January 24, 2019
Volunteers fan out across Philadelphia to count city’s homeless youth
Tim Jimenez, KYW News radio
A group of about 100 volunteers were out in the rain Thursday morning to try to get an idea of how many young people are homeless in Philadelphia. It’s called the Youth Count. It coincides with the annual homeless count the city does, but it focuses on people between ages 13 and 24.
“We really want to get a snapshot in time of what youth homelessness looks like in Philadelphia,” said Caitlin Dorn, who works with Valley Youth House, a social services nonprofit that helps organize the count. Read the article.
January 22, 2019
A bill signed into law Tuesday will offer some protections to month-to-month renters in Philadelphia from discriminatory or vindictive evictions. Read the article.
January 15, 2019
Homeless baby boomers a fast-growing presence in U.S. cities
by Stacey Burling, Inquirer
If current trends continue, the number of aging homeless people will more than double in three major metropolitan areas by 2030 . . . Read the article.
January 18, 2019
Why so few of Philly’s homeless Latinos use shelters, get city services
“Latinos make up nearly 15 percent of Philadelphia’s population and form its poorest minority group — 38 percent live in poverty, according to census data. But step inside a city homeless shelter and there are few Latinos. Nationally, and in Philadelphia, they represent a small fraction of people in shelters.” Read the article.
January 15, 2019
Government shutdown delays construction on addiction recovery housing in Kensington
On Tuesday morning, at the tail end of a groundbreaking ceremony for a new housing complex for people coming out of addiction and homelessness, Sister Mary Scullion leaned into the microphone.
“One other little note I just want to say is that this building’s ready to go. We’re ready to get under construction,” said the president and executive director of Project HOME, the city’s preeminent housing, poverty, and homelessness services organization.
“And we need one piece of paper signed” by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. “And because of the government shutdown, we’re waiting.”
It was a last-minute delay for a project located in the physical heart of Philadelphia’s opioid crisis that has already been five years in the planning. Project HOME has been working to build apartments in a former elementary school at 1920 E. Orleans St. in Kensington, just blocks from the neighborhood’s last major homeless encampment. Read the article.