November 2, 2006 Issue                                       

Click Here

©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

New Covenant drops plans to use its property for homeless shelter
by KRISTIN PAZULSKI

New Covenant Church of Philadelphia has shifted the potential location of its proposed program for the homeless from its campus buildings to homes in the neighborhoods of Philadelphia.

At an Oct. 3 meeting between the church and West and East Mt. Airy Neighbors, a representative of near neighbors and the Rev. Philip D.W. Krey, president of the Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia, church representatives told the civic groups that it had dropped plans for a city-sponsored homeless shelter program.

When the proposed program was revealed in February, it surprised neighbors and community organizations, which were unaware of the discussions between the city and the church.

This announcement, the church’s history of not responding to neighbors concerns and reports of refusing neighbors’ access to the large campus grounds for walks resulted in community opposition to the plan. Neighbors were wary of New Covenant’s ability to oversee such a program.

Benjamin Ellis, director of human services at New Covenant Church, said that in September, that a group of church leaders had met together to discuss the problems that arose with the community. Among other things discussed was the homeless program.

“We knew that we had a conflict with our mission to serve the poor and needy and at the same time serve our neighbors,” Ellis said in a phone interview last week. “We knew we had to do something here.”

So the group discussed ways to “achieve both objectives.” The new proposal, which the church introduced to WMAN, EMAN and the others at the Oct. 3 meeting, was a homeless program paid for by the church (not the city, as originally proposed) that would house homeless women and their children in houses scattered throughout the city.

“Wherever we can obtain homes, either through gifts, purchases or renovations,” Ellis said, is where these families would be housed.

Like the other program, it would help only women and their children — no men — and he added that those selected for the homes would be interviewed and allowed to live in the homes only if they had no history of violence or substance abuses.

“We’re not dealing with people with violence, alcohol or dug issues,” Ellis added, “but people [women] who, if they could just get someone to offer a hand, and hold their hand, they could succeed in life.”

Despite a common perception that homeless families are riddled with addiction or mental illness, Kelly Thurston of the People’s Emergency Shelter, which serves about 10 to 15 percent of the city’s homeless, said that less than one-tenth of the families who came to PEC seeking shelter last year were made homeless due to addiction, substance abuse and/or mental illness; less than one percent had criminal records. The large majority of families “became homeless after leaving overcrowded or unfit housing, or as a consequence of domestic violence.”

Ellis said the church will be “taking it slow” while implementing the program. He said the three-page plan has “just been taken off the drawing board” and emphasized that the program will not be implemented until services – such as career and educational services – are in place for the families, whether they are city operated or private.

As of last week, neither the city nor private service providers had been approached regarding the program, Ellis said.

The program, if implemented, will house two to three women/families in a home, the number based on city zoning restrictions.

As for as community awareness, Ellis said that after a home is obtained, the church will contact a community group – such as WMAN or the Chestnut Hill Community Association – to determine if a community meeting is necessary.

He said he does not expect overall community meetings will be necessary in most cases since the housing should fall within the zoning code restrictions and it is such a small program.

Ellis said that as of now the church does not have any properties in mind, but gifts would be accepted from interested parties.

The homes will have a house manager, and he said there would be a point person in New Covenant’s current administration until the project grows, in which case he expects a manager will be hired to oversee the entire program.

Laura Siena, executive director of WMAN, said New Covenant informed Jarma Frisby, WMAN’s board president, of its decision to drop the initial homeless program a week before the Oct. 3 meeting. WMAN was awaiting further details regarding the initially proposed city-run program before supporting or opposing it.

Of the new program, Siena said, “If that’s what is going to work for them, if they can make it work, then it’s great.”

The Oct. 3 meeting was not intended to be a meeting about the homeless program and was only one of the topics discussed. The meeting was an effort, coordinated by the Lutheran Seminary’s Krey, to “establish a better working relationship between the church and the community,” according to Siena, adding that it was a “good beginning.”

She said this relationship support will be an on-going project, and that WMAN and the others are interested, not in preventing the church from utilizing its buildings, but rather helping the church find ways to utilize them in ways that fit with the neighbors’ needs.

Contact staff writer Kristin Pazulski at 215-248-8819 or Kristin@chestnuthilllocal.com.