Philadelphia homeless advocates seek Democrats’ attention

On any given day, Philadelphia has more than 7,000 homeless people, nearly twice the number of delegates who will fill seats of the Wells Fargo Center on Monday for the start of the Democratic National Convention.

Philadelphia is known for its “cradle of liberty” tourist attractions, top-tier universities and teaching hospitals, and a vibrant restaurant scene. But the Democrat-controlled city also has a staggering poverty rate of 26 percent — ranking it worst among the 10 largest cities in the U.S.

In 2007, Philadelphia’s poverty rate was 23.8 percent. The 1st Congressional District, represented by longtime Rep. Robert A. Brady, chairman of the city’s Democratic Party, has been cited as one of the poorest in the country. About 500,000 Philadelphians — one-third of the population — receive food stamps.

In search of solutions, the Democratic mayor, Jim Kenney, and the Democrat-controlled City Council approved a 1.5-cents-per-ounce soda tax in May to raise revenue for expanded pre-K services, recreation centers and other programs. Philadelphia was the first major U.S. city to pass such a levy, adding to its more than 40 municipal taxes and fees.

Critics, including conservative think tanks and defeated Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, say the soda tax will hurt poor people more than others.

In the weeks ahead of the convention, the city found money in its budget to open another 100 or so beds in shelters to get more homeless people off the streets. There are also anecdotal stories of homeless people being moved away from highly visible locations such as the Ben Franklin Parkway and the convention center.

With Democrats from across the nation in town to celebrate their party’s leadership and progressive policies, advocates for the working poor and the homeless will hold a forum Tuesday in Philadelphia to remind the delegates and elected leaders of the crisis in their midst.

“Politicians think the poor are expendable in some way,” said Sister Mary Scullion, a nun who is president and co-founder of the nonprofit Project HOME. “We want to bring to light as best we can the plight and the stories of those who are really suffering on the margins of our society. Hopefully, somebody will begin to address the plight of the people on the bottom of our economic ladder.”

In an op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer last week, she asked, “Will anything of the lofty speechmaking and party platforms from inside the convention halls truly address the wrenching struggles of poor, hungry, and homeless Americans, in Philadelphia and throughout the nation?”

President Obama, who will arrive at the convention Wednesday, rarely talks about poverty and focuses his agenda instead on the middle class. He did mention poverty last week — at a summit in Washington about eradicating extreme poverty in developing countries.

While boasting that U.S. aid has reduced poverty rates in some nations by 25 percent, the president acknowledged that foreign aid is sometimes “a tough argument to make here in the United States, where we have big needs and there are kids going hungry in this country and don’t have good enough schools in this country and have insufficient shelter in this country.”

“Sometimes people feel like, ’Well, why are we making investments anyplace else?’” Mr. Obama said Thursday. The answer, he said, is partly to enhance U.S. national security by reducing poverty in countries where it can foster extremism.

“We don’t question hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in our military, and I could not be prouder as commander in chief to have the world’s best military and the best military in human history, and it’s needed,” Mr. Obama said. “But for us to make a fraction of that investment in schools and clean water and health care [overseas] — that’s why we do it. It’s not because we’re not mindful of the needs here in this country; it’s because if we make those investments, we’re also going to be in a better position to protect our country and improve our country.”

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says Mr. Obama’s policies haven’t helped those in poverty, particularly minorities.

“Nearly four in 10 African-American children are living in poverty, while 58 percent of African-American youth are not employed,” Mr. Trump said in his acceptance speech last week. “Two million more Latinos are in poverty today than when the president took his oath of office less than eight years ago. Another 14 million people have left the workforce entirely.”

Not only does Philadelphia have a high percentage of people in poverty, but it also has a large share in a condition known as deep poverty — those with incomes below half of the poverty line. The rate of deep poverty in Philadelphia is 12.2 percent, almost twice the national average.

“We’re seeing increasing numbers of people who are in poverty, and their kids and grandkids stay in poverty,” Sister Mary said. “People who are in deep poverty, it’s very difficult to find their way out.”

Philadelphia’s mayor came into office this year proposing a tax on sugary drinks. Rather than lobbying for the tax as a means to reduce obesity, Mr. Kenney portrayed it as “the beginning of a process of changing the narrative of poverty in our city.”

Before the Pennsylvania Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton said she was “very supportive” of the soda tax as a means to fund universal pre-K in the city. Her rival, Mr. Sanders, criticized the tax proposal by saying it would “disproportionately increase taxes on low-income families in Philadelphia.”

Mr. Sanders found agreement from the Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative think tank in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

“The vast majority of the tax burden is going to be passed on to lower-income consumers,” said Elizabeth Stelle, the group’s director of policy analysis. “It seems counterintuitive to say we’re going to tax poor people so we can help poor people.”

The Commonwealth Foundation also noted that nearly 20 percent of the soda tax revenue will be diverted to other city programs and employee benefits, additional spending that Mr. Kenney never mentioned while he was advocating for the levy.

The City Council approved the soda tax by a vote of 13-4, with all three Republican members in opposition. Council member David Oh, a Republican, said the city could find money for anti-poverty initiatives elsewhere in its $4.2 billion budget.

Council member Maria D. Quinones-Sanchez, the lone Democrat to vote against the soda tax, said anti-poverty programs “could have been funded without a regressive tax that falls heaviest on poor communities of color.”

Former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who contributed $1.6 million to promote the effort, congratulated Mr. Kenney and the City Council for “standing up to the beverage industry.”

“Obesity and poverty are both intractable national problems,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “No policy takes more direct aim at both than Philadelphia’s tax on sugary drinks.”

The tax, which takes effect Jan. 1, will be levied on all sweetened drinks sold by vendors in Philadelphia. It is expected to raise the price of a 20-ounce soda by about 30 cents, and city officials say it will bring in about $90 million per year.

While Republicans and Democrats in Washington introduce election-year proposals to combat poverty, they usually blame the other party for failing to address the problem effectively.

A Brookings Institution study in December said conservatives believe “it is proper to hold individuals accountable and that even when doing so seems unfair, failing to demand accountability risks the spread of irresponsibility.”

Progressives, the report said, “tend to believe that unpredictable labor markets, the stresses and pressures of modern life, enduring discrimination, and broader social influences often block people from supporting themselves, and so there are limits to how much accountability we can rightfully demand.”

“Both sides believe that a wealthy society such as our own should provide some degree of security, which is our final value,” said the report, which recommended policies to improve education, increase wages and reverse or “compensate for” the rise of single-parent families.

Sister Mary’s meeting on poverty and homelessness is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday at a branch of the Free Library. She said she wants the Democratic delegates to hear from people who have “experienced poverty and homelessness and will share their stories and discuss their election-year concerns.”

“The biggest challenge is the divisiveness of such partisanship where, if you talk about people who are poor or in need, you’re branded as a bleeding-heart liberal,” she said. “I see that people want to work, they want to find a safe place for themselves and their families. People are really struggling for the opportunity to do that.”