Homeless reassured by police

By ABBY BESHKIN At a University City Hospitality Coalition meeting last night, University Police Lt. Susan Holmes dispelled rumors that the University had planned to remove homeless people from Peoples' Park and the rest of the campus. "There are no plans, there were no plans, to make any massive ... sweep [of area homeless people]," Holmes said. Glenn Bryan, director of the office of community relations, said the University has "no master plan to move homeless individuals off the campus at this time." But homeless people who have been staying in Peoples' Park near the Free Library of Philadelphia at Walnut and 40th streets said a University Police officer told them as recently as Tuesday they would have to leave sometime in the near future. "University Police came and told us that we had to move," one homeless man, who is living in the park, said Wednesday. He said a representative from UCHC had told him he could stay in Peoples' Park if he promised to keep it clean, but that police were now telling him to leave. David Lynn, executive director of UCHC, said the rumor may have resulted from officers' comments on dealing with complaints about homeless people. Lynn said some of the homeless people in Peoples' Park and other locations around campus told him they had been informed that they would have to move. Holmes and Bryan also discussed addressing some of the problems homeless people face and educating the University's community about the problems of homelessness. "[We are] looking to ... provide some services [for homeless people] on Penn's campus," said Bryan. "I am confident that that will happen." Holmes also reviewed police procedures for reacting to complaints they receive about homeless people. She said officers most commonly stop homeless people only after they have received a complaint about a specific person. According to Holmes, the most common violations are "obstruction of public access, excessive littering, and harassment." Another issue raised at the meeting was whether the building of the new convention center in Center City would cause additional homeless people to move to campus. David Carl, a former history professor at Pace University, said that he "heard it said that because of pressure to minimize the problem of homelessness in Center City and around the convention center, it would tend to increase homelessness around the University." And UCHC volunteers who distribute meals to homeless people said they had already noticed an increase in people receiving meals from UCHC.