Homeless People

HUDDLING UNDER BLANKETS, homeless people lie outside the State Office Building at Broad and Spring Garden Streets as employees arrive for work. About 50 people held a rally and a "sleep-out" Monday night to demand more housing for the homeless and medical care for the homeless mentally ill. According to Stephen Gold, attorney for the groups that staged the protest, the state has agreed to fund six residences for 150 mentally ill homeless people this...

Twenty homeless people and organizers of the Committee for Dignity and Fairness to the Homeless staged a sit-in yesterday at the city managing director's office to protest what they said was the city's failure to secure jobs for them at emergency shelters in Philadelphia. The group shouted, "We want jobs, not promises," for about 30 minutes outside the office of Assistant Managing Director Marion Reitz, who was out of town. Later, leaders of the group met with Managing Director James S. White for a half-hour to discuss what the protesters said were promises made by city officials to help homeless people get staff jobs at shelters.

Mayor Nutter's plan to take distribution of free food to homeless people out of the parks to the front of City Hall and, ultimately, indoors was blocked this morning by a federal judge. Ruling from the bench after two days of testimony and an hour of oral argument, U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn said he saw no evidence feeding homeless people outside City Hall was any better or more dignified than on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. "It seems to me that . . . the parks provide more dignity than the concrete apron outside City Hall," Yohn 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.

Joseph Buscemi of Stratford lost his job as an auto mechanic and his home. He sought help in Camden but spent hours sitting in government offices only to be told to come back another day. A friend gave him $5 for bus fare to Atlantic City. "I didn't know what I was going to do," said Buscemi, 33, now living at the Atlantic City Rescue Mission, where he receives drug rehabilitation, job training, and Bible study. "They took me in with open arms. It was like getting a second chance.

With bitter cold weather forecast through the weekend - the overnight lows are expected to be in the teens - the city has instituted emergency procedures to move homeless people off the streets and into shelters. Special outreach teams are ready around the clock to assist homeless people, said Robert Hess, the city's deputy managing director in charge of special-needs housing. One recreation center in North Philadelphia will be used to provide overflow beds, Hess said, and a center in West Philadelphia could be opened over the weekend.

Homeless people seized a vacant North Philadelphia building yesterday in a day of protesting that led to seven arrests and a nine-block march down Broad Street that snarled rush-hour traffic. The 75 protesters said they want to take the vacant four-story building on Broad Street just below Girard Avenue for a community life center - a place where perhaps 300 homeless people could sleep, learn, eat and share fellowship. Trouble is, somebody else owns the building. And doesn't seem willing to donate it, said Leona Smith, founder of Delaware Valley Union of the Homeless.

THIS IS KNOWN: On the night of July 23, Don Davis' faithful friend and companion, his dog Bustaah, was shot and killed by a cop. Also known is that Davis, who is homeless, is not friendless. He is surrounded by a caring circle created by Bustaah.   Davis uses the City Hall Coffee House, on South Penn Square, across from City Hall, as his office. Slim and flinty, the 53-year-old Montana native started taking his morning coffee and smokes there about a year ago, after arriving from Atlantic City.