RESEARCH
Lehigh Valley Shelter Census:
Since 1989, the Lehigh Valley Coalition of Affordable Housing (LVCoAH) has coordinated the data collection, publication, and distribution of the Annual Lehigh Valley Shelter Census. However, during 2003, LVCoAH did not publish the Shelter Census due to unreliable data. This created a break in the publication of the Annual Shelter Census. This latest report is one of the nation’s most extensive surveys of a community’s homeless population. The Shelter Census collects data on every woman, man, and child that enters each of the Lehigh Valley’s nine emergency shelters.
2011 Hunger Study: Crowding the Margins:
The Second Harvest Food Bank of LehighValley and Northeast Pennsylvania has released the results of a survey of 500 people who have sought assistance from the network of food pantries and “soup kitchens” that serve residents of Lehigh and Northampton counties. The randomized survey, conducted from January to April, 2011, offers an in-depth view of those in our society who are “crowding the margins,” the phrase Second Harvest used as the title of the report. A sustained period of unemployment means unemployed workers will exhaust their savings, losing the cushion that might have sustained them during a normal period of joblessness. These workers are joining many others whose skills and circumstances have limited their opportunities long before the current economic malaise. Click here to view the 2011 Hunger Study: Crowding the Margins.
