DCMs Stephanie McIntyre In Philadelphia and Boston

In Philadelphia and Boston

DCM Director Stephanie McIntyre continues her "Wet" house research trip...
 
I was hosted by the Philadelphia City Council who coordinate the whole of services geared at addressing homelessness in the city. They have very well coordinated outreach services delivered by a number of agencies and managed through a hotline run by one of the bigger agencies.

One of their strategies includes breaking up "camp sites". This is done by outreach workers and police and the city and involves going and telling people that the next day their site will be cleared but they will be placed in a shelter (including one that will let them come in drunk or high but not use on site), given a case manager to work with if they want it, and the process of getting them either into a supported housing option or independent housing will begin.

There is no option of living on the streets - it's just not tolerated, including by the really top notch agencies.

Boston's services, on the other hand, suffer from the extreme liberalism of the city that has tolerated, and consequently entrenched, homelessness on a large scale. I visited Pine Street Inn, an enormous shelter that caters for about 600 men and women.

And yesterday I went to a wet shelter that was pretty amazing but was more what we would call damp and again it is part of the problem in that some of the residents have been going there for years and years.

I will be coming home even more determined to keep us moving in the direction we are going and to refuse to back services that enable people to remain homeless.  

ENDS

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