Federal lawsuit filed to stop eviction of unhoused encampment in Pottstown
POTTSTOWN, Pa. (CBS) – People who are homeless and their advocates are suing to stop Pottstown officials from evicting dozens of people from an encampment near the Schuylkill River Trail in Pottstown.
If you're out along the trail near College Drive, you're probably used to seeing people walking, biking or just enjoying the day.
However, you probably don't see dozens of people living in tents just a few feet away. People have been living here for years.
Outreach workers from the group, Access Services, are trying to help them by regularly giving them water, jackets and blankets.
Now, the people have to find a new place to stay. Yellow signs along the trail showed residents, like Noah Cutt will be evicted from the area on Dec. 1. He said he was upset because he had nowhere else to go and believed he did not get enough notice.
"They don't come over and say, 'You can go here. You can go here. Here's a map of where you can go,'" Cutt said.
In a statement, the Borough of Pottstown said the move is necessary because the area floods and is too dangerous for the encampments. The statement goes on to say the shelter, Beacon of Hope, provided 30 shelter beds this month to people in Pottstown, but advocates say that's not enough.
"Many towns in America have effectively illegalized being homeless," Chris Brickhouse said.
Brickhouse, the executive director of Better Days Ahead Outreach, is suing to stop the eviction.
"You could be harassed for being in parking lots, you can be harassed for staying in parks," he said.
The suit cites the 8th and 14th Amendments saying: "It is cruel and unusual for Defendant to punish or threaten to punish citizens based on them engaging in unavoidable human activity, such as sleeping."
Alfredo Beltran is one of two encampment residents who joined that lawsuit. He said he just wants the borough to offer a safe and new place to go.
"Please put us somewhere, like a shelter," he said. "A hotel or something."
CBS Philadelphia asked borough officials for a response to the lawsuit multiple times by both email and phone and have not yet received a response.