NORRISTOWN — Montgomery County’s plans to open a 50-bed supportive short term housing facility for those experiencing homelessness in Norristown took a major step forward this week after securing relief from municipal zoning officials.
After nearly six hours of testimony and public comment during the May 14 special meeting that stretched past midnight, the Norristown Zoning Hearing Board granted a four-year variance that would allow a “temporary housing facility” to operate in the municipality’s office commercial retail district at 1430 DeKalb St. Stipulated conditions in the variance pertained to smoking, fire safety, loitering, and parking.
Norristown zoning board doesn’t get to Montgomery County homeless facility
While Montgomery County Commissioners’ Vice Chairwoman Jamila Winder said that signing a lease was contingent on zoning approval, she said the facility is expected to open in early 2026.
“This has been a long process for us,” Winder told The Times Herald. “A lot of work has been done behind the scenes over the course of the last year, and so while it took us a while to get an answer tonight, after many hours of testimony and the comment, I’m really proud of our team for having the courage to address this issue.”
The decision was not unanimous as board member Andre Hayes was the sole dissenting voice in the 4-1 decision reached early Thursday morning.
“I’ll just say that some of the issues that the residents had brought up at the meeting tonight, I thought that some of their concerns weren’t sufficiently addressed by the applicant,” Hayes said afterward. As a resident of Norristown, I certainly feel the impact they feel, and I don’t think that it was sufficiently addressed.”
The May 14 special meeting wasn’t the first time the proposal came before the municipal zoning board. People originally packed the Norristown Municipal Hall meeting room for the regularly scheduled April 22 Norristown Zoning Hearing Board to learn more about the county’s plan to tackle the local homelessness crisis. However, the matter wasn’t addressed due to the volume of items on the agenda.
But people came back for the scheduled May 14 special session, once again filling the seats, lining the walls and standing outside the meeting room to hear about the initiative and give their opinions. Dozens signed up for public comment for and against the proposal.
“We do need to remember, above all else, our humanity and our responsibility to our fellow man,” said Norristown resident Iman Ahmad.
“I don’t disagree with the program. I disagree with where the program is being placed,” said Norristown resident Erica Hildreth.
Supportive short term housing, services
The property, owned by the Brooklyn, New York-based 1430 DeKalb LG LLC, has office space for several human services agencies, along with career services, children and youth, drug and alcohol, housing and community development, according to the county’s website. County officials were looking to use the annex, a four-story building on the property with a designated exterior entrance.
The Philadelphia-based Resources for Human Development is slated to operate the proposed supportive short term housing model that would accompany wraparound services for those experiencing homelessness in the Norristown area.
Officials expect an average stay of 45 to 90 days, and stressed the facility will not accept walk-ins or act as a standard shelter. Clients would be accepted through a referral and “multi-level screening process,” according to Montgomery County Office of Housing and Community Development Administrator Kayleigh Silver, encompassing background checks and a biopsychosocial assessment.
“We want to be part of this community and we want to be partners with Norristown,” said Owen Camuso, Resource for Human Development’s regional director for behavioral health and housing.
‘Norristown had concerns’
The proposal comes as rates of homelessness have been on the rise in a county without a major operational shelter for nearly three years since the closure of the Coordinated Homeless Outreach Center in Norristown.
Operated by the RHD, it served as the largest and main homeless shelter for single adults, but it was shuttered in June 2022 when the tract of land on which the building was situated was conveyed to the Municipality of Norristown for development.
After CHOC: One year later, Montgomery County remains without homeless shelter
RHD has faced an uphill battle in recent years as they tried to find another brick-and-mortar space after the CHOC closure. The nonprofit had proposed a supportive short term housing development project on the grounds of Eagleville Hospital. However, Lower Providence Township officials paused proceedings in late April 2024 following staunch public opposition by township residents.
While homelessness is evident countywide, concentrations are more visible in places like Pottstown and the county seat of Norristown.
“I recognize that Norristown had concerns about sharing the load of supporting this vulnerable population,” Winder said.
Silver added there were more than 1,400 eviction filings entered in 2023 into the three municipal courts serving. She did later clarify that an eviction doesn’t necessarily result in someone becoming homeless themselves, but stressed it speaks to the larger housing issue.
“We are at a crisis of housing affordability, and more and more people are feeling that strain and that burden,” Silver said at a February 2024 conference.
Board presses applicant
While Attorney Andrew Stoll stressed the project would have “no adverse impacts” on the community, many residents disagreed as murmurs could be heard from the crowd. Zoning officials pressed legal representatives and testifying witnesses on several issues ranging from security to past success rates. Addressing the proximity to the nearby Hancock Elementary School, located .2 miles away, Montgomery County Security Director Robert Robbins said personnel would patrol the surrounding streets in the area during the school year.
Video surveillance will be installed in common areas, according to Robbins, and RHD staff members have training in “de-escalation techniques as well as how to contact the proper authorities or crisis center,” Silver said.
Questions were raised concerning individuals with criminal records. Acknowledging screening protocols, Camuso said “if somebody is on Megan’s Law, and it is in a certain district of a school, we all know that law that person will not be eligible for a facility.”
“If somebody has a warrant, they need to clear up that warrant before they can be part of our program,” Camuso said, adding that they do need to comply with the state’s fair housing laws.
“We are required under fair housing to look at criminal backgrounds, and we can’t exclude people from our facility,” he said.
When asked about past success rates, Camuso said he was “not prepared with statistics” as nonprofit representatives were not among the county’s witnesses testifying before the board.
“You run a program and you don’t know your success rate?” a person from the crowd could be heard saying.
Discussions also took place concerning processes for individuals residing within the program, their progress and what happens if they’re not on track. Senior Solicitor Yvonne Montgomery recommended an answer come from the nonprofit as opposed to a county representative.
“They are the ones that have boots on the ground,” Montgomery said.
“The county has a discussion with the vendor and there’s an agreement made about what our program will offer,” Montgomery said.
“With all due respect, if somebody’s not carrying their end of it, when do they get out, and someone else gets the chance to get in the program since you can’t put everyone in the program? So the county needs to be accountable for that, not just RHD. The county needs to have some accountability,” Norristown Zoning Hearing Board co-chairwoman Darchelle Piece said as the crowd applauded her remarks.
Dozens speak out
The session’s public comment portion featured remarks from more than two dozen people.
“People cannot gain stability without a stable place to live,” said Chris Brickhouse, president and head of outreach at Better Days Ahead, a Phoenixville-based homeless focused nonprofit assisting those in Norristown, Pottstown and Royersford, and Spring City.
Residents in opposition were distressed by nuisances, including existing drug use in the area. While county officials acknowledged other locations were considered, residents urged them to instead find somewhere with minimal residential impact, with one suggesting the soon-to-be closed Suburban Community Hospital in East Norriton Township.
“How many of you that testified tonight actually live in Norristown? Zero. They’re going to go home to their cushy houses on the Main Line, or wherever they come from, and we are here, and we have to deal with this,” said Norristown resident Antonio Chiefalo.
“My constituents have let me know this is a hard no for them,” said Norristown Municipal Councilman Dustin Queenan, adding that “you can’t say [not in my backyard] because we are number one in social services.”
“Dustin does not represent my point of view — although he says he does,” said Norristown resident Ana Santoyo.
While Norristown Municipal Council took a neutral stance on the matter, per officials, President Rebecca Smith was encouraged by the idea and emphasized the time spent considering the municipality’s needs and concerns.
“This is the most responsive I have ever seen [the] county or other service provider included in proposing a project like this,” she said.
“We have received public comment at council meetings asking us, begging us to do something about the homeless encampments in Norristown, and I would say right now your tax dollars are going to the unhoused issue here in Norristown if you are a resident, but in the form of public works, police fire, not housing residents,” Smith said.
‘One step in the plan’
Montgomery County previously signaled intentions to invest in infrastructure solutions after earmarking $10 million in the 2025-29 capital improvement program fund over the next five years for a homeless shelter. The county has made two real estate acquisitions in recent months, executing leases for up to 120 beds at a Pottstown hotel, Silver said, and an office building in Lansdale that will soon become a 20-bed supportive short term housing facility operated by RHD.
When the Lansdale facility opens this fall, it will have single and double occupancy rooms, bathrooms, showers and laundry, and a community space. Additional services are expected to span the gamut, such as food, mental and behavioral health, employment training, gaining access to benefits, and veterans services.
“It’s new that it’s not just Norristown. You heard Lansdale and Pottstown in the mix and so with this coming on line it would be just over a quarter of the proposed beds. It’s a big difference from Norristown carrying the full weight of the housing problem,” Smith said.
Groundbreaking kicks off construction of Lansdale supportive short-term housing shelter
County commissioners allocated financing for the Lansdale initiative as part of the 2025 budget process, designating $1.3 million for operational costs and $2 million from the county’s capital improvement program’s 2025 line item. RHD was also awarded a roughly $2.7 million operational contract, with a previously issued request for proposals mentioning “up to three potential sites” in the county.
“This is one piece for a broader plan that we have in Montgomery County to address affordable housing and homelessness,” Winder said.
“We always knew we would be in a position that it was temporary, and we were intentional about hav[ing] a lease that’s four years because we fully intend to work in parallel to sketch out what that permanent solution looks like,” Winder said, adding “we are working on a long term plan for Norristown, and this is one step in the plan.”
