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Once-homeless Philly families are squatting in PHA houses. The agency wants them out.

Squatting in city-owned homes has become a response to the intersecting problems of homelessness, lack of affordable housing, and family separation. Philadelphia has the highest rate of family separation of any big city, and homelessness is the second most common reason for removing kids.

Exterior view of a boarded up, vacant PHA property at 1919 Turner St. in North Philadelphia, August 4, 2020. PHA’s chief executive, Kelvin Jeremiah, said fewer than 600 of its scattered-site properties remain vacant today. Of those, about 225 are slated for rehab; the rest have been deemed “nonviable.”
Exterior view of a boarded up, vacant PHA property at 1919 Turner St. in North Philadelphia, August 4, 2020. PHA’s chief executive, Kelvin Jeremiah, said fewer than 600 of its scattered-site properties remain vacant today. Of those, about 225 are slated for rehab; the rest have been deemed “nonviable.”Read more