Hidden Worlds: Suburban Homelessness On The Rise In Philly Region

When night falls in the high woods above the Schuylkill River, the sounds of the town begin to slowly fade. Shouts from the playground, the dog park, the twilight streets diminish into the trees and the darkness. Soon there is just the steady forest whirring of dusk-time insects. The thrum of cicadas. A rustling where the river moves between boulders far below. And the last echoes of the freight train that passed through the tunnel twenty feet away just a few minutes before.

There is a small clearing between trees on the slope where a man sits wrapped in a blue tarpaulin. The earth before him is covered in ashes and there are a few warped pieces of wood from old fires. Trash is blown into the landscape in this small area: candy wrappers, pieces of plastic bottles, bleached beer cans.

The camp had been abandoned, according to the man, who describes himself as “sometimes homeless” and who asks not to be identified. The man who last used the camp hasn’t been seen in weeks. No one has any idea where he is, the sometimes-homeless man says.

“That happens,” he adds. “Come, go, come, go, come, go.”

The camp is one of at least dozens that have popped up along French Creek and the Schuylkill River in Phoenixville and East Pikeland.

At least some of the camps have been there since the late 1980s, says Cheryl Messere, Executive Director of The House, a Phoenixville-based women’s outreach organization.

Messere notes that, as expected, the problem began, and continues to be worse, in the inner city. But large populations of homeless individuals are no longer contained to strictly urban areas.

“We began feeding in Center City Philadelphia 29 years ago, because that is where the homeless were,” Messere said. “In the recent years with all the new construction and growth in (the Phoenixville) area, we became aware of the need for more low income housing and living solutions.”

Reflecting an awareness of the need for more suburban services for the homeless, The House opened in January of 2015. The nonprofit offers what they call “safe housing.” They also provide residents support services and counseling to help them become self-sufficient and independent.

But the problem is not just contained to Phoenixville, a town that is experiencing what is popularly considered an economic and cultural revival, and recovering from an economically troubled past.

“Phoenixville and West Chester areas in Chester County and Pottstown and Norristown in Montgomery County have a fairly large concentration of people who are homeless,” says Carol Berger, Executive Director of Phoenixville Area Community Services. “But people are homeless in smaller towns and rural areas as well.”

These towns are just microcosms of a condition which has metastasized throughout the suburbs.

“Small tent communities exist along the Schuylkill River from Center City to Reading,” Messere adds.

As the development booms and the population grows in the suburbs, so too does the homeless population grow.

***

A few miles away, there’s another camp hidden under a rail bridge that passes over French Creek. The camp is dug into the embankment and covered over with tarpaulin and branches. Fishermen, hikers, and kids on their way to jump in the water pass by the spot every day in the warmer weather. Inside the small dugout are the typical provisions: an old milk jug half-filled with water, a plastic bag, a half-buried and decaying flannel shirt.

In the winter, when trail users are fewer, one or two figures can consistently be seen huddled there. Keeping warm and safe during the coldest months is one of the chief challenges which the homeless population - and are nonprofits - face.

Locally, Ann’s Heart, coordinated by St. Ann’s Catholic Church, opened a Cold Blue emergency shelter in Phoenixville. “(That was the) greatest success for the community over the past year,” says Berger.

Saint Ann’s is also associated with St. Mary’s shelter, which serves the homeless population throughout the suburbs. St. Mary’s also opened in 1987, at the same time that many other local efforts to help those on the streets launched.

Since then, they’ve only been growing.

In the winter, efforts like Ann’s Heart can be the only option for those who have don’t have access to, or knowledge of, shelters and affordable housing.

On an April afternoon by the camp along French Creek, there is a family picnicking on the sandy shore. A few others skip rocks downstream. The space is too populated come springtime, and those in need of some kind of shelter seek more remote locations.

Behind the trees swaying over the creek, the new Toll Brothers luxury condominiums under construction on Main Street inch closer to the sky.

***

Of all the contributing factors to homelessness, there is perhaps none so pernicious as the number of youth who are either born into or find themselves growing up in it.

There are an appalling number of children classified as homeless across Pennsylvania: some 26,000, in fact, according to the Department of Education’s most recent numbers, which are from 2013-2014.

Although those numbers also include children who are not permanently homeless, and who are just being served in any way by funds from the McKinney-Vinto Act, officials still estimate that there is a steady population of around 4,000 homeless children.

The McKinney-Vento Act works on a national level to help provide homeless children with access to the same free public education as their peers, and provides money for school districts to handle homeless students. Qualifying students receive free lunches and transportation if necessary, among other benefits.

The actual number of homeless children could be much higher, as the data only reflects the homeless population which the state served using designated funds. And those children are spread across nearly every single school district in the entire state.

Philadelphia has the highest population of homeless students of any county in Pennsylvania: 5,764, according to the Department of Education.

The problem, however, has never been just an inner city one. Chester County (871), Bucks County (906), Delaware County (636), and Montgomery County (683) all have alarming student homeless populations.

Homeless populations in neighboring New Jersey are significantly lower. The total of all homeless individuals in Camden and Gloucester Counties is just 1,020, according to NJ Spotlight, and that number includes students.

The McKinney-Vento Act is the state’s main way of addressing the issue. But clearly it’s not enough.

Homelessness sets children up for homelessness as adults in more than one way, however. Students who experience any kind of homelessness in Pennsylvania score an average of 45 percent on tests, according to the Department of Human Services.

That’s compared to an average of 71 percent for those with homes.

***

While rates of homeless children remain high, Pennsylvania has also seen its overall homeless population significantly increase.

The state has experienced a 4.65 percent increase in homelessness over the past year, while the national rate has dropped 9.35 percent over that same time frame, according to the latest numbers from DHS.

Local leaders at the forefront of the issue are not surprised.

“Our impression is that homelessness is a problem that continues to grow in our community and region,” says Berger, the Executive Director of Phoenixville Area Community Services. “The number of people we helped with rent assistance have tripled in the last year. PACS paid landlords for first month's rent or one month to prevent eviction in 19 households this year, compared to 6 last year.”

Yet even as homelessness is on the rise, and as relief organizations struggle to find the funds and space to house their growing population, the region is experiencing unprecedented economic growth.

Indeed, 2015 was a historical year for real estate in Montgomery County. In all, the county said there were 10,489 homes sold in 2015 and the median sales price of those homes was $270,350. The county said those numbers represent a seven-year high.

New townhome projects are also being built at increasingly higher price points as the market draws potential buyers who cannot afford new single-family detached housing, the county said.

And significant undertakings are either already underway or have been proposed in many towns around the region, including Phoenixville, Malvern, and East Whiteland.

In many cases, development means vanishing cover and remoteness from civilization for homeless communities to flourish. Local homeless individuals say they often move away from woods directly adjacent to new developments.

They move elsewhere, and then they move elsewhere again. They come, go. Come, go.

***

A solution may not be as far out of reach as it seems.

In May, Governor Wolf and the Department of Human Services announced a five year plan that focuses strictly on affordable housing. Officials believe that they will start seeing massive savings once more people start moving into affordable housing because it will ultimately reduce healthcare costs for the homeless - once they are no longer homeless - and it will save the state money

The plan proposes slowly phasing out a significant portion of the population that currently lives in state-sponsored institutions or nursing homes, and instead providing an affordable framework for these individuals to live independently.

If the state could move just 500 people out of institutions and into affordable housing, they say they would save upwards of $15.7 million.

“Ninety-five percent of Pennsylvanians who need these services (in institutions) want to live in their community, not in an institution or a nursing home. But right now, we can only serve 51 percent of them in the community,” DHS Secretary Ted Dallas said in May. “(We) are committed to promoting independence and giving all people, regardless of their age or disability, a voice in choosing where they live. If we are successful, the services we provide will match what our clients want and, because community-based care costs about half of institutional care, we can also save millions of taxpayer dollars.”

Essentially, affordable housing would pay for itself. It’s much easier said than done, however. The plan calls for multiple agencies at the state level to work with counties to connect those in need with housing.The most difficult part lies in identifying the families and individuals that are either homeless or the most at-risk of being homeless, and then successfully partnering them with a local or county affordable housing group that will meet their needs.

Funding local organizations could prove to be invaluable as well. Berger notes that one of the biggest reasons for PACS success over the past year is more financial resources for rental assistance. But for many suburban shelters and relief organizations, it’s a situation that’s tenuous at best.

“Unfortunately, the new (fiscal) year, starting July 1, is looking a lot more lean because we have much less funding in hand and anticipated to help with all emergency needs,” Berger said.

State officials hope to see measurable results from their plan by 2020.

***

In 2015, the Schuylkill River Trail was named the Best Urban Trail in America.

Although still incomplete, the trail stretches from Philadelphia to Reading, which is, according to Messere, roughly the extent of the homeless camps along the Schuylkill River.

While the trail has served as a vital artery promoting public health and the environment while connecting communities, it has also served as a veneer over the struggles of a burgeoning population of individuals without a home.

Just yards from bustling downtowns, new microbreweries, and blossoming luxury townhomes, lies another world that is also new in its own way.

That is also growing in its own way.