A couple who lives in an encampment along the Lehigh River has come forward to share their circumstances.

Brian Snyder and Jenna Daly introduced themselves to Lehighton Borough Council last week to discuss their current living arrangement.

“(There’s been) a lot of talk about Tent City,” Daly said. “We’re just trying to get by.”

Daly said both she and Snyder work.

“The jobs we have are meager,” she said. “We do the best with what we have.”

Daly said there are about 22 people who live in Tent City.

“A lot of the people (in Tent City) have demons,” she said. “It’s not their fault.”

Daly said she and Snyder attempt to assist others who live in Tent City wherever possible.

“We do our best to help anybody out there,” she said. “We’re there for them.”

Daly said that for those who don’t have food, they try to help them get it, along with clothes, shoes, tents, and other needs.

“We’re there for them because they’re family,” she said. “We have jobs; (but) we put a lot of our money into them.”

Daly said they try to figure out the best way to handle the situation.

“We try to keep it as clean as possible,” she said. “We have a select few with (mental) issues.”

Snyder said he’s a felon who has been clean for about 16 years.

Daly said very few of the people who live in Tent City are employed “because they have demons.”

Councilwoman Autumn Abelovsky explained what prompted the couple to meet with council.

“They are on the internet, they read the stories,” Abelovsky said. “They wanted for us to be able to put a face (for who is back there).”

Earlier in the meeting, Nancy Berchtold, member of St. Vincent DePaul Society, addressed council about St. Peter’s Community Resource Center in Weissport, which is open to the homeless in the Lehighton area.

“We realize there is an issue down at Tent City,” Berchtold said.

Berchtold added the Society of Saint Vincent DePaul’s president started making phone calls, and within a 24-hour period, they had cots from a Carbon County Commissioner.

She said that for nine days straight, the resource center was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and added that about 25 unsheltered people spent the night over the course of that time.

Berchtold then thanked the borough’s Public Works Department for taking away 10 large bags of trash, as well as borough Manager Dane DeWire, whom she said “was kind enough to say ‘we can help (out).’”

“It was such a weight off our shoulders,” she said, adding that it was “nothing short of a miracle.”

On Jan. 24, Carbon County held its annual “Unsheltered Homeless” Point-in-Time Count.

Kimberly Miller, executive director, Carbon County Action Committee for Human Services, said this year the group teamed up with Family Promise of Carbon County, Carbon County Office on Aging’s Share Program, Peaceful Knights, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Beaver Meadows, Lehighton Borough Council and the Lehighton Borough Police Department, and Carbon Builders Association.

Miller said representatives from those agencies, along with other volunteers combed local communities to identify those who are homeless the evening of the count to gather information about them and offer care packages including toiletries, gloves, hats, socks, blankets, snacks, Narcan (in some of the bags), and other valuable tools and information regarding available services.

In addition, she said several warm sites were opened that day for homeless people to visit, share information about their circumstances, and receive similar care packages, tools and information on other services.

Miller said the sites included the Carbon County Action Committee in Lehighton; Family Promise of Carbon County at 140 W. Mill St., in Nesquehoning; and Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church in Beaver Meadows.

The county initiated its latest edition of a task force aimed at assisting those in need with a meeting in Jim Thorpe on Jan. 26.

Miller said at that meeting that while they couldn’t give numbers as they had not received surveys back from all the partners, the homeless count is higher than it has been in many years.

Michael Keiper, 45, died of accidental causes at the camp last month.