How OHS funding woes are failing Philadelphia’s homeless population – Metro Philadelphia

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On any given night in Philadelphia, around 4,700 people experience homelessness in the city, according to a 2023 survey. At the same time, there are 5,000 beds in emergency shelters, safe havens, and transition houses throughout the city. These numbers show that there are enough emergency shelter beds for all of the houseless people in Philadelphia.

But access to these beds is now limited by a lack of staff and funding at the city’s main resource to prevent homelessness – the Office of Homeless Services (OHS).

Operating since 2010, the OHS was formed to work with more than 60 homeless housing and service providers, as well as city, state, and federal governments. Yet as of this report, the city-funded department is closed until further notice and pending further investigation.

Typically, there are two ways to get in touch with OHS intake social workers and case managers: visit one of the two intake centers, or call the Homelessness Prevention Hotline.

Unfortunately, getting to a center to apply for a bed at a shelter – with no guarantees of being accepted – is hard for many people who have no transportation. Furthermore, due to high call volume, it may take more than 72 hours to receive a callback from someone at the hotline.

The OHS has been facing scrutiny over numerous issues this year, including confusion about where to send people during severe winter weather, unpaid contracts, and overspending its budget. 

After personally contacting the OHS to help a constituent, Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson, the first Black majority-leader of Philadelphia’s City Council, highlighted potentially questionable practices and a lack of leadership and transparency.

“I received a call from a constituent with five children who desperately needed shelter, so I called one of the housing intake centers and explained the family’s situation to the operator,” said Richardson. “I received incredibly poor service and was informed that they would not be able to let me know if they could assist this constituent until they arrived at one of the intake centers. They expected a mother of five young children to travel across the city with no guarantee of shelter.”

Shortly thereafter, during an appropriations hearing at City Hall in the fall of 2023, OHS requested $14.7 million in funding to cover the cost of overspending and mismanagement of funds, which sparked an investigation by Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker. 

“The city has retained an independent accounting firm to conduct a forensic investigation of the finances of the city’s Office of Homeless Services, together with the City Office of Inspector General,” said Parker in a city press release in February. “The Inspector General has shared some preliminary findings, and they are of grave concern.” 

Around this time, the mayor accepted the resignation of Elizabeth Hersh, the Executive Director of OHS, and appointed an interim director, David Holloman. 

Under Hersh, the OHS housing-first approach generated a 90% success rate in preventing a return to homelessness among people in supportive housing. OHS also delivered a 35% reduction over a 6-year period in the number of unsheltered people, according to Point In Time. 

Consequently, Philadelphia’s OHS system is considered a national model studied by cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Detroit, and Austin; nevertheless, the office remains closed.

“I tried to get a place to stay one time and the people wouldn’t pick up the phone,” said Reba, a 39-year-old houseless woman. “Plus I heard they got so many rules at those places and everyone there been to jail so they be hustlin.”

While the OHS stopped accepting applications for homeless prevention because of a lack of funding, other shelters in the city are overcrowded, leaving the city’s unhoused population with many challenges when seeking emergency shelter.

Some houseless people don’t have the vital documents required by most shelters to spend the night, so they can’t apply. Others are anti-authoritative and don’t want to follow rules, choosing freedom over a bureaucratic housing option. Still others have a substance use disorder or mental health issues, and aren’t willing or able to receive help.

“Many good people suffer from substance disorders and mental illness and need help finding their way,” said State Senator Nikal Saval, a sponsor of the 2021 Fair Chance Housing Act. “If the city has problems providing resources, it’s something to look at. We have all these abandoned homes in Philly, let’s fix them up and let houseless people have the dignity they deserve.”

In some cases, mental illness is a key factor in the decision to avoid shelter. The most recently available data indicate that three-quarters of people experiencing homelessness have a mental health diagnosis, and that nearly a quarter of them have schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders. Some of the most common symptoms of psychotic disorders include auditory hallucinations, which occur in more than 70% of cases, and paranoid thinking. A person with psychotic symptoms might decide not to go to a shelter because of delusional thoughts about the shelter itself.

According to Generosity, in a 2022 study done by the OHS, 18% of the city’s houseless population choose to live unsheltered in places unsuitable for human habitation. Unsheltered means that they are sleeping on the street or on a bench or under a bridge, etc., and if any one of them decided to contact the OHS for emergency shelter, they would most likely not get help right away.  

In Philadelphia, the city aims to distribute $42 million in federal American Rescue Plan funding for houseless services, and new housing projects for young people aged 18-24 are expected to begin this fall, as reported by Axios. 

But most, if not all, of the emergency shelters and federal houseless programs rely on OHS for funding or guidance in the city’s houseless landscape – as long as it remains closed, it will have a negative effect on thousands of Philadelphians who just want a place to call home.

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‘Housing For All’ is a two-year project in which Metro Philadelphia will investigate the city’s affordable housing crisis. It is made possible by The Lenfest Institute for Journalism’s Philadelphia Local News Sustainability Initiative grant.