Mayor Matt Tuerk announced today that the City of Allentown will extend the evacuation date for the Jordan Creek encampment from August 25 to September 29, 2025.
August 18, 2025 – Mayor Matt Tuerk announced today that the City of Allentown will extend the evacuation date for the Jordan Creek encampment from August 25 to September 29, 2025.
The new date aligns with the YMCA’s accelerated timeline for opening its seasonal warming station, ensuring that individuals typically served by the Y can transition directly into temporary shelter without a lapse in services.
The original August 25 deadline was based on advice from the Allentown Fire Department, which identified the site as a high-risk area that should be vacated as soon as practicable. Since that announcement, the City has worked with health and outreach teams, community partners, and service providers to guide residents toward shelter and support. Progress has been made to reduce the number of people living at the site, and cleanup is already underway in vacated areas.
“This extension allows us to coordinate the transition so that individuals who would normally rely on the YMCA have a safe place to go the day they leave the encampment,” Mayor Tuerk said. “It balances compassion with our responsibility to protect people from foreseeable harm.”
The Mayor emphasized that the decision is not without risk.
“We recognize that keeping people in the encampment longer than originally planned extends the period of exposure to the hazards that made August 25 our initial goal,” he said. “But we believe that the significant progress in relocating residents, combined with increased safety measures, makes this 35-day extension the safest and most humane course of action.”
During the extension period, the City will continue working toward a safe and orderly closure of the site by:
“Our goal is to close the encampment in a way that is safe, orderly, and humane,” Mayor Tuerk said. “September 29 gives us just enough time to complete this work responsibly — but it is a firm date, and we will fully vacate the site by then.”