So we have -- I was just able to provide the outreach team numbers. We can get back to you with the social workers. They do provide a level of connection and social work type services with the making connections and such. We also do have a Morris team that's out there and we have community wellness engagement -- DBHIDS has community wellness engagement teams out there as well and I'll get those numbers to you guys and we'll send them over.
And 61 is the number of outreach workers. That includes everybody, right? That includes whatever contracts are out there that are issued by --
Okay. So that's what I'm asking, Adam. You're the conductor. I want us to be able to say, listen, in the Kensington community we have X number in total of outreach workers, of social workers. Tell me where we are.
And we will get those to you, but I wanted to give some more clarification. As you both know, there are multiple entry points into the system. So the Office of Homeless Services has outreach workers out in Kensington --
I understand that right, Crystal. And that's why I'm saying who's --
We will get that to you. The conductor is Adam Geer, Adam Thiel and Commissioner Bethel. They are all working collaboratively and we are also working collaboratively in the budget process to get that actual number.
And that is what I want to show, right. I want us to be able to say in 2022 and 2023 in '24 and in '25, we've progressively increased the number of X in order to respond to the work that we are currently doing. However, we need X in order to get us all to meet our goal.
Thank you. And one point I wanted to make too, Councilmember. As you know we also get calls into MDO, into PPD, into OPS about people that are in other parts of the city and other Councilmanic Districts. And part of our ask, when you see it is not only Kensington, it is so that the people that are currently serving Kensington don't have to always leave Kensington to go to X community because that's what currently happens because most of the resources or all of the resources are in Kensington. So we want to be able to cover citywide. So that will be an increase for Kensington and an increase across the city from all of the collaborating departments, DBHIDS, OHS, OPS, PPD and PFD.
I want to be able to respond to Kensington specifically. This is the Special Committee on Kensington --
Kensington is my neighborhood, right. I know there's of us and 16 everybody is responsible for 17 advocating for their communities. And while all of the work that we're doing really is focused on ensuring that we're responding to the actual problem, they're not spreading people out, I think is the responsibility of my colleagues to advocate for their own folks -
So I just want to know. I want to be able to say, right, that we have progressively responded to the needs of the people because we said we were going to prioritize them and we've increased the number of people that are responding here by X number, and this is where our money is going, right. This is where the residents of the 7th Council District who have been paying their taxes and have been responsible citizens that have been occupied by a government-inflicted issue, this is where your money is going, right. We're responding. We're recognizing that we caused this and now we're responding to this and this is where we are. I think that -- I'll wrap up by saying that we have shown that when the Mayor said she was going to prioritize this, she's done that, right. This doesn't lie to us, but we still have some work to do. And I want to be able to help all of you tell the story.
I want to be able to say this is where we are and this is where we need to be. And when we're advocating for dollars in order to reimagine a better 7th Council District, I want to be able to say, why, right.
And so, I appreciate -- I know that there's no other panel after you. So I want to say thank you. Thank you for coming here and telling us about the work that you're doing, about the challenges that we still have ahead of us and about the progress that we've made. Extremely grateful. We have a lot of work to do, but I think that for the first time in a really long time, like I said yesterday we're all moving in the same direction and we all have the same goal. And so, appreciate that. I invite you to stay after this panel to hear from some of the community residents who are impacted by the work that you all are doing every day. Sometimes we see it through a lens of service. We are focused on a certain level of work and community residents see it a different way. And so, I encourage you and I invite you to stay and hear from some of our community residents about their experiences on a regular basis. Thank you so much for being with us this morning.
There are no further panels to speak regarding this resolution. Mr. Clerk, will you please call the first witness or the first panel to speak on public comment regarding this resolution.
Yes, Madam Chair. For public comment, we have Eileen Callahan, Alfred Klosterman. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
And again for the record, this is public testimony regarding Resolution 241119.
Thank you so much for being with us this morning. Please state your name for the record and begin your testimony.
Okay. My name is Al Klosterman. I'm a member of the Harrowgate Civic Association. I testified here when Councilmember Lozada first introduced her Marshall Plan for Kensington several times since. I'm here again today asking for more help. We're seeing some progress, but it's just been slow. After police actions last year, many drug users migrated to our area above Allegheny Avenue. One real problem is that most of the actions are happening below Allegheny, and those of us above are being neglected. Now, Director Geer recognized this at our December civic meeting, and he said that due to a shortage of outreach workers, none were available in our area. And luckily yesterday, he did say he'd look into widening the efforts here which would help us quite a bit. Discussing locations like that with residents is just a key thing that gets neglected. Also, we were told last year we would get foot patrols, but that just never happened. Some initiatives that sound good haven't helped much yet. The Wednesday Wellness Court only works one day a week for three or four users so it becomes a drop in the bucket. A stronger effort is needed. If any users were taken off the street, the number is just too small to notice. Please support expanding it. Yesterday night's weather doubled the number of users passing my house to score of fentanyl. The growing numbers are really discouraging. It appears that not much the police can do with the users and dealers when we call. They come to a troubled corner, chase the dealers and users away who come right back when the police are gone. So we just get a sense of futility. Can more be done in this regard. And finally, as things stand neither the residents nor users are really being well-served. We residents feel left out of the discussions and get discouraged. The rate of progress has just been too slow. We've been at this fight for over five years now. Please realize that we're tired and patience is really hard to come by. Thank you.
Thank you so much for your testimony, Mr. Al. And I know that there is some level of frustration and I think that all of us have been consistent in saying that this took a really long time to create this. This situation has been brewing in the Kensington Harrowgate community for many, many years and I understand your frustration. It is going to take us a long time to respond to, and that is why it is important for us to continue these conversations. It's important for residents like yourself to continue to show up at these hearings and continue to hold us accountable. Yes, it is slow, right. We would like to -- I would like to have seen it resolved in 12 months, but that's not a realistic ask and I recognize that. We're in a different place. We're in a different place than we were two years ago. We're in a different place than we were a year ago in that we are now working with a group of people who are just not talking, right. We see some concrete action behind the work that is being done. We also see some employees of government continuing to show up, even though sometimes as a community including myself as an elected we beat them up, right. But I think that we're dealing with a group of people who truly want to be with us in reimagining the Kensington community and restoring quality of life because you and I and the children that are being raised there deserve that. And so, I appreciate you coming to testify today. I appreciate you continuing to stay consistent and holding us accountable. We're going to continue to work as partners together to make sure that we continue to push forward. There's a commitment from myself. There's a commitment from Public Safety Director Adam Geer, from Deputy Commissioner Rosario and Commissioner Bethel, and more important than anything from Mayor Parker. Would you please call the -- do you have a comment, Councilmember?
Just like you, I just want to thank you for always showing up. No 16 matter where I go I see you. Whether it's Harrowgate, Juniata, he travels. He gets around. And I know things are going slow, but you should be proud because this is a direct correlation to what you guys were doing, the community groups. Harrowgate is very active. I mean, you guys police the park. That's neighborhood stuff and I appreciate you for doing that. And like my colleague said, it may be a little slow but we're not done and we have a commitment to you guys and we're not going nowhere. I'm not going nowhere. I ain't moving.
Thank you, Councilmember. Will the Clerk please call the next person to testify on public comment.
Yes, Madam Chair. Next we have Leah Sheppard. (Witness approached Witness table.)
Hi. Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Leah Sheppard. I live in and own a home in Councilmember Lozada's District in Kensington. I also co-parent three children who have lost their fathers to overdose. This plan will not help those children or any children like them. But I say all this to show I have a deep personal connection to the neighborhood and to the issue of substance use disorder. According to a review of substance use disorder research, the evidence showing that coerced treatment works, that it works, is very limited. So there's not a lot of evidence showing that it works. There's more evidence showing that coerced treatment does not work and that it can potentially harm the people that it's treating. So researchers advise that policymakers prioritize noncompulsory treatment based on this current lack of evidence. The idea (inaudible) treatment is especially alarming considering the plan's glaring holes in the treatment landscape. For example, there's little to no withdrawal management in place during ER wait times, which has led to multiple withdrawal deaths of people in custody. And more research of national overdose mortality shows a connection between increased policing, increased police funding and an increase in overdose deaths. So knowing this lack of evidence, supporting police- assisted substance use disorder treatment and knowing that increased policing has been linked to higher rates of overdose death as well as knowing the City's history of defunding policing and attacking voluntary pathways to wellness, I do not believe this plan is an effective long-term treatment for substance use disorder. Additionally, one of the key goals of Mayor Parker's Kensington Community Revival Plan is to "remove the presence of drug users." This goal could say that the goal is to support people struggling with substance use disorder in their recovery process, but it doesn't say that. So it feels to me like the real goal of this plan is to disappear people. And in response to this feeling, I'll just end with a quote from Angela Davis that "Prisons do not disappear problems. They disappear human beings. And the practice of disappearing vast numbers of people from poor, immigrant and racially-marginalized communities has literally become big business." Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Sheppard. Can you stay there for a second. I just want to ask you a question. I think you alluded to us wanting to disappear people. And I want to say for the record that none of us doing this work want people to disappear. I think that what you've heard today and what you've heard consistently is that we are working diligently to ensure that people get connected to services, right. Because as a government, we have a responsibility to ensure that people who are living unsheltered in our community, who are someone's loved one, that they live and that they are responded to in a way that is responsible. And I think for a long time as a government we've not been responsible in allowing people to live on our streets. At this moment I'm speaking specifically about Kensington, but I think in general as a city it is irresponsible of us to continue to allow to leave individuals who are not just suffering from substance abuse disorder but from open wounds and other very serious medical conditions to live on our streets unsheltered. And so, I think that it's disingenuous to say that we are wanting to have people disappear when everything that we have done and everything that we've talked about and we continue to talk about is connecting people to resources to allow them to also have quality of life, right. I receive calls from mothers all the time that say my child is living on the street, my child is suffering and it's not just from substance abuse. As an elected, what are you doing, right. And I have a responsibility, as do my colleagues, to say we're doing everything we possibly can to ensure that individuals are being connected to services. Is that easy? Absolutely not. It is difficult. The decisions that we are making are not easy decisions, but I want you to know, right, that we don't want people to disappear. We want people to receive services and understand that they too deserve quality of life, that they too deserve to be treated with dignity. I always find it difficult to understand how some of us want us as electeds to respond to animals differently than we respond to humans. And so, I want you to know that that is not what we're trying to do. We really want people to understand that they deserve, they deserve quality of life. In order for us to help them see the possibilities of a better life for themselves, we need to make difficult decisions, right. I appreciate you coming here. I appreciate you attending community meetings. I appreciate you putting on the record how you feel, but I will also want you to know that that is not what we want to do, right. And if you continue to feel that way, I want you to continue to reach out to us because maybe we're not seeing things the way you're seeing it. I want you to continue to know that we're here to listen, right, and that you're appreciated and that you're welcome to continue to be a part of the conversation, but know that we definitely don't want people to disappear. We want them to be healthy. We want them to be connected to services, and we don't want them living on our streets unsheltered because they don't deserve it either. Thank you for being with us today.
Will the Clerk please call the next person to testify on public comment.
There being no further witnesses to testify, I will ask if there is anyone else present in this hearing whose name we have failed to call or that wishes to offer testimony on the resolution being considered today to please come forward. (Witness approached Witness table.)
Thank you for being with us this morning. Please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.
Thank you. Okay. I have to read from here because I'm kind of nervous, but all right. Hello, Councilmembers. My name is Kateri Andriole, and I'm a harm reductionist. As we approach one year of the implementation of Mayor Parker's carceral offensive on the Kensington community, I want to briefly review the last year from my perspective. In May of last year police closed down Kensington, Kensington Avenue and forcibly relocated unhoused individuals to unknown locations. In spite of promises made by members of this body that the sweep would be led by outreach services, police officers arrived before the posted time, rendering outreach services redundant. Then an entire new class of rookie police officers were assigned to Kensington. We have documentation of verbal and physical harassment by these rookie police officers and even their superiors towards the unhoused community drug users and harm reduction workers providing life- sustaining supplies throughout the expected, predictable crisis that was the heat wave this summer as well as novel attacks like Parker's defunding of safe syringe distribution. This year I also saw the deaths of Amanda Cahill and Joey Gabor while in custody. And despite pleas by their family members, harm reduction workers and the medical community and legal advocates, despite the $25 million ruling against the City to rectify the appalling conditions in our prisons and jails, the Mayor plowed ahead with a wellness court model that to date has been unsuccessful in connecting people to treatment they want and has unnecessarily involved countless others with the legal system on top of the issues they were already facing. Many of us warned you that things would play out this way. Viewing the empty streets of Kensington as a success is nothing but violent naivete. You do not understand the lived realities of surviving on the street. Physically dependent on a toxic drug supply and your misplaced confidence is pushing people further away from the care community and resources that are actually helping them. I want to speak directly to all residents of Kensington who would identify themselves as housed or see people living on the streets as a nuisance. The Kensington Caucus is using you. Mayor Parker is using you. They are happy to put you and your unhoused neighbors against each other. They thrive off of your frustration because it allows them to get away with the most expedient and deadly policies against people who are unhoused. By quickly disposing of the unhoused community, they clear the path for real estate developers who will do nothing more than gentrify and price you out of the community that you care so much about. They are not building a Kensington for you and not for the elderly neighbors and children they frequently cite to justify their actions. They are building it for their real estate investor donors. How do I know this? Because they have shown absolute disrespect for community ties and refuse to acknowledge interpersonal relationships as a pathway to healing. Rather than supporting spaces where folks who are struggling can be heard, seen and holistically supported, Councilmember Lozada personally intervened to kick Savage Sisters out of their Kensington storefront. Zoning restrictions were placed on the number of medical providers operating at Prevention Point and crucially continued harassment by police officers has made it nearly impossible to have the most sensitive and transformative conversations that we have with folks in Kensington in public. How do you build trust with community members when there are cops breathing down your neck. The Kensington community deserves better than this. The city of Philadelphia deserves better than this. The 76ers arena debacle made clear where these Councilmembers' loyalties lie. They will sell your neighborhood out from underneath you for a chance to better their political standing or an opportunity to run for higher office.
Kensington belongs to the people, not the Kensington Caucus.
Thank you so much for your testimony. You can stay there because I now want to speak in response to your testimony. I'm going to try to be respectful and polite. Where do you live?
At the end of the day, my responsibility is to be the voice of the people who elected me to be here, the people who for over 10, years have been ignored because 11 certain types of work were the 12 priority. And I'm going to say it 13 very clearly because I want you to 14 understand harm reduction was the 15 priority in the Kensington 16 community, not the people who live 17 there, not the children who are 18 being raised there. They are now 19 the priority. 20 And while we recognize -- Councilmember Lozada is not using anybody. We recognize, I recognize as an individual elected and the Caucus recognizes that we have a responsibility to both populations because both of them are equally as important and deserve quality of life. It is why we are doing things the way we are doing it. And fortunately, for the people of the 7th Council District, we now have a Mayor and an Administration that recognizes that they matter. I will not apologize for the work that I do as an individual elected or that we do as a Caucus or that we do as a Special Committee because unless you were not paying attention, this information does not lie. This is real information. This is real work. This is real quality-of-life changing work. And I will challenge you, the Savage Sisters or anybody else to tell us that we need to change or stop the work that we're doing because my community does not deserve better. Now, I will say for the last time Councilmember Lozada did not have anything to do with the removal of anyone in the Kensington community. What I did do was hold people accountable because that is what I was elected to do. I was elected to speak for my community residents. And if that means that I have to fight against harm reductionists or anybody that doesn't agree that my community deserves better, I will continue to do that unapologetically. I invited all of you to the table. I will continue to invite you to the table even if we disagree. But I will not, I will not allow people to continue to come in front of this Committee or any other Committee on City Council and say that the work that we are doing to better improve the quality of life in Kensington needs to stop or change because one group of people think we need to do it the way they've been doing it for a long time, and that data has showed it has failed. The 7th Council District deserves better. The children in my community deserve better. The people who are living in substance abuse disorder deserve better. This shows you that we have worked together to ensure that all of those communities deserve better. Thank you so much for being with us today and I invite you to continue to come back. Councilmember, do you have anything you'd like to add?
Thank you. This concludes the business before the Special Committee on Kensington today. Thank you all very much for your attendance. We look forward to continuing the work with you and improving the quality of life of the community of Kensington. Thank you so much everybody. Have a good day. (Special Committee on Kensington concluded at 1:25 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL