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!

Success stories: A rapid rehousing participant is on her way to becoming an engineer

A 20-year-old woman had been living in the shelter system since she was 18. Prior to that, she spent the majority of her childhood in and out of shelters with her mother and siblings.

Through Philadelphia’s coordinated entry system, she was referred to a rapid rehousing program, enrolling in March 2019. Just under two months later, she signed a lease for a lovely studio apartment perfectly situated for an easy commute to Community College of Philadelphia, where she had enrolled as a student at program entry.

She took advantage of all of the program’s offerings: the Philadelphia Furniture Bank, gift cards to local stores, low income utility assistance, and other assistance for her health and well-being. She built a peaceful, warm home for herself as she started to think about tomorrow instead of staying stuck in the urgency of today.

While she had no income when she started the program, a few weeks in, she got a job.

Then, within a couple of months, she started paying most of the rent and all the utilities for her new home.

She’s now entering the fall semester at CCP and continues to work at the same job she got early in the program. She’s busy, but always lets her housing stabilization specialist know what he has free time to squeeze in a home visit.

Today, she’s dreaming of becoming an engineer. And she’s determined more than ever before to turn that dream into a reality.

Generocity: The case for democratizing emergency shelter management

The Bethesda Project’s Andrew Huff makes the case for community governance in emergency shelters in this op-ed published in Generocity.

By including shelter guests in policymaking and governance, the sense of community self-determination increases.

“Through community-based decision-making, guests cooperate with each other and with staff to govern the shelter,” Huff writes. “The cooperative process, along with staff enforcement of the community’s decisions, nurtures trust between guests as well as between guests and staff.”

KYW Newsradio: Basketball league for homeless men impacts lives

KYW recently highlighted the Hoops for Hope basketball league, which is supported by our colleagues at the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS) and nonprofit provider Resources for Human Development.

One of program’s goals is to help men with their mental health through physical activity, and it’s made up of about 50 men from six different local shelters.

“They showed me how to balance my money, showed me what to do with everything. I take my meds, I go take care of business. I don’t mess around, I just do what I got to do.”

Seen on Twitter: Pathways to Housing launches a peer-led support group

Working with over 60 different amazing providers means seeing some awesome tweets every month about the good work going on across Philadelphia.

Recently, our provider Pathways to Housing PA tweeted about a new peer-led support group to help those still getting used to being inside. You can learn more about the program online.

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