The challenge

Philadelphia has a large population of homeless people. In 2000, single mothers headed nearly half of the households in one 17-block area of the city: a neighborhood with a 56 percent poverty rate, “more than twice the city average,” according to the Philadelphia Daily News. Sister Mary Scullion moved into this neighborhood to show residents she was sincere in her efforts to turn the area around. Both Scullion and Joan Dawson McConnon, leaders of Project HOME, believe that homeless individuals and families, in order to escape homelessness, need far more than temporary shelters and scattered social services typical in many cities.


Seeds of commitment

Sister Mary Scullion often says, “These people are redeeming me.” Both Scullion and Joan McConnon are unrelenting in their conviction that no one should have to live on the streets. “The men, women and children whom we have gotten to know and the relationships that we have formed with them provide much of the motivation for the work we do,” the two leaders wrote in a recent essay. In 1989, Project HOME’s first year of operation, the organization opened a winter emergency shelter for men living on the street who were addicted and seriously mentally ill. Critics and allies told Scullion and McConnon their efforts were in vain – that most of these men would avoid help. The two leaders proved otherwise. “During that winter we all were changed. We recognized the value and power of community. For us, homelessness was much more than a pressing social problem; it was the plight of friends like Otis, Horace and others.” Today, Project HOME’s motto is: “None of us are home until all of us are home.”


Accomplishments

Project HOME has created a continuum of housing and social services, offering varying degrees of support, through which homeless individuals and families can move – including treatment facilities for substance abuse, short term and permanent housing, and opportunities for home ownership. Also, HOME offers direct social services — street outreach, case management, employment counseling, job training, after school and adult-learning programs, a free health clinic, art programs, financial literacy programs and housing counseling. It also has set in motion public-policy initiatives — voter registration, candidate forums and litigation around fair housing and illegal arrests of homeless people. And the organization addresses the root causes of homelessness through its neighborhood based community-revitalization programs in North Philadelphia. There, Scullion, McConnon and their fellow community leaders work for affordable housing development, employment training and opportunities, adult and youth education, health care and environmental enhancement. This work has created 274 units of housing with supportive social services for women, men and families who were homeless. In addition, they have rehabilitated 18 vacant properties that sold to first-time, low-income homebuyers. Five more vacant homes are undergoing refurbishing and another 16 are being planned. While some of HOME’s facilities are scattered throughout the city, the organization is saturating one community to help turn it around.

One of Project HOME’s most significant achievements was winning the right to develop permanent housing at 1515 Fairmount Avenue for 48 men and women who were homeless and mentally disabled. This was an important victory because it established national legal precedents under the Federal Fair Housing Act. People spoke up and their voices were heard. A Federal Appeals Court case, filed by the U.S. Department of Justice on Project HOME’s behalf, established that a neighborhood could not discriminate against the homeless and mentally ill. The victory empowered the advocates and their clients. Following the decision, Project HOME went on to convert a vacant 45,000-square-foot commercial building into permanent affordable housing. Now, three first-floor businesses in that facility provide employment opportunities for more than 120 formerly homeless people: The Back Home Cafe, Back Home Catering and Our Daily Threads Thrift Shop.

The organization has also created 16 community parks and gardens in Philadelphia. Project HOME’s latest undertaking is the Honickman Learning Center, a 40,000-square-foot community based technology center in one of the lowest income neighborhoods in Philadelphia. It will integrate computer technology with art, education and enterprise. Already, four after school programs are offered to children and teen-agers, as well as General Education Diploma classes, computer, art and basic literacy classes and one on one tutoring for adults. “It’s not just high-tech jobs that require computer know-how these days,” Bill Avery, chairman and CEO of Crown Cork & Seal, told the Philadelphia Daily News in September, 2000, when the project was launched. “So much of today’s equipment is tied into computers. Even our fork lift drivers must use small computers to enter inventory.”
Since its establishment, Project HOME has helped more than 5,000 adults and children break the cycle of homelessness and poverty in Philadelphia by providing them with a continuum of care. Ninety-five percent of the men and women who live in Project HOME’s permanent, supportive housing stay off the streets. Project HOME estimates that in the past two years advocacy for appropriate housing through enhanced outreach has halved the number of homeless people living on Philadelphia’s streets.


Their leadership style

Scullion remains associated with the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, Merion, Pa., and McConnon is a mother of three children with long experience in finance, including positions at GTE and Corning Glass Works, and teaching managerial accounting at Drexel University. Their different backgrounds blend into a formidable partnership. The two leaders meet regularly with civic leaders, block captains and neighborhood residents. Neighbors, residents and consumers participate in project development and serve on Project HOME’s board of directors. As a result, Project HOME’s leaders are able to turn adversaries into collaborators. For example, the battle to build their 1515 Fairmount project — a not-in-my-back-yard fight — pitted them against then-Mayor Ed Rendell and then Council President (now mayor) John Street. Both Rendell and Street are now allies who rely on Project HOME for input. Project HOME also helped to file a class-action suit against the Philadelphia Police Department for its treatment of homeless people on the street, but in the end made a friend of Police Commissioner John Timoney, who now runs in the group’s fund-raising footrace.

At the core of Scullion’s and McConnon’s approach is: the belief that home is not only a matter of shelter, but of belonging — to a family or neighborhood, to an economy and to democratic society. During the presidential election, Project HOME partnered with a nonpartisan coalition of community groups to undertake a voter registration drive and held voter education events for the homeless throughout Philadelphia. The project has registered thousands of voters and has gathered the homeless to speak for themselves at political forums. In the 2000 primary, more than 70 percent of Project HOME’s 250 residents went to the polls — compared with only 17 percent of Philadelphia’s registered voters.


The future

Hoping to delegate more responsibility and allow more time for planning, Scullion and McConnon are creating a strong senior management team and board of trustees. Upcoming projects include the $14 million Kate’s Place, 144 units of permanent affordable housing for women. The two leaders say they will continue to stand squarely on the side of low income and homeless people “until all of us are home.”


More about Sister Mary Scullion and Joan McConnon

“Mary and Joan have an amazing capacity to identify a person's gifts, tap those gifts, and find positive opportunities for them to play a role, whether small or large, in social change. Therefore, a cornerstone of their leadership style is soliciting and engaging leadership from others.”
— Susan E. Sherman, President, Independence Foundation

“One night (Mary) was carrying around white socks, up and down the alleys, looking for a man she had seen the day before with an infected toe. She just wanted to make sure that he had clean socks. We finally found the man in a dumpster. She wouldn't go home until we found him.”
— Sister Mary Mulholland, Member of the Sisters of Mercy