Disir
Platinum Member
- Sep 30, 2011
- 28,003
- 9,610
- 910
In their push to disband three homeless camps that sprung up in the city this year, Philly leaders have cited drug use, unsanitary conditions and safety issues. They say after multiple rounds of talks, the situation at the camps has become "untenable" and gave the camps until 9 a.m. Wednesday to leave.
"We’ve gotten to a point where it’s just untenable to have this other health issue surrounding people in the outdoors, defecating outdoors, using drugs outdoors, in an environment that has created this situation," Mayor Jim Kenney said Tuesday of the camps on the Parkway, behind the Museum of Art and near the Philadelphia Housing Authority headquarters in North Philly.
But many residents of the camps don't want to go. They say they feel safer in the impromptu tent communities, supplied by organizers and full of people experiencing homelessness.
Food, clothing and other resources are easier to access there than in a homeless shelter, they say. Plus, some camp residents have been blacklisted from shelters and have nowhere else to go. Others don't want to compromise from their demand for permanent affordable housing.
Since the camps first formed, the city says more than 30 people from the camps were placed in hotel rooms reserved to house vulnerable populations. A total of 130 people from the camps were taken to shelters or drug treatment programs.
Ok. And go where? Someplace out of sight and out of mind? I'm torn here. I think that many people don't understand how much damn paperwork and jumping through hoops that homeless people have to go through. The housing authorities know they don't have enough housing but they have no intention of fixing that. Then there is the mentally ill which no one is touching because there is no profit to be made there.
"We’ve gotten to a point where it’s just untenable to have this other health issue surrounding people in the outdoors, defecating outdoors, using drugs outdoors, in an environment that has created this situation," Mayor Jim Kenney said Tuesday of the camps on the Parkway, behind the Museum of Art and near the Philadelphia Housing Authority headquarters in North Philly.
But many residents of the camps don't want to go. They say they feel safer in the impromptu tent communities, supplied by organizers and full of people experiencing homelessness.
Food, clothing and other resources are easier to access there than in a homeless shelter, they say. Plus, some camp residents have been blacklisted from shelters and have nowhere else to go. Others don't want to compromise from their demand for permanent affordable housing.
Since the camps first formed, the city says more than 30 people from the camps were placed in hotel rooms reserved to house vulnerable populations. A total of 130 people from the camps were taken to shelters or drug treatment programs.
Philly Leaders Say Homeless Camps Are ‘Untenable.' But They've Been a Lifeline to Some
Residents of Philly’s homeless camps say they don’t want to leave, despite a city order to get out by Wednesday morning.
www.nbcphiladelphia.com
Ok. And go where? Someplace out of sight and out of mind? I'm torn here. I think that many people don't understand how much damn paperwork and jumping through hoops that homeless people have to go through. The housing authorities know they don't have enough housing but they have no intention of fixing that. Then there is the mentally ill which no one is touching because there is no profit to be made there.