Meeting tackles homelessness

As temperatures dip below the freezing level and people turn up the heat in their homes, some may forget that 4,500 people are homeless in Philadelphia on any given day. At a meeting Wednesday night, however, many Center City community members turned out to voice their opinions on the city's homeless situation and offer possible solutions. "We are here together tonight to unite conversation with power," the Rev. Benjamin Maucere of the First Unitarian Church said in his opening remarks. The forum, held at the church, began with presentations from various speakers who represent different facets of the homelessness issue. Each speaker was asked to address the problems of homelessness and ways to solve them. "We have to treat each and every homeless person as a human unit, we cannot stereotype," said Lisa Richette, a family court judge. Richette also spoke of the need to create not only shelters but centers throughout the city where homeless can receive other services such as drug counseling and health care. Many of the panel members discussed the issue of substance abuse among the homeless community. "The homeless need homes and jobs to pay for them but panhandlers also need help to get over their addictions," said Nancy Gold of the I Do Care Foundation. "We must as a community stop giving money on the street." Gold continued to say that the cash that moves "from hand to cup to substance" must stop and the "giver must become acccountable for the problem." Steve Pena, executive director of One Day At A Time, agreed with Gold. "If you're going to deal with the problem of homelessness you must deal with what made them homeless," Pena said. "We have to talk about the rights of the homeless and the rights of those who work and live in Center City," Center City District Executive Director Paul Levy said. "We are at risk of having a deeply divided community and the elected officials will do nothing unless we as a community come together," he added. Levy spoke of restructuring and better managing the $44 million that the city spends each year coping with homelessness. "The Philadelphia Housing Authority owns 5,000 vacant housing units and on any given day there are 4,500 homeless in Philaelphia," Levy said. In response to this problem Mayor Ed Rendell recently appointed William Parshall to coordinate the city's efforts to end homelessness. "The problem of homelessness is bigger than individuals, bigger than city government and bigger than each organization," Parshall said. "We must each accept the responsibility of ending these problems." Representatives from many organizations that are currently working to end homelessness were at the forum to talk to people about what they do and how citizens can become involved. "Homelessness is just a symptom," Sister Mary Scullion said. "Some of the root causes are the apathy and silence that we have taken part in."