You'd never know it from the road, but in the woods in Allentown, there's a small monument to just how resourceful people can be, when they have to be.
Weeds and wildflowers obscure the path leading to Davina Delor's shelter. She built it herself after landing here in April - her fourth campsite since 2010.
That's when Delor, 42, lost her job, quickly followed by her apartment and car.
"I'm still looking for work. I get little odd jobs here and there, but nothing that pays. Nothing that will get you an apartment or anything like that," Delor says.
Experts say her situation isn't uncommon. The homeless population has increased three of the past four years in Pennsylvania, despite trending downward nationally for the better part of the past decade. Eighty-one percent of last year's increase was driven by unsheltered homeless people like Delor.
Read the full version of this report at the website of Keystone Crossroads, a new statewide public media initiative reporting on the challenges facing Pennsylvania's cities. WPSU is a participating station.
