"They're Human Beings Who Need Help"

So many Lansdale Borough residents wanted to share their opinions on increasing camping at popular parks that there wasn’t any time for the mayor to speak. 

During a Aug. 7 Public Safety Committee meeting, the dominating topic was Memorial Parks in Lansdale. Borough officials recently closed the wooden gazebo – “until further notice” – for painting, power-washing, electrical work, and nearby landscaping. Meanwhile, the small gazebo in the center of the award-winning Stony Run park had also become a popular place for the unhoused to congregate, sleep, and charge cell phones. 

Memorial Park – off Main Street and within close proximity to Penndale Middle School and Mater Dei Catholic School – has also seen rising levels of encampments. Montgomery County has the third-highest rate of total evictions in Pennsylvania, and the county’s only year-round adult shelter closed two summers ago. 

Gregory Kolb of Woodland Drive is losing patience. 

“This park is embarrassing,” he told the committee members. “Everybody is fluffing this…it’s a bad image for our town.” 

Gregory Kolb makes a point Aug. 7 at borough hall.

Ross Harris, of South Line Street, saw it differently. 

“It’s an embarrassment that those people need to be there…They’re human beings who need help,” he said. 

Harris, who described street homelessness as an “epidemic sweeping the country,” called for the formation of a local task force to come up with solutions. 

Rachel Gale agreed, noting that she does not care where the people are from. 

“Where are people going to go? It’s not the humane thing to do to push them somewhere else,” Gale said. 

Ken Whelan, noting the proximity to schools, said he knows people who won’t let their kids go to Memorial Park. One veteran carries a gun when she enters the space, he added. 

“Do we know who they are…Do we check their IDs?” Whelan asked. 

Councilor Meg Currie Teoh, chair of Public Safety, said the borough has regular interaction with unhoused individuals. Identifying them at a public meeting is not something the borough is going to do. Lansdale has a part-time mental health co-responder on staff. Chief Michael Trail is seeking funding for one or two full-time positions to expand efforts to connect people with resources. 

Alexis Moyer and Councilman Michael Yetter (left) were on-hand at the Public Safety meeting.

Alexis Moyer, the current mental health co-responder, said during the meeting that some people sleeping in parks have full-time jobs. Contributing factors include waitlists for mental health appointments that can be eight months long, a lack of identification or birth certificates to get a job, or the temporary loss of income. 

“Anyone can be one paycheck away from living in a park,” she said “There is no easy solution to this, trust me.” 

Moyer said that without her husband’s income, “I’d be sleeping in Memorial Park, too.” 

Chief Trail said his department is constantly working to find a balance. The need of community members to feel safe is important, while the borough has a responsibility to look out for others. 

Mayor Garry Herbert, who was participating via video conference call, did not have an opportunity to share his thoughts, due to a tight committee schedule. However, he did author a recent op-ed in North Penn Now. 

The next Lansdale Borough Council meeting is Aug. 21 at 7 p.m.