Residents press council on shelter hours and bed capacity as officials outline local shelter network

A series of public comments at the Scranton City Council meeting focused on homelessness, shelter hours and gaps in services, prompting a substantive council response about available shelters and next steps.

Tyler Warden, who identified himself as experiencing homelessness, urged that overnight shelters be open to people regardless of Lacawana County residency and proposed converting vacant city buildings into more overnight shelter beds. Judy Laskkey described daily observations of people using a nearby shelter and urged extending overnight protections when temperatures are low; she asked the council to consider round-the-clock places where people would not be put out during the day.

Council members and staff responded with operational context and offers to follow up. Dr. Rothschild and others outlined existing resources: a Code Blue emergency shelter at Western Fieldhouse that opens when temperatures reach city-specified thresholds, a year-round overnight facility operated by Catholic Social Services (St. Anony’s/Haven) with reported capacity splits (the transcript cites 20 men and 6 women as a base figure for one venue), and a day shelter, the Community Intervention Center. Councillors said when the Code Blue shelter opened it has handled up to 50 people on some nights and that on average Western Field hosted 31 persons on cold-blue nights (averages supplied in council remarks). Council members emphasized that creating a sustainable, city-run shelter would require funding and staffing and proposed improving outreach, giving people with lived experience seats at the task-force table, and improving public information on available services via the city website.

Council also discussed the unsheltered task force’s size and membership; one council member said the task force has close to 50 members and suggested the council consider its own committee or an ad hoc group with lived-experience representation to speed action. Several councilors asked administration to provide clearer lists of available beds by venue and to share the Fidelity building inspection and demolition lists where appropriate so council can weigh facility options. Multiple speakers said volunteers and nonprofits are currently doing much of the on-the-ground work.

Council did not adopt a new shelter ordinance or allocate new funding during the meeting, but several members promised follow-up: obtaining and publishing counts of overnight beds by facility, asking the administration to post resource links on the city website, and exploring whether lived-experience representatives can be given formal roles on the task force or another council committee.