June 2022
Video recording of City Council's Committee on Finance Hearing on June 9, 2022. Many thanks to Councilperson Derek Green, the chair of the Finance Committee, for including a a discussion on the City’s plan and on our proposal.
Final Push Needed - Contact City Council to Increase Funds for the Prevention of Homelessness 
We need your help with the final push to get the majority of City Council members to agree to our proposal to increase funding for homelessness prevention.  

Funding for the prevention of homelessness was exhausted in January across Philadelphia. Eviction filings are increasing - in 2021 there were 6,873 landlord-tenant cases filed in Municipal Court. To date in 2022 there have been 4,202 filed, according to Community Legal Services (CLS).  Over a seven-month period between July 2021, and January 2022, more than 13,000 households have approached the Office of Homeless Services for either emergency or prevention services. 

The crisis is still with us, but Philadelphia has reduced emergency housing for families and youth. If we are not providing as many places for families and youth experiencing homelessness to land, we may need to find more ways to prevent homelessness instead. 

Philadelphia will receive $42 million from the American Rescue Plan for homelessness and is developing a plan to use these funds called HOME-ARP. How should these funds be used? The city plans to use 55% of those funds ($23 million) on housing production and 12% ($5 million) on prevention. Philadelphia says the $23 million will produce an estimated 345 new units if City Council approves that amount. Housing production would help 345 households 2 to 5 years from now when the reality is that, today, there are more than 2,000 homeless households in the city and hundreds more households on waiting lists for anti-eviction/prevention and Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) housing. 

TAKE ACTION: Contact City Council right now. Not tomorrow; not the next day; NOW! Email them and urge them to increase prevention funding in the American Rescue Plan to $15 million. 
Increase TANF Cash Assistance! 
Journey (name changed to protect privacy) is a domestic violence survivor. She was terminated from her job due to absences caused by the impact of the violence of the relationship. Soon, she and her child lost their health insurance, faced eviction, and did not have enough food. With the help of a legal aid agency, Journey applied for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), food stamps, and Medicaid. The assistance is not enough to pay her rent and bills. Journey believes that an increase in TANF would help her maintain her housing and utilities until she gains employment to support her family. 

Journey's story highlights the reason why PEC has joined the Meet the Need Campaign with Community Legal Services, Drexel’s Hunger-Free Communities, Black Women’s Policy Center, PA Health Access Network, Just Harvest, the Lutheran Advocacy Network of PA, and the Coalition for Low Income Pennsylvanians to advocate for change. We are in support of House Bill 2015 (Authored by Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta), and Senate Bill 1014 (Authored by Sen. Katie Muth), to increase the TANF grant to 50% of poverty. We met with legislators on May 23 and found out many legislators already support the bills. But many do not.  
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ACTION ALERT: Contact your state legislator and ask them to support HB 2015 and SB 1014. Find your legislators here: PA General Assembly (state.pa.us)