Unwelcome mat for city's growing homeless

Homelessness is so complex, she says, that simple shelter is not the answer: "If a person has an addiction, that isn't a city shelter. It's a house for recovery. It's a place where they can take a step forward and not just go through a revolving door."

Feeding on the Parkway

Except at 19th and Vine Streets, where, outside the Beaux Arts-style Free Library, the homeless are on the move.

This time it has nothing to do with police or outreach workers. It's free food, delivered in several small vans from churches as far away as Wisconsin.

Mass feeding - it's a ritual that infuriates city officials, who have worked to draw the homeless inside.

But like the homeless who resist and rebuff the efforts of outreach workers, the Samaritans reject city pleas to stop mass feedings and instead to volunteer in shelter programs.

About 50 homeless people line up at makeshift feeding stations on benches. And then they drift away, moving to wherever they call home until tomorrow morning's wake-up call.

To view a video of staff writer Jennifer Lin interviewing some of Center City's homeless and their advocates, go to http://go.philly.com/homelessvideo