Area residents, advocates urge Pottstown council to scrap sweep

POTTSTOWN — News of an impending sweep of a homeless encampment on a stretch of land along the Schuylkill River Trail has circulated throughout Pottstown.

Signs posted along the trail last month alerted some 25 homeless individuals residing on the borough-owned property that they have to leave the area by Dec. 1.

Area residents, advocates and other individuals have heard the latest developments and turned up to recent council meetings and work sessions as the homelessness crisis in the western Montgomery County borough hits a tipping point.

“Please don’t do this. Sit down and talk with me about this hard problem we have. Everyone falls low at some point in their life. Call off this eviction,” Kelly Horvat, president and founder of the Ann Francis Outreach Foundation, said during a Nov. 13 Pottstown Borough Council meeting.

Advocates estimate between 75 and 90 unhoused individuals are currently in Pottstown.

“What is happening with this in Pottstown is a disgrace to the town,” Chris Brickhouse, executive director of the Better Days Ahead Outreach Inc., said during the  Nov. 13 meeting. “This sweep will accomplish next to nothing. These people have no place to go.”

“And everywhere they go is private or public property, so they get harassed by the police or by homeowners,” he continued. “This situation is only going to get worse. This is not a solution, it’s a Band-Aid and a bad one at that.”

‘We’re just like everybody else’

The stretch of land in question encompasses a roughly one-mile portion, which spans a wooded area between the Route 100 and Route 422 overpasses.

Jody Kimby lives in the tent city that borough officials have decided to clear out.

“We’re just like everybody else. We have a life, just like everybody else,” she told the borough council during a Nov. 8 workshop meeting.

Kimby used her public comment time to share her personal journey with council members and the borough administration. Kimby, a mother of three, said she became homeless after fleeing a domestic violence situation back in 2017.

“My ex-husband almost killed me several times, in front of my children and one of my daughters saved my life,” she said, adding, “I had to make the tough choice, and I left my five-bedroom house, car, money, business and I moved under the bridge…”

Kimby noted her struggles with addiction and relayed the trials that followed.

“Through the past six years, yes, I became addicted to drugs. And I went down to the Main Line, and got 11 months clean and worked, and had a house and had a fiancé again,” she said. “Then my kids went up for adoption, and I had to sign my rights away, no matter how hard I worked. So, screw it, the needle went back in my arm and here I am, right back in Pottstown.”

Kimby expressed her gratitude to outreach providers who visit her and others living in encampments in and around Pottstown, offering resources and medical attention.

“Last year, I was someone in a tent, freezing my butt off. And if it wasn’t for Jess, I’d have probably died. She made sure I was warm,” Kimby said. “Tom (Niahros, head of Pottstown Beacon of Hope) comes out every week, if not more. The doctors come out and I’m a self-mutilator. I have personally sat there and given myself an abscess. And if it wasn’t for the doctors coming out, I would have died from an infection.”

But the need for Kimby to find somewhere else to stay left her feeling frustrated.

“Should I have stayed with my abusive ex-husband just so I wasn’t looked upon as nothing?” she asked the council. “We’re all something. Every one of us have a story and until anyone wants to sit there and actually get to know us; we’re not separate. We bleed the same as you, inside is blue, outside is red. All we ask is not to be judged.”

Kimby said she has battled her addiction and has made progress over the last year. She said Leanne’s Life-Changing Fairies, a Barto-based group led by Leanne Moyer, “is amazing because a year ago, I didn’t care. I just wanted to know where my next fix was going to come from. Today, I stand in front of you four months and four days clean. I’m proud of myself and I’m proud of every single person in tent city because I see a change.”

“That’s your time ma’am,” Borough Manager Justin Keller said, ending Kimby’s comments to council.

Legal advocates sue

Borough officials have maintained they’ve “taken steps to proactively address these concerns with a focus on compassion and understanding,” and cited “safety” as the main reason for the move.

“For your personal safety, occupying this location is not permitted. This is private property of the borough of Pottstown, and is located in a floodway, making it culpable to severe flooding during extreme weather that could endanger persons and property,” the notice states.

The notice directed those in need of assistance to call 211 or Montgomery County’s mobile crisis unit at 855-634-4673. Additionally, the notice stated Beacon of Hope’s warming center which opened on Nov. 1 “will have shelter spaces accessible, and they can be contacted through 211.”

However, local nonprofit leaders have stressed that waiting lists for shelter and affordable housing are long, and capacity is limited following the June 2022 closure of the Coordinated Homeless Outreach Center in Norristown.

Legal advocates have asserted that “adequate viable shelter options (are) not available” to those staying in the encampment. Lawyers from Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the Community Justice Project filed a federal lawsuit earlier this month with federal court in Philadelphia.

“Displacing unhoused people without offering alternative shelter, especially during the winter, subjects our clients to serious dangers. We are seeking to protect our clients’ rights,” said Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania’s Chief Counsel Carolyn Johnson in a Nov. 10 statement.

‘This is not something Pottstown is capable of’

Public comment on the matter-dominated Pottstown’s council meeting a few days later.

“This problem is being caused by a lack of affordable housing. A 2016 study showed when people are housed, their involvement in crime drops by 80 percent, emergency room visits drop by 80 percent and employment goes up by 24 percent,” said Doug Slick, of North Evans Street. “Housing people works and pushing them around doesn’t.”

“I know this town, having worked here at the local paper for a couple of years, and it has pluck and a giving spirit, it has Operation Holiday at the holidays. This is not something Pottstown is capable of — I am asking you to call off this sweep,” said Mike Hays, a Bridgeport resident and co-founder of the Montco 30% Project. Hays and a handful of others assembled prior to the Nov. 13 council meeting, protesting the borough’s attempts to sweep the area.

Former Councilwoman Sheryl Miller offered her own perspective as she urged the local legislators to reconsider.

“I am asking council to reverse this decision. A lot of people feel more safe down there, it has easier access for emergency personnel and it’s a better use of tax money finding housing for them than spending it on lawyers to settle lawsuits,” Miller said.