PCEH - 20 Year Search for Solutions

The Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness

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20 Year Search for Solutions

A History of Our Response to Homelessness

The Challenge	Our Response
1982 Almost overnight, the number of people sleeping on the streets skyrockets.	1982 Volunteers of all backgrounds walk the streets and alleys to find out from the people themselves why they were there. They organize a conference to find solutions.
1985 Support for emergency shelter and services abounds, but homelessness does not go away--public officials ask, "Are we just watering the weeds?"	1985 PCEH develops the first comprehensive long-range plan called the "homeless to housed continuum." It becomes the platform for the Mayor's Summit on Homelessness.
1988-90 Public monies double every year, but a clear notion of the extent of need or causes is nonexistent.	1988-90 PCEH leads efforts to conduct the most extensive "census" of homelessness in Pennsylvania and produces the ONLY major study of homelessness in Pennsylvania and the most extensive analysis of homelessness in Philadelphia to this day.
1992 Hundreds of millions being spent with no clear direction or analysis of first ten years.	1992 PCEH marks its 10th year by producing an analysis of the first 10 years and laying out directions for the future. Attention will be targeted to majority population of single men.
1993 Encampment of homeless people grows to hundreds in subway concourse. Mayor Rendell asks PCEH for solutions.	1993 PCEH designs solution--peer outreach + reform of the overall homeless system that caused the development of the encampments.
1994 Governor Casey terminates health and income assistance to unemployed adults over age 45 in Pennsylvania. Affects 18,000 Philadelphians.	1994 PCEH sends Mayor's Chief of Staff proposal to prevent their homelessness. He convenes task force that prevents 15,000 from losing basic life supports. As a long-term result, our advocacy established a pilot community-based homelessness prevention program.
1998-2001 City has no investments in positive exits for majority population resulting in large street population and stagnation in shelters.	1998-2001 PCEH continues search for effective programs for homeless men and discovers the Ready Willing & Able program, which is work-based and appears highly successful.
2000-2001 Evidence shows that, given the number of homeless and the available resources, homelessness can be ENDED in Philadelphia.	2000-2001 PCEH begins researching the evidence to END homelessness. A year later the 2010 Plan: Opening the DoorTo Let the Future In is released.