Will the next Mayor work to end homelessness and poverty? Find out on April 26th

Vote for Homes! Coalition Holds Forum, Releases 25,000
Voter’s Guides on Housing, Jobs, and Services

[PHILADELPHIA] What will the next Mayor do about the fact that Philadelphia’s 25 percent poverty rate is the highest of any large city in America and that street homelessness has doubled since 2000?

Come find out at the Vote for Homes! Mayoral Candidates Forum on Thursday, April 26, 6:30-8:00 pm at Arch Street United Methodist Church (Broad & Arch Streets).

This Forum will be moderated by Elmer Smith of the Philadelphia Daily News and will include pre-determined questions, mostly picked from a hat and posed by advocates, homeless and formerly homeless individuals, and ex-offenders. Anticipated attendance could reach as many as 800 housing and service providers, shelter consumers, mental health and recovery program participants, advocates, and allies. All candidates polling more than five percent in their party were invited, and four are expected to attend.

Both the Vote for Homes! Candidates Forum and the newly-released Vote for Homes! Voter’s Guide are part of a strategy to ensure that candidates recognize that homelessness and the affordable housing shortage are critical to ensuring a better future for all Philadelphians. Vote for Homes! will hold the next Mayor accountable for implementing real solutions based on his responses in the Voter’s Guide and at the Forum.

While issues of homelessness and poverty have barely been raised in the election campaign, they are the focus of this printed Voter’s Guide, currently being distributed to 25,000 voters. The Voter’s Guide features responses by Mayoral candidates Queena Bass, Bob Brady, Dwight Evans, Chaka Fattah, Michael Nutter, Al Taubenberger, and Jesus White to a range of questions covering issues like affordable housing, homelessness, jobs, and meeting human needs.

There are approximately 900,000 potential voters in Philadelphia, almost 200,000 of whom live in poverty and are homeless or at the brink of homelessness, while this election will be decided by just a few thousand votes. The Vote for Homes! coalition has targeted 120 shelters, soup kitchens, health centers, jails, and probation offices in the City of Philadelphia to ensure that they are educated, addressed, and included in the electoral process. This collective voice will be key to moving the candidates to speak to the 25,000 homeless, the 150,000 uninsured, and the one in 12 unemployed Philadelphians who will be voting this May.

The Guide and Forum were produced by the Election 2007: Vote for Homes! coalition, a group of 60 organizations interested in issues of housing, jobs, and services for people living on low-incomes. The Coalition has registered nearly 1,200 people this election season, trained 100 volunteers, and will distribute 25,000 of the Voter’s Guides to the public at large.