PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A new SEPTA program puts outreach workers on trains and at stations, offering help to homeless and vulnerable people on the system.
SEPTA calls it the REACH program. Social service workers in purple vests are now deployed at SEPTA stations, offering help to people suffering from addiction, homelessness or mental illness who take shelter on the system.
“We can’t just remove them from the station or from the trains, because they’ll be back on there the next day,” said SEPTA Transit Police Inspector R. Kitt Wells.
The transit agency has signed a one-year deal with the social service firm Citizens Acting Together Can Help (CATCH), to offer housing and addiction services, as well as transportation to those services.
“We’re addressing their needs. We’re transporting them to whatever services they may need. And therefore minimizing them riding our trains and utilizing our subways for nothing other than to seek refuge.”
Outreach worker Ezrin Waggoner said a lot of his duties have been letting the vulnerable population know that help is available.
“A lot of them aren’t aware of Hub of Hope that has showers and stuff,” he said, “so it’s helping them learn about that stuff.”
Teams are deployed to hotspots based on rider complaints. Waggoner said the program is making a difference, as he recalled helping one man whose voice was destroyed from drug use.
“He was like, ‘What am I supposed to do if I can’t even speak? What am I supposed to be doing with my life?’ And he threw his pipe down and broke it, and went to rehab.”
REACH replaces a similar outreach program, dubbed SCOPE, under previous SEPTA General Manager Leslie Richards.
