Turk, I asked the other two mayors about resources, and I want to when you talk about these resources, if you could, there has been a proposal to have a homelessness coordinator in the city.

So talk to me about resources and how that position would play into all of this.

Yeah.

I mean, we have to start by talking about the the increase in homelessness across the United States.

So at the end of December, we saw a report from HUD related to the point in time count for 2024 that showed an 18% increase in homelessness across the country.

And it's something that we can see on our streets, in our cities, and we can see from talking to people in our cities that the the resources that are needed, whether it's emergency shelter or the safe harbor, we have similar work being done in Allentown, but we really wanted to see was coordination.

Right.

So when we are addressing, an encampment and we're trying to ensure safe living conditions in those encampments, making sure that everybody's okay, we have to make sure that everybody's on the same page.

Right.

So we asked city council, it's not just a proposal.

In the 2025 budget, Allentown City Council approved a request, by me to include funding for homeless services coordination.

So the position there will be a position associated with it in a small budget to help coordinate activities between city departments like the fire department, our paramedics, our public works department and our police department and our Community Economic Development Department, alongside the various different community organizations that meet the needs of the unsheltered community.

It does come down to partnership.

Unfortunately, we know this from places not just from here in the Lehigh Valley, but from across the country.

When you have a lot of people running around trying to do good things to meet the needs of a dynamic community, there can be stepping on toes, there can be confusing.

So the the amount of coordination that is needed there is more than just hoping that that order emerges from good hearts.

We need to to step in and make sure that there's connectedness between our local organizations.

And I hope that at some point we'll be able to to work alongside our partners in the other cities to to continue to meet the regional needs.

Sure.

It sounds like the region could benefit from some kind of coordination, one person coordinating so that all of these entities working together can kind of talk to each other and kind of coordinate together.

Mayor panto, why don't we talk about the housing and affordable housing?

Do you think there needs to be more legislation, going towards dictating how much of the affordable housing versus other housing can be built in a city?

I think the federal government has to get involved and HUD has to do more and provide not legislation but funding.

We have the legislation.

We just don't have the funding.

I mean, we don't have the money to go out and build.

Nor do we have the land.

Another big thing, you know, I was a I would work for two developers in my 18 years out of, out of 16 years out of office, and we developed out in the suburbs, and we were building all these little acre, you know, half acre subdivisions.

We don't have that kind of land in the city.

And that's really what's hurting us, is otherwise you would see, I mean, with people who have these small house concepts, that's great.

But where do I put them?

I do I take away a park.

The other dichotomy that exists is between those that are viable and really working hard to maintain a living and the unsheltered.

And what is the difference between the two?

So as the unsheltered may not be as tiny as we want them to be, we get complaints from the other 80%.

Sure.

And Easton has seen just like Bethlehem and Allentown, Easton has seen a lot of development in the past few years.

Big development project right now in the city.

And is there any plans for more affordable housing right now?

No, I mean, we oh, well, I shouldn't say that we have 20 that we could build.

We we took our Arpa money and we put $4 million towards, affordable housing.

And we started we we have two new home owner occupied houses under construction, and we have one for a new apartment building under construction.

And you're going to see dribs and drabs.

You're not going to see 100 and that you could build out suburbs.

You know, you build 150 subdivision.

We don't have that in the city to one and twos.

And I'll ask you gentlemen the same thing.

Is there anything in the works right now to build more affordable housing in your cities?

So we have a couple of projects.

One is we have a gateway and forth project, not too far from here that's going to build over 100 units in two phases that are going to be, affordable at different price points.

And then currently we're also working with our Bethlehem Housing Authority.

On a Choice Neighborhood program.

And Mayor Panto talked about how funding as much as legislation is like because of the way you can do buildings now where we're essentially able to replace 200 units with up to 400 units, if we're able to get the funding to be able to do that.

So like that's a that's a project that we're working on as well.

But I think it's important for us to understand is there's a lot of housing issues right now.

You have the married couple that can't buy their first home.

You have the people that are living with their parents.

You have the highest amount of people that are unrelated living with each other.

Since the Great Depression.

More housing supply answers all of these questions.

It's not just the homeless question.

When people are struggling with housing, which they are at every income level, building more housing at every price point is going to help out all of these different people and improve the quality of life, which is why that is such a solution.

That is the one that we need to look at across all 16 of Miss Appleby's.

And Mayor Pinto is right.

Isn't that like this is not.

We're talking today about some of what we think are the most obvious people that are struggling with housing.

A first year teacher can't find a place to live.

A first year nurse can't find a place to live.

You should not have to get married to be able to find a place to live in America.

And too many places people are having to make those type of decisions.

So like what we're talking about here is how across the Lehigh Valley, we're dealing with, what, three quarters of a million people in Lehigh Valley, upwards of 800,000.

There's not enough places for people to live.

And if we don't build more at every single price point, we're going to continue to struggle.

Mayor in Allentown, what are we seeing in terms of affordable housing?

You know, soon.

And we talk we distinguish between that capital, affordable housing.

So there's a number of projects underway in the city of Allentown right now that will build the capital, affordable housing, new housing designed to meet certain price points.

But Mayor Reynolds makes an excellent point that really all construction, all housing construction helps to lower the price of housing across the entire market.

The thing that we really want to focus on is not just the creation of new affordable housing units, but the creation of units that can be purchased.

So homeownership is what we that's a path to wealth, which is what we try to do in cities to create wealth building opportunities.

So, Mayor Pinto mentioned, Los Angeles in May of this year, I traveled to Washington, DC, under the leadership of Mayor Bass from Los Angeles to meet with HUD officials, with Health and Human services officials, with other folks, some of you ministration and other folks from Congress to advocate for the, investment in new affordable housing streams.

It gets down to cost.

How do we lower the cost of building not just affordable housing, but, housing of all types here in the Lehigh Valley?

Sure.

We only have a couple minutes left, but quickly, from each of you, what does affordable housing mean to you and your city, Mayor Pantoja?

Well, our affordable housing program is geared towards the unsheltered.

How do we get them into into their new home?

We're trying to we're doing a program to train tenants of what they should be looking for in a lease, and their lease should no longer be tied to anything other than CPI.

So the CPI goes up 3%.

My rent will go up 3% when it's renewed, but that's it.

Sure.

Mayor talk in Allentown, what is what does affordable housing look like and feel like to you?

So it feels like a place where when unemployment is down, like it's down in Allentown, we've seen unemployment cut in half almost since ten years ago or 15 years ago.

Incomes are up.

We've seen income median household incomes grow faster in Allentown than in the Lehigh Valley, where all of the positive indicators related to employment are pointing in the right direction.

And we're we're deploying a $20 million Economic Development Administration grant to make sure that people have access to good jobs, that people can get good jobs and still afford to live here.

That's that's what affordable housing will look like.

It'll mean that you can not just, afford to live in an apartment that you're renting, but you have a chance to buy a home.

Right?

And, Mayor Reynolds, what is affordable housing in Bethlehem?

It's that we keep the promise of America.

I mean, we live in cities where for generations, you were able to come here, work hard, and you could find a place to live.

There's a whole lot of people that are rightfully pissed off in America right now, because the deal that they were given was, if you get a job, if you work hard, things will be okay.

And we're dealing with that in all three of our cities.

We're dealing with the Lehigh Valley, and you're dealing with that across America.

Is that right now there's not the opportunity we have welcome the immigrants from across the world to be able to work at Bethlehem Steel and come to our city.

One of the beautiful things about the Lehigh Valley and our three cities is the diversity that is here, including in income levels.

You go to livery high school, your Easton, you go to Allen Works to teach.

And like you just find people across the continuum.

And if we're going to keep that promise of America, it means when you come here, no matter where you are in your journey, you have an opportunity.

And the unfortunate things for the three mayors right now is a lot of that opportunity.

The Lehigh Valley lies outside of the three cities, which is why we need to continue to make this a conversation.

But we are going to do everything we can to help people in the short term, help people's homeownership opportunities, help those people stay in those units, help people deal with bad landlords, but also keep banging that drum.

Is that as a Lehigh Valley, we are experiencing a wonderful economic renaissance, but it will not continue if we cannot find places for everybody to live and keep that promise of America that we have all benefited from.

This is an ongoing conversation that we could continue for hours here.

But gentlemen, I want to thank you all so much for being here.

Mayor Willie Reynolds from Bethlehem, Mayor Matt Turk from Allentown, and Mayor Sal Panto from Easton.

Thank the three of you so much for joining us.

Thank you.

Those living without a home often face barriers to medical care.

That's why Valley Health Partners Street medicine team braved the elements even in January to head out and help those who need it.

We were able to tag along as they set out to administer their services to our unhoused neighbors.

With the idea that somebody who just wants to be outdoors in this weather for years and years is just not true.

With inches of snow on the ground and the thermometer reading 11 degrees.

Chef Campbell sets out to do his job.

They don't have the means to get indoors, and.

And homelessness is one of the most deadly social determinants of health.

Campbell is a physician's assistant and the program director for Valley Health Partners Street Medicine program.

So we're a medical service for anybody that's unstable house or staying outdoors.

So we bring all of the services that are primary care.

Doctor would bring in a regular office just out to the street.

The team is made up of a group of medical providers who head out daily to check on and treat the unhoused across the Lehigh Valley.

You know, the patients that we serve just can't access health care like the rest of us.

You know, three main barriers is lack of transportation, lack of ability to pay, and then ultimately lack of trust, in the medical system, because of recurrent compounding, negative interactions.

Eric Rivers is a registered nurse and the clinical lead with street medicine.

So every one of our team members, has supplies in the back of their vehicle, tents and bags.

One of our hot topic items that everyone loves.

Wipes.

Socks are also one of the big things.

Hand warmers.

My pack itself, which has all of our medical supplies, backpacks, umbrellas, feminine hygiene products, everything we have donated, all of us have supplies in the back of our cars.

Whatever we can get in, we can hand out as well.

So our big things, chronic health, hypertension, diabetes, anything that you normally would see your doctor for, medications, for all that we're able to take care of with Rpas as well.

On this particular day, the patient rivers and project coordinator John Kabat set out to sea off eighth Avenue in Bethlehem.

Never showed hospital.

Oh, no.

Yeah.

Other individuals in camp let us know that he is currently in the hospital.

We do have two physician assistants and a certified nurse practitioner.

So if everybody's on, we'll probably see 20 to 30 patients, that day.

If it's just one provider, maybe it's ten.

The visits to the homeless camps are not always just medical.

All the time.

So with these days with snow may not be as focused on medical that day, we may come out and do more of a social visit, bring out a shovel, help them dig their way out of their camp, get the snow off the tent so it doesn't collapse.

Those working with street medicine say they form relationships with their patients.

They're also our best resource.

They're extremely thankful for when we come out.

They also recommend other individuals whenever it comes to referrals for new patients.

Those referrals are what lead those living on the streets to health resources they may not know are available, like the Medical Respite program, part of street medicine offering short term recuperative care for persons experiencing homelessness.

Imagine you need a curative, cancer treatment or a lifesaving, lifesaving surgery or even, like wound care.

Expect it to heal.

Well, for a person that's living unhoused outdoors, especially rough sleeping, to be able to receive those treatments traditionally in combination with their living conditions, often is not even able to be pursued because the risks are too severe.

So medical respite opens up the doors to those treatments.

Can I do one of your arms here?

I just want to get you to your balls.

Here we go.

David Mares is currently a patient of Nurse Julie Moyers.

I want to know.

Other PCP will take you.

They will take you.

They will help you.

When you think there's no hope, they will help you.

Perfect blood pressure.

121 over 77.

That's great.

He has diabetes, and he ended up with osteomyelitis, which is an infection in his bone, due to an infection that he had originally, like a wound that kind of kept growing and it progressed to his bone.

So we needed to have an amputation of his toe right.

Moyer says feet problems are common among this population because of the amount of walking they have to do and the lack of access to proper footwear.

He just simply needs antibiotics and daily dressing changes.

But shelter is what is able to make that possible for him, so that's why we brought him into respite.

The program can accommodate up to three patients at a time at a local hotel.

Moyer and her counterpart not only provide medical care, but also provide meals, laundry services, transportation to and from medical appointments, and prescription delivery.

What type of things would you season your food with?

Iron, salt, pepper and ketchup.

I got you some ketchup, right?

You're at home already?

So you're a ketchup lover.

Got it.

Our patients, like the suffering, is always there.

And it's not something that other people get to see.

They hide it really well.

There's a lot of challenges, but if we can decrease any of that suffering, especially in respite, you're able to see other things emerge, like hope and joy, and it really makes it worth it for me.

Medical respite is grant funded.

Street medicine services can be billed to Medicaid.

However, patients receive care regardless of their ability to pay, according to the providers.

About 80% of our patients have insurance.

But a lot of them don't have income, so I don't want a $2 co-pay.

Being the reason that they can't get their blood pressure medicine.

So again, we have structure in place with our street medicine program to ensure that they can get their medication.

In order to try and get an idea of just how many people are living without housing.

The annual point in time count, referred to as the pit count, is conducted on a single night in January.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development uses that data to estimate the number of Americans, including veterans without safe, stable housing.

That effort got underway recently here in the Lehigh Valley, spearheaded by Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering Executive Director pastor Bob Rapp.

He joins us now, along with Lehigh Valley News.com reporter Julian Abraham, who was able to witness the count firsthand.

Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Bob, let's start with you.

The point in time, count.

What is it and what goes into this count?

It seems like a huge undertaking.

It is.

It is pretty big.

So it is a HUD mandated order that provider organizations who get federal funding through HUD are to provide a census, basically of our homeless population, sheltered and unsheltered folks.

So we started on a Wednesday night to count our folks in shelter.

And the same night and the next day we go out in the field to count our folks in encampments, in bus stations, in garages, in places that are not suited for human dwellings.

Sure.

So who are the folks that are going out and counting?

Obviously yourself and you run Bethlehem emergency sheltering.

But who else is joining you for this count?

So we have some awesome teams.

I have some great partners with the Conference of Churches, with Ben Stevens, and he creates teams for Allentown.

I have, Jeff poach over in Easton who creates the teams to take care of the Easton area.

And then we have five provider organizations that come alongside of us this year to help us do the count.

Sure.

And so, Julianne, you were able to ride along with Bob at the most recent count, and you've done this in years past.

Was there anything that stuck out to you when you were reporting on this issue?

You know, of all the stories I work on, you know, the most of them are pretty important, but this is the one that really stands out.

When people ask me about my job, I tell them about this story.

Last time we saw people living in situations I could not ever imagine.

We see someone sleeping in negative, negative temperatures in basically two sleeping bags.

Sure.

Bob, how do you find these people?

How do you know where to look?

So again, we have a lot of great partners and a lot of awesome volunteers who keep us posted on where folks are.

We go out in the field with other groups.

You mentioned Valley Health Partners, Street Medicine, who keep us abreast on folks who are out there so we can lend our hand to help, some of the folks who who rough sleep.

And what is this number used for?

We know it's for funding, but what kind of funding?

So HUD will use these, this data to decide where their funding is going and how big of a funding it is.

So if states participate in this, I would I would imagine that, they have a better chance of getting funding through HUD than states who don't participate as well.

And, Julianne, as you were riding along where there places that you wouldn't have thought to look.

So many the parking lots of the casino next door, parking lots of grocery stores, and these are places that you were me and people in the Lehigh Valley drive by daily.

But it's like Bob had a sort of X-ray vision.

He was seeing a layer of these things that we weren't seeing.

So there's certain there's, you know, 3 or 4 cars in every parking lot that you saw Bob.

And you were you said like, oh, that's one Bob.

How do you find these people?

What do you look for?

If you get a Walmart, a river and a bridge in a vicinity, I can guarantee you I can find homeless folks.

It's just, it gets to be a little bit of second nature, you know, you see folks in certain places often enough and and know that that's where they gravitate.

So that's where we go to look first.

Like I say, if you go out long enough and walk with folks in their walk, you get to learn to understand their habits.

And it's a lot easier to find folks and meet them where they are.

Sure, Bob, you're working with these folks day in and day out.

How do we fix this problem?

How do we make this better?

Why is this happening?

The housing crisis is huge, not just here in the Valley, but of course, we know across the nation we have to utilize funding in very careful ways.

But as I tell folks all the time that this matter isn't fully a money matter, this is a people matter.

Communities have to step up and churches have to step up to get folks to understand the problem.

First.

And the understanding part of it is to know that these street neighbors are our brothers and sisters.

They're folks that were born here.

They grew up here, they went to school here.

They have families here, and yet they've fallen on hard times.

For whatever the reason, and we can help them get back on their feet again.

We have to tackle the homeless issue that are the housing issue, and then we have to go at some of the root issues, which again, we have a lot of provider organizations here in the Valley that are ready to step up and do those jobs.

We just need to be able to share together and get folks to the right avenue of help.

But the biggest thing is it's this is a people problem, not a not a money problem.

Sure.

And Bob, we're going to hear about some of those resources in just a little bit.

But I want to thank you for coming on from Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering, Julie, and thank you for sharing your experience as well.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Well, homelessness does not only touch the lives of adults.

Families with children face the issue as well.

In the Lehigh Valley, numbers show 1300 families on a list waiting for housing.

Grover Silcox paid a visit to a shelter that lies within the walls of an historic building in Easton.

Desperation looks like a young mom with children who doesn't know where to go.

A mom who's fleeing domestic violence and living in a car because she has no clue about what to do.

Good afternoon.

How come women and their children come to this historic mansion in Easton when they face homelessness?

As we come up, it's cortisone oak or hand-carved.

This ornate building, once the home of silk mill millionaire Herman Simon.

Now serves as home to the Third Street Alliance, a nonprofit with shelter, space, educational services for children, and resources to help women and families transition to permanent housing.

Our shelter is indeed an emergency shelter that provides 30 to 90 days of shelter services for women and children.

Sometimes people stay a little bit longer because the housing market right now is so difficult.

It's a challenge to find housing, but our goal is to get people into permanent, stable housing as soon as possible.

So this is a basic shelter configuration space for a mom and an older child, a bunk bed set up and then the dressers.

And we have a closet over here so that, you know, they can keep their clothes.

The Third Street Alliance provide shelter services for 25 women and their children at any given time, and from 125 to 130 families throughout the year.

So we're going to come in to look at a quick set up for a mom and a young child, so we can have a mom with four children in a very large room.

We could have space for a single woman by herself, and we can have space for a mom with a toddler and a teen.

So we move the configuration around to meet the needs of the families.

They are sharing bathrooms and they're sharing kitchen facilities.

About 25% of the people we see are fleeing domestic violence, meaning actively fleeing.

One of the other reasons people come here is a significant financial challenge.

They've been evicted from housing because they can't pay the rent or someone's lost a job.

They have medical issues and aren't able to work.

And so we begin to see that there are multiple factors that are all creating large amounts of stress.

Other factors include the high cost of childcare, the need for education, job training and employment, search guidance.

We really want to look at how do we get women into living wage jobs and help them move their families out of poverty?

Finding living wage jobs without a lot of, skills are challenging.

So we're working with, you know, career link.

We work with the community college.

We work with some CNA training programs to get people trained up and ready for that.

We have, rental housing program, where we work with landlords to assist people who are experiencing homelessness rapidly move into housing.

We also have some eviction prevention work and we try and divert people out of homelessness with a small set of resources that we have as well.

Third Street also provides a learning center for children in the eastern community, which includes the kids who are staying in the shelter.

We have a child care center, early learning for children ages six weeks to elementary school.

We have 80 kids in our pre-K counts program, and we have free infant and child care programs for people who are income qualified.

And then we have an afterschool program for 30 something children from the Eastern School District.

And let me tell you something.

I had breakfast with a former shelter resident who was here about nine years ago, and she told me her story and from shelter to beginning to work to finding a new relationship and getting married and buying a house, about to buy a house in nine years.

So even though desperation looks really, really difficult, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

If we get people enough resources to help them.

And that's really the goal.

So I never think about desperation.

I only think about possibility.

Otherwise I wouldn't be here for ten years.

That was Grover Silcox reporting.

We thank the Third Street Alliance for opening their doors to us.

And there are resources for our younger generations for children and youth experiencing homelessness in the state.

You can visit.

Finding your way in pa.com or download the Finding your Way in PA app.

That way they can find resources right in their community if they are experiencing homelessness.

And here in the Lehigh Valley, there are agencies working day in and day out to get the unhoused population off the streets and into secure housing.

However, that doesn't always look like just giving people a place to live.

It's offering resources to help them combat other contributing factors.

Here now are some of the people who do just that.

Including Molly Stanton from Lehigh County, drug and alcohol.

Aaron Connolly from the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley.

Carol Anderson, the CEO of bloom for women, and Lisa Wine Gartner from Valley Youth House.

Ladies, thank you all so much for joining us.

Thank you.

Lisa, we'll start with you.

Valley Youth House, how do you combat homelessness?

And folks who are experiencing homelessness when they come to you?

Well, it's definitely a community effort.

For Valley Youth House, we have several programs.

One which specifically is out on.

The streets looking for.

Youth and young adults.

So 16 to 27 who are homeless or experiencing homelessness.

We have a shelter.

For youth between the ages of 12 to 18 just can be an immediate resource.

And then we do do some supportive and.

Transitional housing for young people.

Sure, Lisa, we did hear earlier in the program that this is becoming more of an issue year after year.

Are you seeing the same thing with our younger population?

Absolutely.

And with young people, they kind of hide in plain sight.

They want no one to know that they're homeless.

So you really have to kind of shake the tree a little bit to figure out who is experiencing it, who might be on the verge of homelessness.

And how to help, pull them out of that for sure.

I'm going to talk more about that in just a little bit.

In the meantime, let's go to Carol from bloom for women.

How does bloom help folks who are experiencing homelessness?

This is for women, correct?

Women and men and youth as well.

We work with bloom, works with survivors of trafficking and exploitation.

So we, do emergency response.

So we will accompany law enforcement on operations or respond to an emergency room.

Or even really any other community partner that may come across the victim, and we can provide onsite services to them through our outreach program.

We also work with the recovery centers here in the Lehigh Valley.

Just to.

We.

Have a men's group.

Many of the those folks, you know, are unhoused.

And, then we also have our residential program where we work with women who are pregnant or parenting a small child, as well as women who don't have custody of their children.

And we provide up to two years of housing and programing to at no cost to them to get them back on their feet so that they can live a life that's independent in a safe, housed situation.

Sure, Carol, how often are the folks who are facing, you know, sexual exploitation?

How often are they experiencing homelessness?

What percentage of people that come through your doors?

What we know from the national, Human Trafficking Hotline Players project that 64% of trafficking victims have experienced homelessness, during their exploitation.

So we would say, you know, that number might even be a little bit higher, really, for those that we serve.

So many of the referrals that we get and we receive several hundred per year, they, they are unhoused when they're reaching out to us for safety.

Sure.

Just like so many other numbers that we've heard, the numbers seem to skew higher than what we've actually found because you can't just find everyone.

Erin, you're from the United Way of the greater Lehigh Valley.

And so how is the homeless population being served at your organization?

Sure.

So our goal really is to make sure that people have access to resources in places that they trust.

So we're focused on place based connection to resources, whether that's through community schools or community hubs.

Those can be senior centers where older adults gather, but making sure that they are able to access next steps, whether it's homelessness prevention, whether it's in the moment, rapid response in places where they really trust.

And finally, we have Lehigh County drug and alcohol.

Molly, this is another component to all of this.

People are facing substance abuse and that kind of thing.

And so how does Lehigh County drug and alcohol step in?

Yes, we really fund a lot of programs through Lehigh County.

We don't do anything directly.

We support the providers who do the work.

So we support street medicine in hiring a certified recovery specialist.

And that's somebody who has been in addiction and who has achieved a period of long term recovery that then can kind of coach and be a really strong touchpoint to people who are in early recovery.

So they go out with street medicine into the unhoused populations.

We also fund change on Hamilton, which is at 927 Hamilton Street in Allentown, and that program has comprehensive resources for unhoused individuals.

They can get assistance getting all that paperwork that you lose and you need in order to access things like Medicaid and get on section eight housing lists, and sometimes even go to treatment so they can assist you in getting your IDs, getting copies of your birth certificate, all of these things, as well as identifying resources and getting on Medicaid because that population really struggles when you when you become unhoused, you lose your insurance.

You often lose the paperwork that allows you to get these things.

And it's really, really difficult to come up from that spot without really somebody that you can go to on your own terms that can help you with that.

Sure.

And some folks are an active addiction.

Do they have to be, clean and sober to access a lot of these programs?

No.

The goal of a lot of our kind of like, low barrier services, which are the crosses that, meet people in the unhoused population that's also, treatment.

Trans has a team of CSAs that reach out directly into the community.

You don't have to be in recovery.

You don't have to even be thinking about being in recovery.

They're going to give you Narcan.

They're going to give you drug testing strips.

They're going to give you resources and things that you can help take action on to really address that.

And you don't have to be sober to go to change on Hamilton.

You don't have to be wanting to go to treatment.

They're there to help you with the next step.

You want to take to become healthy.

Sure.

And we heard earlier in the program from some of our folks who are unhoused here in the Lehigh Valley, that taking those next steps or getting that paperwork, as you mentioned, is really hard when you don't even have a place to stay.

When you don't have a driver's license, you don't have the documentation.

And so I'd like to hear from from you folks.

What are you hearing firsthand from these folks that you interact with who may not have a place to call home?

What are you hearing from them?

What do they need?

And Carol will start with you.

Well, they need really everything.

Honestly, safety is our first priority when engaging with a victim because we want them to begin building trust with people who are safe and even being able to identify what is the safe situation for them.

And oftentimes they come to us with just a plastic bag of their belongings, if that.

And so we do a lot of that work.

You know, it's a lot of case management activities where we are helping them just rebuild, what they need to then move forward.

We kind of meet them where they're at.

Talk about what are some of your shorter and long term goals.

And then we hit the ground running with them, working together with our community partners to make sure that, you know, they're on the right path to living free and safe.

Sure.

Erin, what's been your experience at the United Way?

Yeah, we've been seeing, numbers of folks who are closer to the edge growing and growing.

So we know a recent United Way study showed that 47% of our friends and neighbors in our community are living paycheck to paycheck.

So we're seeing a big gap in making sure folks can stay housed, safely housed, and that they can continue to support themselves and their families, to be able to to stay in their homes, in their neighborhoods.

Sure.

And, Molly, I just wanted to ask how many people, if you had to estimate how many people are coming to Lehigh County, drug and alcohol, looking for homelessness resources and who were facing homelessness are on the brink of homelessness?

It's hard for us to really gauge that, because what happens when a when an individual comes to us is we're the funder of last resort.

So pretty quickly, one of our partners, works with our little local county assistance office to rapidly get their Medicaid turned on.

And then we lose any of the outcomes data or any of the data that might have brought them in.

But like just from what stats, I do know, like people who are unhoused are about 15 to 20% of the people that we send to treatment any given month.

And that may be, again, higher, because a lot of times there's a lot of stigma to being unhoused.

People don't often tell us, we thought we discovered this as they're in treatment and as they start, talking to therapist and stabilizing the mental health and potentially the addiction that might have created the problem or homelessness also creates this problem.

You don't land in this situation because you have a mental health problem, or you can.

But like the trauma of living in the environment, the I often think about just how uncomfortable you have to be.

There's no place that's warm.

There's no place that's cool.

There's no comfortable chair for you to sit in.

Sleeping in your car causes pain like so.

A lot of our people start using substances to medicate those feelings.

So being unhoused, like losing your job and losing your house, creates the addiction.

And then then we have a vicious cycle happening.

Sure.

And you mentioned stigma.

And I think that's a big reason, Lisa, that you mentioned, kids are not coming out and asking for help if they are facing homelessness.

And so how do you find these kids and what do you do for them?

So a lot of it is building relationships and knowing where kids are as well as youth will help youth, right?

So oftentimes the youth will help us find other youth.

The school districts are very involved as well, and we work a lot with them.

And I notifying youth and families.

And then it is about the baby steps.

So building trust.

So they call you when they.

Need you.

Figuring out what they need next.

Sometimes that isn't exactly what we think they need next.

Sometimes it's what.

They need next for them to know we're listening and hearing what they.

Want and need.

And then it's the case management.

Sometimes it's, hey, let's give the parents a call.

Maybe there's a bridge we can.

Help repair here.

Getting kids, younger adults back home.

Sometimes can be the best, result.

But not always.

And then it's, hey, do we have emergency housing?

Are there is there another partner that can help while we wait to get you on a housing list?

The lists are very long.

There is not immediate housing.

I think sometimes there's this misunderstanding that if you're homeless, you can call a number and you'll be placed somewhere.

That's just not the case.

And so.

Having young people and adults on the street or in places.

Where they shouldn't be at night.

Is the reality every day for a lot of people in the Valley.

Sure.

As we wrap things up, ladies, what's the best way for folks to get resources if they are facing homelessness or on the brink of homelessness?

There are a lot of resources locally.

211 is the list to get on for housing, which can sometimes overwhelm people.

But there are also, Community centers, ripple.

Third Street Alliance, Valley Youth House, bloom.

There are a lot of people that want to help.

There's churches.

That's been a big effort in the last year or two.

It's really made an impact here.

Sure.

Ladies.

Any other resources you'd like to share before we close?

I would say building off, but Lisa was saying in terms of calling 211, but there's also walk in sites.

So there's a number of community based organizations where you can come and talk to someone in person and get connected to resources.

New Bethany, Third Street, Valley Youth House and a whole bunch of others.

Wonderful.

Well, thank Hamilton as well.

Is a is a drop in center.

You can walk in and they'll help you with whatever they give clothing.

They have some food there for people.

There is job coaching like really the we try to offer everything that that person needs to get back on their feet.

Sure, there are resources out there in the Lehigh Valley.

Ladies, you pointed that out for us.

Thank you so much for some great information.

Thank you.

And that'll do it for this community conversation.

Unhoused in the Lehigh Valley.

We want to thank all of our guests for joining us, and you for watching from all of us here at PBS 39 and Lehigh Valley News.com, I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Have a good night.