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The city posted shutdown notices at the camps — for the second time. The first attempt, last month, was canceled when Mayor Jim Kenney decided to get personally involved in reaching a resolution.
However, he said in an emailed statement on Monday that talks have been fruitless and he’s proceeding with the shutdown “with a heavy heart … as a last resort.”
Deputy Managing Director Eva Gladstein said the organizers rejected the city’s offer to provide temporary beds for the campers while they work on long-term solutions.
“They just wanted us to provide permanent housing for everyone right away, regardless of what the rules are and our obligation and the law are for how we transfer and dispose of property,” she said.
Organizer Jennifer Bennetch sees the offer as the city rejecting protesters’ demands. They want homeless people to be placed immediately in vacant Philadelphia Housing Authority units.
Bennetch agrees that further talks are unlikely to be productive, but shutting down the encampments is not a solution.
“The residents do not want to leave. They want to stand up for themselves, and we’re discussing things that could happen, such as police brutality.
“These are living, breathing people,” she continued. “They’re not going to disappear.”
“We’ve made significant offers toward the demands,” Gladstein countered. “We agree with many of the demands, it’s just that we are not able to fully deliver on them without federal and state support or without more time.”
Gladstein hopes the camps can be closed peacefully — as the city has done many times before — though she acknowledges these are different, having been set up first as protests.
The encampment — a protest of the lack of affordable housing — went up on June 10, following citywide protests over racism and police brutality.
The city says it will continue to try to get the campers into shelters and provide them with services.