Fairmount residents up in arms over Parker administration plan to house people in addiction

Demands for answers, accusations of gaslighting, and fears about inheriting Kensington’s drug problems erupted at a contentious meeting Tuesday night in Fairmount, where city officials tried to mollify concerns about a recently expanded homeless shelter in the neighborhood.

Residents have been on edge since learning the city quietly added 90 beds and additional services last month to an existing shelter at 2100 W. Girard Ave., located on the campus of the former Philadelphia Nursing Home. Managing Director Adam K. Thiel cast the expansion as necessary to combat the city’s interwoven crises of homelessness and drug use, stressing that the Fairmount facility was one of several being built out to improve quality of life for residents and provide help to the city’s most vulnerable.

“Everywhere across the city, there is a need for additional facilities,” he told the crowd of more than 200 people who packed into the City School on North 24th Street.

Many residents who attended the meeting were unaware that a shelter had been operating on the walled-off campus for years, and were shocked to learn from an Inquirer report two weeks ago that the facility had grown to accept people with substance use issues.

More than 950 people signed an online petition to halt operations at the site pending community input. Councilmember Jeffery Young Jr. said he was also in the dark about the newly expanded 222-bed facility in his district, and introduced a bill last week to prevent the city from renewing its lease at the state-owned facility, which ends in 2026.

“I can tell you all that none of my questions have been answered,” Young said Tuesday, airing frustration with the mayor’s top aides. “No one in this room does not want folks to get treatment. … However, you cannot plan for a community without a community.”

» READ MORE: Parker administration details plans for Fairmount site for people with addiction

Although Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has made cleaning up Kensington’s open-air drug market a priority, the blowback over the Fairmount shelter highlights the challenges as she seeks to build a $100 million network of “triage and wellness facilities” for drug users. City Hall historically defers to civic groups when it comes to zoning and development, but officials said the Fairmount site does not require community approval for a zoning variance, as it has continuously operated as a nursing home and a homeless shelter.

Many communities throughout the region view treatment and recovery houses with acute hostility. At an April town hall meeting, Parker hinted at the pushback that so-called triage facilities would face among residents who “don’t want it in our neighborhood” and asked for patience as she worked to build “an infrastructure for something that doesn’t exist.”

But the mayor’s chosen metaphor for her Kensington plan — which she likened to “building the plane while I’m flying it”— did not appear to sit well with some Fairmount neighbors. When Thiel declined to identify other locations where the city plans to add beds and services for drug users, citing privacy concerns, a resident in the crowd accused him of turning Fairmount into a “guinea pig.”

While meeting organizers came with pre-submitted questions, the crowd frequently interjected with concerns about whether residents of Kensington homeless encampments, potential sex offenders, or people with mental illness would be taken to the Fairmount site. Some cut off officials mid-answer and accused them of lying.

“Gaslight!” a woman yelled.

“Kensington is going to be on West Girard Avenue in two months!” another man said.

Officials opened the meeting with an apology for the poor communication about the facility’s expansion and promised more engagement. “We own that,” said Tiffany Thurman, Parker’s chief of staff. “We should have had this meeting proactively.”

Thiel said none of the 59 people who voluntarily connected with housing and treatment services during last week’s encampment clearing in Kensington were taken to that facility. While he stressed that not all residents are drug users, he acknowledged that some “basic” medical services, such as wound care, had been added — a critical need due to the wounds caused from injecting xylazine, an animal tranquilizer often mixed with fentanyl in the street drug supply.

Thiel also insisted that the facility was not a rehab site. The city is not offering drug treatment or more intensive medical services on site, but he did not rule that out as a future use, drawing a chorus of groans and objections.

“We have not taken any steps to turn that property into a quote-unquote drug treatment facility,” Thiel said. “We will not do that without engaging. I will commit to a transparent engagement process.”

The managing director said no registered sex offenders would be placed at the facility. A police detail and security guards are assigned to the site around the clock. (One resident held up a cell phone video that appeared to show a guard asleep in the booth.)

» READ MORE: Mayor Parker defends Kensington plan: ‘I’m building the plane while I’m flying it’

Despite the agitated mood, public sentiment at the meeting was not entirely oppositional.

At one point, someone in the crowd accused both Young and administration officials of demonizing people in addiction and ginning up “irrational fears.” Many clapped in support, while others shouted back objections.

While some residents came and left Thursday’s meeting in fierce opposition, Tim Butters, president of the Fairmount Civic Association, said that the majority of people just wants answers and assurances.

Butters said most residents for weeks had been “working on theories about what was going on in the site” and he felt better informed after directly hearing from officials.

Elsie Stern, a 22-year Fairmount resident, had worried that the city was moving to establish a full-scale treatment facility without the proper infrastructure in place. She was pleased with details offered Tuesday and remained optimistic that her more critical neighbors would warm to the idea.

Case in point, she argued, was that most people weren’t aware that a shelter had been operating on the campus for years.

“I wasn’t aware of it, and the fact that we weren’t aware of it should mitigate some of these concerns,” Stern said. “Rather than now suddenly being cause for alarm and concern, that should actually be evidence for us that you can house unhoused people in the neighborhood without having a negative impact.”

Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article.