There are people out there who care about a group of homeless people who live in an encampment along the Lehigh River in Lehighton.

Nancy Berchtold, member of St. Vincent DePaul Society, said at Monday’s borough council meeting that the Tent City encampment has been given notice that they will eventually have to vacate the premises.

“I’m here tonight just to raise awareness,” Berchtold said. “We can care for our community; we care about this community, and we also have room to care for the homeless.”

Berchtold said they are planning on meeting with as many people as they can “to give them options and hopefully be able to meet some of that instability.”

“The majority of the people that live on that tract of land are from the area,” she said. “This is where they call home.

“I hope we can help them find more stability and another home. Let’s make this a permanent situation.”

Berchtold said she believes that a transitional shelter would be a place for the homeless to stay and have a better life.

Borough resident Jack Finnegan said his concern with the homeless people being asked to vacate from Tent City is that “it’s just going to scatter the problem. At least they’re (currently down) in one place.”

In December, Finnegan, who serves on the Carbon-Monroe-Pike Drug and Alcohol Commission, volunteered to be part of a coalition to assist the homeless in the borough and said he was interested in the homeless folks at Dunbar Beach.

Carbon County plans to enforce the illegal burning that has been taking place at an encampment along the Lehigh River in Lehighton.

Tent City is located on county property, but within Lehighton borough limits.

Carbon County Commissioner Wayne Nothstein said Monday morning that the state Department of Environmental Protection was aware of the matter.

Nothstein added the homeless people who live in the encampment were told that they would be cited for any further illegal burning.

The Carbon County Homelessness Task Force met Friday morning, said Nothstein, who added it’s countywide and is for the homeless sheltered and unsheltered.

The next meeting of the task force is expected to be held next month at a time and date to be determined.

The mission statement states that “The Carbon County Homelessness Task Force is a community forum by which private individuals, representatives of private-sector and public-sector organizations, the faith-based community, and government officials come together to collaborate on what is needed in Carbon County to assist those at risk of or experiencing homelessness.”

It’s vision statement is “to prevent and eliminate homelessness in Carbon County.”

Carbon County Commissioners’ Chairman Michael Sofranko said last week that the sheriff’s department was directed by commissioners to go down by Tent City and do some documentation for what may be offered to those who live there. Sofranko said they were given information where they could go for help, and that the county will be posting that property shortly.

He emphasized it isn’t a case where they want to push the people out of Tent City, but rather to clean it up and make sure they find a place where they can get the help that they need.

A county task force has been formed to examine the problem.