"They don't go far," Hall says. "This is where they live."
It's a ceremony replicated around Center City: police waking the homeless, prepping their makeshift dorms for the commuter rush about to begin.
About 25 people spent the night into Thursday at Suburban Station, a quarter of the population in winter, when the concourse's concrete floors provide some shelter from the elements.
They are part of what police estimate are 355 people living on Center City streets. There are more: 4,000 on the streets in other Philadelphia neighborhoods or in shelters, according to Project HOME, the homeless-services and advocacy group cofounded in 1989 by Sister Mary Scullion.
But it is the number in Center City - the homeless who are seen, encountered or complained of by workers, tourists and conventioneers - that is the popular big-city barometer.
And the number is increasing, says Sgt. Bill Hill of the police "homeless unit," which conducts a weekly count of Center City's street people.
It was 355 last week, 394 the week before, and 290 after July 4, Hill says. Never mind the one-week dip, he says. It's the trend he watches: "The last two years it was in the 250s. Now it's up over 300."
Still, the number is far below 1997's record of 824. And way below counts in cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and Santa Monica, Calif.
Some argue that the summer count is misleading because the street population traditionally rises when Philadelphia warms and emergency shelters close.
Moreover, experts on the homeless say those who live on the streets - about 10 percent of all homeless - are atypical because they are the most resistant to leaving the street for any form of shelter.
