Friends Neighborhood Guild,

our Partner in

SafeHome Philadelphia

by David Gibson, Resource Developer

As we all know, Philadelphia’s current homeless system is geared to ‘manage’

homelessness. It requires long and expensive tenures in temporary housing as

the path to permanent housing. By contrast, SafeHome Philadelphia takes the

approach that only housing ends homelessness. By applying the highly successful

‘housing first’ model in a community-based setting and providing home-based

services to build stability AFTER the family or individual has a place to call

‘home,’ SafeHome Philadelphia shifts the paradigm.

We have over 20 years of experience and knowledge on the root-causes of

homelessness, its effects on people and the absolute inadequacy of the present

system. Our analysis of the evidence showed the smartest strategy to be ‘housing

first’ practiced in an existing community setting rather than in a segregated,

institutional infrastructure. We knew we would need a strong partner with the

kind of experience in community serv-

ice that matched our experience with

the issues faced by individuals and

families experiencing homelessness.

We have found such a partner. With

over 120 years of service to the com-

munity, Friends Neighborhood Guild

has stepped forward bringing their

expertise to the task. Together we have

worked hard over recent months jointly

creating the policies and procedures,

the criteria and supporting documenta-

tion, to make SafeHome Philadelphia

a reality. Now we are ready. We have

launched our mission achieving strategy.

In This Issue:

Page 1: It's All About COMMUNITY: Friends

Neighborhood Guild

Page 3: Katrina's victims & Philadelphia's

homeless families need the same thing:

Housing FIRST

Page 3: Philadelphia's Homegrown Homeless:

1000 units could empty family shelters

- a national first!

Page 6: Without a Home & Without an Identify

Page 7: Divinity Student Reflects on

PCEH Summer

Page 8: A Year on the Streets Working With

Homeless Philadelphians

Page 9: Voices from the Streets of Philadelphia

Page 10: News from the Day Center

Page 11: Order your Christmas & Holiday Cards

to END, not just manage homelessness

For more information, visit our website www.pceh.org, call 215-232-2300, or write mail@pceh.org

A PUBLICATION OF THE PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE TO END HOMELESSNESS

(continued on page 2)

Fall, 2005

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The Mission Statement

of Friends Neighborhood

Guild

“The Friends Neighborhood Guild (the

Guild) is a settlement house and neighbor-

hood center, which exists to serve and

respond to the needs of people in the

community, and to seek to improve the

quality of life of its neighbors by providing

social services, supporting the develop-

ment of community leadership and to

promote the empowerment of community

residents to more effectively pursue their

common objectives.”