Students paint dilapidated city residence

Standing in front of the newly-painted pearly white wall, the six students admired their work, remembering the dilapidated state it was in before they came. As part of the 10th annual nationwide Hunger Cleanup Day sponsored by the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness, College senior Molly White, a resident advisor in the Quadrangle, took five students from her hall to paint an abandoned house in West Philadelphia. Other groups involved in the project cleaned furniture at St. Mary's Respite Center, helped people at the Ronald MacDonald House with a mass mailing and cleaned up the block around a Latino education center. Forty-five students participated in all. Sister Anne Marie Weisglass, the rehabilitation specialist for Philadelphians Concerned About Homelessness, met the students at the house and supervised the project. "We provide transitional subsidized housing for single families in the hope that by the end of five years they will be self-sufficient," Weisglass told the group before they began working. The Misericordia Hospital in West Philadelphia donated some of the houses PCAH renovates. PCAH also buys houses for $1 that have been forfeited to the state by tenants who could not pay their taxes. Once PCAH buys a house, a contractor refurbishes it, which usually includes putting in new appliances, upgrading the electric or plumbing system and painting the walls. Before moving in, families must go through a screening process, according to Weisglass. "Each parent needs to prove that he or she is motivated to want to be off welfare," Weisglass said. "They have to be willing to finish their high school education and then go for more, because that is usually necessary for a job." Tenants pay as much rent as they can afford but are not allowed to live in the house for more than five years. PCAH also provides workshops for the families about issues such as parenting and house maintenance. After speaking with Weisglass about PCAH, the students went straight to work. Some took off old paint from the outside of the house and then re-painted it, while others painted the wall of the staircase. "I really feel like we made a difference," College freshman Michelle Chin said. "The work we did will last. It brought a noticeable change to the neighborhood. I felt great at the end of the day." For White, the nature of the program makes the extra work worth it. "There are a lot of organizations that try to help the homeless by putting a bandaid over the issue and do things like pass out sandwiches," White said. "But [this project] really does help these people move closer to self-sufficiency."

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