Philadelphia’s Office of Homeless Services (OHS), under the current leadership of Liz Hersh, has repeatedly failed the very people it claims to serve. Rather than serving unhoused people in Philadelphia, their policies of shuffling people around like pawns, pushing people into unsafe housing, and evicting established encampments in the dead of winter have caused direct harm to some of our most vulnerable residents. People have died because of these careless decisions.

We are demanding that OHS NOT close the COVID hotel sites and that they allow residents to remain where they are. Right now the city’s priority must be to keep its residents safe, and that means keeping the hotel site open. We need as many voices as possible to demand action from Mayor Kenney and Managing Director Tumar Alexander - join us and take action by sending a letter!

To protect unhoused Philadelphians, the city used CARES ACT funding to offer private hotel rooms to vulnerable populations. This program has been ongoing since March, but suddenly last week OHS director Liz Hersh sent an eviction notice to all 175 residents of the program. The date given for this eviction was December 15th, yet in a meeting on December 14th Liz Hersh and Eva Gladstein couldn’t answer these basic questions in regards to residents’ options:

 - Where people are supposed to go, and what conditions will be like there
 - When residents would start moving to the temporary sites and when everyone would be out of the hotels
 - Where in the city the transitional options offered by OHS will be located
 - If the temporary are in congregate settings, and whether residents at some of the new sites will have to share bathrooms with several other residents (a clear COVID risk)
 - On what medical expertise they are basing their decisions to move some residents into higher risk settings while others move into private apartments
 - How much money will allegedly be saved by evicting people now vs letting people trickle out as they find long-term housing
 - Why did they make promises they couldn't keep?

City leadership has known for months that CARES ACT money used for the hotels would be running out, and chose to do nothing, and notify no one, until a week ago. This is unacceptable. This entire situation shows an absolute lack of compassion for residents by OHS, and a failure by Mayor Kenney, Managing Director Tumar Alexander, and OHS Director Liz Hersh to do their jobs.

OHS knew they didn't have enough case managers, that using PHA vouchers is hard because landlords routinely discriminate and the affordable supply is so limited, and they didn't even start reaching out to PHA until 2 weeks ago. If they knew some of the funding was ending in December, why tell residents this hotel would be their last stop?

This isn’t just about COVID, we know that housing instability is incredibly stressful and can lead to interruptions in medical care and exacerbate mental and physical health issues. For people with HIV who are immunocompromised, being pushed into congregate settings increases the risk of dangerous COVID exposure. For people who use drugs, this constant shuffling around is destabilizing and separates people from needed resources. For Black and brown Philadelphians who are already bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is just another on a long list of ways that this administration has continued to fail their communities. The mayor went to City Council for funding for police weapons, but not for funding to protect vulnerable residents during a pandemic?

“I’ve asked [my caseworker] several times where I’m going to be staying, where I am going to go,” said Stacie Miller, 55, who has a number of serious lung conditions. She cried when she received notice the hotel was closing, saying, “I don’t know where I’m going tomorrow.”

Please - take one minute to send a letter! OHS pushed this eviction through because they thought we weren’t watching. Prove them wrong. We need every voice calling on OHS to keep the COVID hotels open and allow residents to remain, and demand accountability from Liz Hersh, who we feel stands in the way of OHS being a successful program.

The failures of the Office of Homeless Services have already killed someone in their care, how many more will die?