Local academics and service agencies partner to research and address homelessness in Philadelphia.

One man's glimpse of a future without heirs inspired him to invest in the futures of families he would never meet. “Not having any children, this was a way to extend the family name beyond me,” said Stephen Marino.

Juanita Beverly has cut slits in a canvas, and woven strips of canvas through the slits. On this textile-like canvas she will create a painting. Art is woven into Juanita Beverly’s life’s canvas. Juanita was drawing by age six. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

Provide housing first. Then offer the services needed to maintain self-sufficiency. That’s the new strategy of the Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness. The committee’s program, called SafeHome Philadelphia, is guided by the “Housing First” strategy.

The reasons vary, but the results are the same. Unbearably crowded housing, domestic violence, eviction, addiction, and mental illness drive Philadelphians to live on streets and in shelters.

Hundreds of thousands of homeowners who can no longer afford their mortgages are facing foreclosure–what is happening to these families?
“I think there are a few bumps before a family ends up at a shelter door,” said Phyllis Ryan, director of the Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness. “When someone loses their house, they usually return to renting, or sharing a home with family or friends.”

Annie walks into the transitional housing facility’s learning center determined. Hair pulled back in a scrunchie, an eight-month-old baby clawing at her knees, she answers the question of educational goals the same way so many homeless women do: “First, I’ll get my GED.”

For years the Ben Franklin Parkway has been the site of weekly, monthly, and annual homeless outreach meals organized by various groups based in the Philadelphia area. Whether members of the homeless population had congregated in that area previously or the feedings drew them to the Parkway is lost to memory.