COLUMN: The Problem That Won't Go Away

From David Lynn's "Straight Outta Kansas," Fall '93 The People's Park is currently home to approximately 15 individuals. One of them is a woman who is pregnant. Yes, there is also a gas grill and a dog. In addition, there are homeless individuals sleeping on other parts of campus that are not so conspicuous as the People's Park. Estimates vary, but on any given night between 25 and 75 individuals are sleeping outside on university property. During the week before classes began, a rumor spread that the Division of Public Safety was planning a one-day sweep to rid the campus of homeless individuals. University City Hospitality Coalition (UCHC) board members and myself went about gathering information and discussed the possibility of protest and/or a court challenge. When the rumors turned out to be untrue, we breathed a sigh of relief and prepared for the coming year. Despite what you may have read in the Daily Pennsylvanian, Public Safety is not currently planning a sweep of campus, and even if it did, homeless individuals would return within two weeks. Nothing short of a ten-foot fence with razor wire on top will keep individuals without homes from sleeping on university property. I have been informed by representatives of Public Safety that arresting and detaining homeless individuals is one of their least favorite activities. I do not doubt this. They have further told me that their department is complaint driven – they respond only to a situation if a complaint is filed or if an obvious violation of the law is in progress. I have no quarrel with this policy; it is their duty to uphold the law. Recently, several complaints have been filed about sanitary conditions in the park, and the city's health department has been called to investigate. It may turn out that the park is unsanitary; I wouldn't be surprised. A dispute has arisen over whether the individuals who are occupying the park have a right to be there, for the university owns the land. If conditions are unsanitary, I would be in favor of the university's removing the individuals, except for one problem: the people in the park have nowhere to go. There aren't enough shelters in Philadelphia to house everyone in need. Those lucky enough to get in are allowed to stay only overnight in most cases. Many who have tried the shelters feel that life in some shelters is much more dangerous and less sanitary than life on the street. The wait for subsidized housing can be longer than three years. Move people out of the park? Move them where? Philadelphia's Homeless Czar Bill Parshall was quoted in the DP last Wednesday, saying he heard about the park being "a problem," and that he would prefer not to see individuals fed on the street or at fixed locations. UCHC is currently looking for additional sites in to serve hot meals, but until other sites can be obtained, we will continue to serve sandwiches in the park, and/or other locations if necessary. UCHC was founded in 1984 in response to the death of a homeless individual on campus. The original coalition included (and still includes) students, community residents, churches, and homeless individuals. The idea was to start a grass roots effort to own the problem of homelessness and to bring the resources of the community to bear upon it. But the problem has proven bigger than our organization. We are not able to meet everyone's needs. We need the help of the larger community. Starting in October, UCHC will be working with Horizon House to get people indoors on cold winter nights, when (we hope) the city opens extra beds to house more individuals. Representatives of Public Safety will be trained along with students to participate in this program. The program may be jeopardized, however, by cutbacks by the city in the area of homeless outreach. UCHC has also been working with the Office of Community Relations to produce a homeless resource guide for members of the campus community. But the problem is still too large, however – too large even for the University. Other organizations, such as the West Philadelphia Partnership, must support direct engagement with homeless individuals in West Philadelphia (as Horizon House workers have begun to do in the park) while putting pressure on the city to open up more shelter beds in the area, perhaps even on or near Penn's campus. There is precedent for this: Harvard has a student-run shelter that houses people right on campus. Will additional services attract homeless individuals? Perhaps. The services UCHC currently offers are in such high demand that UCHC is attracting people from as far away as North Philadelphia. Many homeless individuals being pushed out of Center City because of the convention center are moving west. Like it or not, West Philadelphia is a magnet for homeless individuals. The individuals in People's Park represent a larger community problem that will not go away without long-term community-wide solutions. It isn't a police problem, a UCHC problem, or even a Penn problem. All of West Philadelphia must be involved in finding a solution, or homeless individuals will continue to sleep in People's Park despite our best efforts, for they have nowhere to go. David Lynn is a 1989 Wharton graduate and the executive director of the University City Hospitality Coalition. Straight Outta Kansas will appear alternate Tuesdays.