While we as American Citizens have to be concerned about the upcoming elections and who will be the leaders for our nation going into the year 2025, there are also other huge issues staring us in the face that must be addressed. One of them is homelessness. There were those who spoke of fears that once the tent encampments of Kensington were taken down by a Mayor Cherelle Parker mandate (which I supported), those who did not want to go into city shelters would simply move to other areas of the city. Essentially, that is what is happening.
At this time in my life, I am hosting radio programs at two radio stations. I host The Inside SCOOP, Part One, every Wednesday on WWDB/AM, 8 am-9 am, and every Saturday, I host a radio program on WURD called Electric Magazine Show, 7 am-8 am. My ride to WWDB is pretty undramatic; I don’t see homeless people over by City Avenue and Presidential Boulevard. Not at all. However, my ride to WURD is drama-filled, hurtful, sad, and sometimes almost frightening.
To get to work on Saturdays, I leave my home at approximately 6 am, and oh, the sights I see. I see homeless people sleeping on SEPTA bus shelter benches. I see homeless people sleeping on the front steps of churches. I see homeless people sleeping in the doorways of small businesses. I also see them just sleeping away on the sidewalk–literally, on the sidewalks.
Is this Philadelphia or some third-world country? These people are human beings. Most of them that I observe appear to have issues, be they drug, alcohol, or mental concerns. Some of them appear to just be lost as if they are in shock and cannot believe it themselves that they find themselves in such a circumstance as living on the streets. Some of the people I see are elderly and just appear to have fallen down on their luck, and now they’re on the streets, hoping for a quiet corner on a park bench to sleep a few hours without anyone bothering them.
There’s a park at 4th and Lehigh. It’s packed with homeless people. The weather will be changing soon, and I wonder then, what will happen with all these homeless people I’m seeing? Where will they go? Will there be any beds for them? Should they change their minds and want to come in, off the street?
For the last almost two months, I’ve also been filling in at WURD, Mondays Through Fridays, first 5 am-7 am, now 6 am-7 am, and I see so many people asleep, just anywhere, on the streets of Philadelphia, from Mount Airy to Germantown to the Allegheny West area of North Philadelphia, on over to Fishtown and Delaware Avenue where WURD Radio is located. It’s so sad. I see at least five people every morning, between 4 and 5 am, who are in wheelchairs, slumped over, sleeping, either in their chairs or on the ground next to their chairs.
Something has got to be done with these people because they are human beings, and they cannot keep living on the streets.
If you think I’m lying, I’m dying. Let the photos I’ve been taking for the last two months speak for me. Get my point? We gotta get these people off the streets and sidewalks of Philadelphia.
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