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| By G. Michael Dobbs Managing Editor SPRINGFIELD A Catholic nun whose Project H.O.M.E. in Philadelphia, Pa., has proven to be an effective program to solve homelessness said in any effort "the single most important thing is housing." Sister Mary Scullion, RSM, the co-founder and executive director of Project H.O.M.E, was in Springfield on Friday to speak with about 100 community leaders, social service providers and homeless advocates at a symposium presented by Mercy Medical Center and the city of Springfield. Speaking with Reminder Publications before her talk, Scullion said she agrees with the "Housing First" approach Springfield has undertaken. Rather than house people in shelters and try to get them social and medical services they need, "Housing First" takes the chronically homeless and puts them in permanent housing where they receive support services. Scullion added, though, that any homelessness program must have an educational component to prevent homelessness in the future. She said, "Homelessness is that canary in the mine" alerting the public there are problems with the economy. "Today more than ever people who are working are working harder and harder to afford housing [and] their utility bills," she said. "They struggle to make it." Scullion's program was first started in 1989 as an emergency homeless shelter for the winter. Over the years, the shelter grew to include both temporary and permanent housing units and two businesses, a catering service and a thrift store, with a third business, an Internet coffee house, on the way. The businesses provide job opportunities for homeless people and a re-entry into the workplace. According to the Project H.O.M.E. Web site, city officials estimate there are about 4,000 people homeless in Philadelphia on any given day. Project H.O.M.E. also has affiliations with many businesses in the Philadelphia area, she said. Scullion said a collaboration with cable television giant Comcast resulted with the Honickman Learning Center and Comcast Technology Labs, a 38,000 square foot three story building with educational and vocational programs ranging from afterschool programs to GED and job training classes. She added that one program allows people to be trained and hired by Comcast as customer service representatives. Another business has set up a program to train people to earn a commercial driver's license. These programs are not just focused at the homeless, but people at risk of being homeless, she said. She believes there are "systemic economic problems" that must be addressed by the federal government. "Even in the best of times, the economy doesn't work for the bottom of the economic ladder," she said. One of the attendees at the talk, William Miller, executive director of the Friends of the Homeless Shelter on Worthington Street, said the shelter has doubled its beds and those 160 beds have been filled every night. Overall, though, Miller said shelter use has decreased about 10 percent and city officials recently estimated the new Housing First program has reduced the number of homeless on the street by about 40 percent. Miller added that Housing First has made a positive impact on the people his program serves. |