A portion of a homeless shelter in Lehighton has closed temporarily in response to the coronavirus.

Peaceful Knights Inc., 215 N. First St., remains open, but the emergency shelter portion is temporarily closed, according to Aggie Schoenberger, founder and director.

“The emergency shelter portion is temporarily closed,” Schoenberger said. “The transitional living program at Peaceful Knights is open.”

Schoenberger, who said the shelter currently has 11 people staying there, stressed, “All our guys are healthy, and we hope that continues.”

“We’re very sad to have to do this, but it’s the only option for us to have a portion of the building available for quarantine should the need arise,” she said. “We’re trying to be proactive and prepare that in case one of our guys would get diagnosed, that we would have a portion of the building that we could keep them separated from the others.”

Schoenberger said that when they started the program in 2007, they did so with the transitional living program.

“When we started in 2007, we started with the transitional living program, that has always been our main focus,” she said. “In addition, we were able to open an emergency shelter on the lower level of the building a couple years ago, and we were thrilled,”

Schoenberger explained why the decision was made to temporarily close the emergency shelter portion.

“If we were to continue having the emergency shelter and transitional program open, if anyone in either of those programs would become infected or COVID-positive, we have no place to quarantine them,” she said. “That is why the board of directors had to make this difficult decision until it passes.”

In the meantime, Schoenberger said they are referring people who contact them for the emergency shelter to the Allentown Rescue Mission.