East Lampeter Township’s approach to homelessness would be made more streamlined and uniform and would proactively seek to connect homeless individuals with the resources that can help them, under a draft policy introduced and discussed at the supervisors’ meeting Monday.
Developed by Supervisors Ethan Demme and Michael Thornton, the policy is a work in progress. It aims to prioritize public safety, raise awareness of homelessness and respond humanely.
Like Lancaster County and the U.S. as a whole, East Lampeter Township has seen a rise in unhoused people since the pandemic and has dealt with several local encampments. In light of the challenges, the supervisors agreed last month that creating a policy could be worthwhile.
The municipality has taken action to increase the housing supply, and projects are under construction that will add hundreds of units, Demme told his colleagues Monday. But there are people in the community right now who don’t have a place to sleep, and their “immediate need” requires attention.
By taking a balanced approach, he said, the township can make it easier for nonprofits to help them, and it can gather more data to better understand homelessness at a granular level.
The township is notified about homeless individuals in three main ways: Through calls to the police for trespassing or other complaints; through non-emergency calls; and from staff observing individuals or encampments while out doing their work. The draft policy provides for a game plan for each.
The response to a complaint is “pretty straightforward,” Demme said: It’s the police’s job to enforce the law, and there are protocols for that.
In the other two instances, a two-step process is proposed: Inform relevant stakeholders and develop a solution. For township staff, that means making sure information is shared internally and relayed promptly to the right people.
If a homeless individual is on private property, the landowner should be notified and made aware of the township’s recommended approach. Outreach workers should be contacted and a “time-bound expectation” set for resolving the issue.
For individuals on township property, officials should develop a set of guidelines. Individuals can’t expect to stay indefinitely, Demme said — permanent encampments would raise health and public safety concerns — but individuals and caseworks need at least a little time to formulate a plan and act on it. In many instances outreach workers should be able to recommend action tailored to individuals’ specific needs: A mental health referral, for example.
It’s not the township’s role to provide direct services, Demme said, but it can encourage faith-based and other organizations to step forward, and do what it can to facilitate their efforts.
The supervisors agreed to get more feedback from township police and staff and third-party stakeholders, such as Conestoga Valley Seeds and the Lancaster County Homelessness Coalition, before taking a vote on the policy. Two supervisors can handle that outreach, then bring the results back to the board as a whole, Chairman Corey Meyer said.
