PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Project HOME formally opened its latest supportive housing development Monday in North Philadelphia. It brings the city 40 units closer to its goal of ending homelessness.
"Two years ago, I found myself in front of a judge in drug court," said Lucretia Parker, a formerly unsheltered person who now has a home at Peg's Place, the 19th of the Project HOME residences.
After months of addiction treatment followed by months more in transitional housing, the woman who wielded the giant scissors to the opening of Peg's Place said she feels that her life has started over.
"Welcome to my home," Parker said about a new chapter of security and stability in a tumultuous life. "Thank you for celebrating with me this beautiful building that I call home."
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"I have so much joy and gratitude," she shared. "Every time I open the door to my apartment, I say 'Thank you.'"
Project HOME officials read a long list of “partners” who made that thank you possible: local, state and federal officials, foundations and individual philanthropists, including the primary donor, Jack Drosdick.
"Never felt better about anything, never doubted that this was the right thing to do," he said about the building named after his mother.
Project HOME leader Sister Mary Scullion has long had the goal of ending homelessness in the city, but now there is an administration in Washington that shares her goal on a national level. Philadelphia is one of 22 cities that have signed on to the effort called “House America.”
Scullion said she has never felt more confident that homelessness can be become rare, brief and non-recurring.
"We can be the first city in the country to end homelessness," Scullion expressed.
"There’s still a long way to go, but we can see the end in sight if there is the political will to make this happen."
