Allentown developer Nat Hyman ended his lawsuit Tuesday against the city of Allentown over a homeless encampment along the Jordan Creek that he claimed was harming his property and tenants.
Hyman dropped his suit one day after Allentown cleared out the encampment. Homeless residents scrambled to remove their belongings before the city began bulldozing items that were left behind Monday morning.
Hyman’s lawyers discontinued the lawsuit “without prejudice,” which gives him the legal right to re-file the suit if circumstances change. In an interview, Hyman said he would continue to monitor the conditions around Jordan Creek and may file a new lawsuit if people return to the area or more trash and personal items accumulate nearby.
“We are just going to have to see how it all settles down, and then of course the other issue is how the city maintains it going forward, and that is the big ‘if,’ ” Hyman said. “Are they going to continue to make sure people don’t camp there, are they going to continue to make sure it is kept clean and maintained like all of the other parks?”
Hyman filed the suit this spring over Allentown’s alleged failure to address the homeless encampment along the Jordan Creek Greenway. He sought monetary damages and a judge’s order for the city to clear the area, and claimed the camp had brought large amounts of garbage” and “dangerous and nuisance” issues to the north Allentown neighborhood.
At the time, city spokesperson Genesis Ortega declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, but said city staff were “addressing community needs with compassion and collaboration” and continuing to “work on long-term solutions to support vulnerable populations while maintaining public spaces for all residents.”
The city’s order to evacuate the area came around four months later, in August. Allentown originally set an evacuation deadline of Aug. 25, but delayed that to Monday after facing pushback from residents and nonprofits that help homeless people.
City officials said they did not issue the order because of the lawsuit, rather it came after the fire department expressed concern that the area posed “significant danger” to those living there due to it being in a flood zone. The evacuation order came after a series of deadly flash floods elsewhere in the country this summer.
The order, however, sparked outrage among some community advocates, who said that forcing people to leave what they consider their home is also harmful and unsafe.
The new evacuation date coincided with the opening of the Allentown YMCA warming station, which is open 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. nightly and has 80 beds available for people looking for somewhere to sleep.
The warming station usually opens in mid-November to house people during the colder months, but opened early this year to help accommodate the displaced homeless residents, with funding assistance from Allentown, the СŷƵ Community Foundation and the United Way.
Some now-former Jordan Creek camp residents planned to go to the warming shelter, while others said they plan to set up a camp elsewhere in the area or stay with family or friends.
Hyman said he found the stories of people’s displacement “heartbreaking” and said he hopes for a more permanent solution to homelessness in Allentown. He has said he is willing to make financial contributions to a nonprofit that is addressing the problem, but does not feel that existing resources — like the YMCA warming shelter — are doing enough to give people a permanent place to live and become self-sufficient.
“I would love to be involved, I would be happy to contribute money to something that really is a substantive approach to resolving the issue,” Hyman said. “Contributing to them staying from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., don’t get me wrong, that is vital work, they need to be warm and safe, but that is not resolving the problem, that is a Band-aid.”
The city of Allentown did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.
