Camp Teddy, a protest encampment established in June by the city’s homeless population outside of the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) building, has been cleared thanks to an agreement made on October 5 by the PHA and Occupy PHA.
Per the PHA: “The agreement, completed after nearly four months of negotiations, resulted in the residents of Camp Teddy, voluntarily vacating the encampment site on October 5th.” Negotiations between the encampments and the city have been shrouded in secrecy. This is the first concrete agreement between Philadelphia and its homeless population that city leadership has spoken about publicly.
The agreement ensures residents of Camp Teddy can opt-in to social services from Project HOME and/or the City of Philadelphia, providing a path to permanent affordable housing. This deal has also resulted in the creation of a pilot program titled the “Working for Home Repair Training Program.” The program is intended to create housing and job opportunities for those experiencing homelessness through the renovation of long-term vacant structures, some of which have been unoccupied for over 20 years. This would allow those without homes to work alongside union workers to become invested in their home and the community.
There are nine houses slated to be repaired through the training program that will be put in the land trust and occupied by the residents of Camp Teddy.
“In late June, Occupy PHA along with residents of the Parkway Encampment moved to parcels of land located across from PHA’s Headquarters with the goal of pressuring PHA to come to the table regarding the housing crisis in Philadelphia and to discuss uses for long term vacant PHA properties,” explained Jennifer Bennetch, founder of Occupy PHA. “At times it seemed like all of our efforts would be in vain, however we were able to reach an agreement with PHA to create a Community Land Trust for permanent low-income housing with long term vacant PHA properties that were going to be disposed of,” Bennetch continued.
Throughout the Summer, encampment residents have been moving into abandoned houses throughout the city. Occupy PHA says they have a list of “thousands of vacant houses.” Those homeless who moved into vacant homes will vacate the property if it is in the public housing system, but if the house is abandoned, they are eligible to stay if they are compliant with the conditions and rules of the city.
All of the houses designated to the land trust were set for auction or sale and do not disrupt or inhibit the long-stalled PHA housing waitlist. “They can’t transfer any houses that are public housing, we were never trying to jump a waiting list. We were trying to stop houses from going to developers,” explained Bennetch.
According to Bennetech, Camp Teddy’s exodus came in large part because construction needed to begin “on a mixed-use development” directly across from the PHA headquarters. “They were going to lose money today [October 6] if we weren’t gone.” Bennetch said.
This agreement gives us insight into what a deal with the James Talib-Dean (JTD) Camp (the Parkway Encampment) may look like, although Camp Teddy was just a fraction of the size of Camp JTD.
Upon the clearing of Camp Teddy none of the unhoused opted to stay homeless. “We did what we had to do, we got everyone off the streets.” says Bennetch.
