Every other week, we update you on progress made across Philadelphia’s homeless services system, including personal testimonials and success stories, how we’re putting our strategic plan Roadmap to Homes into action, and how Philly continues to be one of the most progressive, successful homeless services system in the country.
Read below and share the good news!
WHYY’S Billy Penn: How Philly convinced business leaders to be part of the homelessness solution
Now that Shared Public Spaces is officially rebooted and moving forward on developing compassionate, effective solutions to homelessness and panhandling, people are paying attention to its revolutionary nature.
WHYY’s Billy Penn takes a look at the initiative from the perspective of business and hospitality leaders partnering with us, including John McNichol of the PA Convention Center and Dave Simonetii of Wawa.
“For Philly’s business community, the monthly meetings have been Social Services 101. They’ve learned the appropriate ways to discuss homelessness, and they understand the methods that are most effective,” writes Billy Penn’s Michaela Winberg.
“‘It’s been a very accelerated learning curve for me,’ said McNichol, who now discusses homelessness with such proficiency and compassion you’d think he works in the field. ‘First you have to learn, so that you’re educated enough to learn what the real problem is.'”
Success Stories: 40 new landlords are now teaming up with OHS
40 new landlords are teaming up with the Office of Homeless Services.
At the landlord partnering event on July 8, a little under 60 private property owners and managers came to hear from landlord engagement specialist Ebonye Williams about how they can partner with us. 40 agreed to work with us as a result of this event. We partner with many private property owners and managers who view their role as not just businesspeople but responsible community partners.
One thing that separates Philadelphia from other major cities is our private rental market. We are able to work with privately owned and managed properties to help get people off the street and into homes more effectively than in other cities where either housing stock doesn’t exist or is much too costly.
Still, for people with no or extremely low incomes, even modest rentals in Philly are out of reach. That’s exactly why programs at OHS focus sometimes on temporary subsidies or grants to people through programs like Rapid Rehousing, permanent supportive housing, or homelessness prevention.
Philly one of four cities selected for innovative Local Housing Solutions institute
Out of 20 cities who applied, only four made their way to the first cohort of the NYU Furman Center’s Local Housing Solutions Institute.
Philadelphia is one of them.
“We have selected these four cities due to their demonstrated dedication to comprehensively addressing affordability challenges,” explained NYU’s Ingrid Gould Ellen when news broke of the selection. Private firm Abt Associates is working with NYU to run the Institute.
Recognizing that each city has its own unique challenges, the Institute will help urban leaders share ideas, learn about new groundbreaking techniques, and come back to their home cities equipped with new insights, strategies, and solutions.
OHS Director Liz Hersh is part of a team representing Philadelphia at the series of seminars, strategic consultation sessions, and team building exercises.
Other cities selected alongside Philadelphia include Atlanta, San Antonio, and Minneapolis.
