Park may close to homeless

Property lines may decide whether several homeless people, who are sleeping and keeping belongings in People's Park, can stay at the Walnut Street site. University Police Commissioner John Kuprevich said the University will not allow homeless people to put up any structures in which to live or store their belongings on campus property. The question is whether the land belongs to the University. Kuprevich said he is currently researching the issue and will not take action until he knows for certain. But Chris Mason, the University's associate treasurer who supervises real estate, said the park belongs to the University and it is no more open to the public than any part of campus. Homeless people have long frequented the park, which is near the Free Library of Philadelphia, but only recently have a number of them begun to sleep and store their belongings there. They put up temporary encampments consisting of cardboard boxes and plastic tarps. They cook meals on a large barbecue grill. One even keeps his dog there. "That [the park] is set up as a semi-permanent encampment, that is new," Kuprevich said. The arrangement is unsanitary and messy, and University officials say they have been unable to keep it clean. "We don't do much cleaning in there, and with all those people in there, we can't," said Norman O'Conner, the University's director of environmental services. He added that the area near the park has been used as a toilet by some of those sleeping in the park. Many students and people in the University community have wondered why there has been such an increase in the homeless population near campus. Some have said the increase can partially be attributed to a Center City effort to remove the homeless from the area around the new Convention Center. "We'd like to get them out of Center City and the Convention Center area, but we can't violate their rights. We've got the [American Civil Liberties Union] to thank for that," said Philadelphia police officer Raymond Rever of the Sixth Police District in Center City. "We're doing everything humanly possible to get them off the streets. ... Any aggressive pan-handlers we do lock up." Police in the South Street area have also responded to homeless people in their corridor. "We keep them moving," said South Street Commander Lt. Robert McCarthy. "We have quite a few panhandlers." Bill Parshall, Mayor Ed Rendell's homeless czar, said he has "heard a rumor that about this [People's Park] being a problem." He thinks the homeless may have gathered because volunteers drop off food at the site for the homeless people in the area. "Generally, we like to see people not be fed in the street, and not at a fixed site," he said, because it can lead to problems. Parshall said he is planning to send someone from his office to campus to inspect the park. But, as some point out, there is no easy solution. "It may be unsanitary, it is definitely not the best place for people to live," said University City Hospitality Coalition Executive Director David Lynn, "but the folks don't have anywhere else to go."