Homeless People

Karen Riggins, 41, had every intention of making the Army a career when she enlisted after graduating from Olney High School. She planned to stay at least 20 years. She made it to 15 years and one month. Riggins was stationed in Heidelberg, Germany, as a staff sergeant, making maps for troops in the field. On Feb. 17, 2001, she was discharged for medical reasons. Asthma that began to develop 10 years earlier, after a stint in the Saudi Arabian desert, became more severe.

They're young fashion design students, and some dream of one day having their own line of clothing that's distinctive, stylish, and synonymous with their name. As for their class project, well, haute it was not. A first it may be, and a challenging one at that: a design that's distinctive, versatile and practical, but not so flashy it invites theft or broadcasts its wearer's situation. Vests for the homeless. "I really liked this. I didn't want to see the same old thing," said Megan Dennis, 29, instructor of the "special topics in fashion design" class at the Art Institute of Philadelphia in Center City.

The Delaware County Council has approved a $100,000 contract to provide housing for four mentally ill homeless people. The contract, with a Philadelphia firm called Horizon House Inc., will pay for apartment rentals and counseling for the renters. "The people have to be able to live unsupervised," said Susan Pesotki, who is in charge of the county's adult services department. A caseworker will visit each person every day and arrange for mental health treatment. The money comes from a federal program.

Sam did not die Wednesday night. Despite the cold and the untold ounces of Hurricane Malt Liquor he drank; despite shivering uncontrollably in his bed of ragged blankets beneath I-95 in South Philadelphia - Sam survived. That's because a team from Project H.O.M.E. and the city's Department of Behavioral Health cajoled and begged the homeless 52-year-old native of Ho Chi Minh City to let them take him to the emergency room at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in the midst of a code-blue alert under a frigid moon.

When the activist group Delaware County Housing Now! was looking for someone to hold a banner during a news conference at the 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby, two bystanders volunteered. Joe Mullen and Tony Smith, homeless men who stay in and around the terminal and sleep there when they can, got off the bench they habitually occupy and proudly held the ends of the banner, which called for people to come to an Oct. 7 Housing Now! march in Washington, D.C. "Homelessness is a vicious web. I'm stuck in it, and I can't get out of it," said Mullen, who added that he had stayed in the area of the terminal for the last four months.

A $2 million program to house 80 homeless men, women and children in three vacant buildings on the former Valley Forge General Hospital site in Schuylkill Township, Chester County, was announced by county officials yesterday. A $1.3 million grant awarded to the Chester County Housing Authority last week by the Department of Housing and Urban Development was the last major grant needed to finance the project, which could begin as early as October 1993, said Barbara Wilson, director of housing and community services for the county.

A weeklong survey of the city's homeless found 528 people living on the streets, slightly more than half of them described as "physically vulnerable and at increased risk of death. " The count was conducted by 250 volunteers, who combed city streets and parks this week from 4 to 6 a.m. compiling a name-and-photo database. Mayor Nutter hosted the volunteers Friday at City Hall and helped release the results of the survey. "The big-picture goal remains the same," he said.

Homeless people will be given priority in filling jobs at emergency shelters that do business with the city under an agreement negotiated by the managing director and advocates for the homeless. The agreement, which is being put into language that will be included in city contracts with the shelters, is expected to take effect July 1. "We want to give homeless people some special consideration when it comes to hiring in the shelters," Managing Director James S. White said last week.

Passers-by have to strain to see them at night. They huddle against cement walls, clutching tattered backpacks filled with junk: a baseball hat, tin cans, an old notebook, some spare change to buy their next Happy Meal at McDonald's. Thurman Murphy is one of them, homeless for 32 years and counting. Refuge for him is Love Park, underground SEPTA benches and wherever else he can get a night's sleep. Some nights, he is jolted awake by a nightstick on the bottom of his feet.

Responding to complaints that homeless people at SEPTA's 69th Street Terminal were panhandling and harassing passersby, Upper Darby officials ordered the removal of the wooden benches where the homeless congregated. "We hope it will cut down on the loitering there," said F. Raymond Shay, the township's chief administrative officer. The homeless used the benches, which were attached to a concrete retaining wall at the front of the heavily used terminal, for sleeping, eating and just hanging around.

The 2013 annual nationwide count of homeless people, taken on the night of Jan. 30 and 31, found fewer individuals in Chester County and more in Bucks County than were tallied in January 2012. Comparable figures for the nation, as well as for Philadelphia and for Delaware and Montgomery Counties, are not yet available, officials there said this week. The 625 people counted in Chester County this year compared with 666 found there in 2012. But the 476 recorded in Bucks County on the same January night this year were more than the 422 in the 2012 survey, due to a change in how information is gathered.

With across-the-board federal cuts that kicked in March 1, the Philadelphia Housing Authority calculated that it would lose $42 million in funding this year, equal to an 11 percent drop in its budget, the agency's interim executive director told employees in a letter this week. Kelvin Jeremiah wrote on Wednesday that the agency wanted to avoid layoffs and was trying to cut costs, find savings, and identify alternative sources of funding. Among the steps he instituted were: transferring some contracts for services to staff; implementing furloughs; freezing wages and eliminating bonuses; collecting debt and rent more aggressively; stepping up efforts to sell scattered sites; and suspending new rent subsidy vouchers.

With across-the-board federal cuts that kicked in March 1, the Philadelphia Housing Authority calculated that it would lose $42 million in funding this year, equal to an 11 percent drop in its budget, the agency's interim executive director told employees in a letter this week. Kelvin Jeremiah wrote on Wednesday that the agency wanted to avoid layoffs and was trying to cut costs, find savings, and identify alternative sources of funding. Among the steps he instituted were: transferring some contracts for services to staff; implementing furloughs; freezing wages and eliminating bonuses; collecting debt and rent more aggressively; stepping up efforts to sell scattered sites; and suspending new rent subsidy vouchers.

Sam did not die Wednesday night. Despite the cold and the untold ounces of Hurricane Malt Liquor he drank; despite shivering uncontrollably in his bed of ragged blankets beneath I-95 in South Philadelphia - Sam survived. That's because a team from Project H.O.M.E. and the city's Department of Behavioral Health cajoled and begged the homeless 52-year-old native of Ho Chi Minh City to let them take him to the emergency room at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in the midst of a code-blue alert under a frigid moon.

Fight at college led to shooting HOUSTON - A fight between two people led to a shooting Tuesday at a Texas community college, where a maintenance man was wounded in the crossfire, officials said. One of those involved in the fight had a student ID, and both were wounded and hospitalized, Harris County Sheriff's Maj. Armando Tello said. A fourth person also was taken to a hospital for a medical condition. The two involved in the fight are considered people of interest, Tello said.

Burlington and Camden Counties have issued a "Code Blue" weather alert advising residents to stay inside while temperatures remain in the 20s. Weather forecasters are expecting the cold stretch to persist until early next week when temperatures are predicted to rise above freezing. Today's alert in Burlington County is the third time the county issued a cold weather warning since November, said Ralph Shrom, Burlington County spokesman. "We try to get everyone inside," Shrom said.

As part of the city's effort to better coordinate outdoor free meals for homeless people, Mayor Nutter has created the Philadelphia Food Access Collaborative, which includes many groups that give food to people in need. The collaborative grew out of a yearlong attempt to bridge the gap between groups that feed homeless people on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and those that want them to move indoors. Bill Golderer, the convening minister of Broad Street Ministry, said the collaborative was "positioned to drive our city toward new solutions to this vexing problem.

A couple of weeks ago, I challenged you to take a holiday giving pledge. I asked you to share how you were giving back, not just by writing a charitable check for that all-important year-end tax deduction - but what exactly are you doing to give of yourself? By chronicling simple acts of giving, my hope was that we could usher in a different language, one in which we move beyond tossing out divisive labels like makers and takers , and celebrate each other for simply being givers . Not to mention we'd be helping those in need during a time they need it most.

ATLANTIC CITY - The executive director of the Atlantic City Rescue Mission, New Jersey's largest homeless shelter, has been suspended after months of controversy over whether the shelter should remain in the tourism district of this resort, which is anxiously attempting to upgrade its image. Bill Southrey, 57, of Absecon, is paid $104,000 a year to run the nonprofit agency, where he has worked 33 years. About 3,500 people a year find temporary shelter and meals at the Bacharach Boulevard facility.