Home repairs decrease gun violence in Philadelphia

Over the last two months, two of our friends have been gunned down, Black men whose lives were cut short decades too soon. El-Amin Wilkins was a 47-year-old lifelong Grays Ferry resident who was fighting relentlessly for housing justice with his neighbors and throwing down as a counselor at our youth summer camp. Big D (Edison) Frazier was a 53-year-old fearless advocate who dreamed up and planned cooking classes for young people and had big visions of a food truck business that would provide jobs to neighborhood youth.

Because they were killed, we lost not only our friends and comrades but also the chance to see their visions of a better future come to fruition.

Our new mayor, Cherelle L. Parker, has declared a public safety emergency, increasing the number of police officers, purportedly to reduce gun violence. Philly has tried that and it hasn’t worked. We don’t need more false solutions that punish poor people and don’t fix our problems, which stem from decades of disinvestment and racist policies like redlining. Instead, we need investment in proven solutions that lift our communities out of poverty and halt violence — like home repairs, robust investment in community facilities, and youth programs.

The research is incredibly clear: Home repairs decrease gun violence. One study of Philadelphia’s Basic Systems Repair Program found that when even one home on a block received repairs, there was a 21.9% decrease in homicide rates. And the more home repairs a block received, the more homicide rates fell. The data reflect what we already know: When people’s basic need for a safe, stable home is met, it decreases violence in our neighborhoods.

But that message isn’t getting through to our local government. As we talked to close to 200 Grays Ferry residents, the stories poured in. Many residents have applied for home repair programs — for plumbing, roofing, weatherization, insulation, and other renovations — but haven’t heard back, have been denied, or have had to wait many years.

Philly residents need home repairs, and we know home repairs are a key part of reducing violence, so why isn’t our city making them more accessible?

It is literally lifesaving work to keep longtime Black residents in their homes — particularly community anchors like our friends Wilkins and Frazier, who stopped violence before it popped off through their presence and one-on-one mentorship work with young folks. Our Council member, Kenyatta Johnson, is now also Council president, and he has enormous power to protect affordable housing in his district and beyond. We need him to work with community advocates to pass citywide policies that prioritize low-income housing and opt the 2nd District into the mixed-income neighborhood overlay, which would require housing developers to ensure 20% of their units are affordable.

In 2022, Frazier testified at City Council for the first time in his life, calling on our representatives to protect green space in Cobbs Creek, and inviting them to invest in his vision for a community center that would serve the neighborhood, rather than pouring tax dollars into a private golf course development. Unfortunately, our city is more focused on giving tax breaks to billionaire developers than investing in the visions of its working-class Black residents. Councilmember Johnson needs to opt the 2nd District into the “Public Land for Public Benefit” bill that prioritizes community land use.

Wilkins and Frazier believed in our young people and showed that through their actions. All of our elders in Grays Ferry know that we simply can’t address gun violence without investing in our youth. We need safer school buildings and better-paid teachers, we need free after-school programs and summer camps, we need job training and skills development programs for young folks, and we need to create a city where young people can see a future for themselves.

As the city prepares its budget, we want Mayor Parker and Councilmember Johnson to remember that a budget is a moral document. Will Philadelphia’s budget invest in the programs that actually keep us safe?

Community organizations like Philly Thrive simply don’t have the resources to meet the scale of the crisis. And it’s not our job to; it’s our government’s job to ensure we all have safe, affordable housing, that our kids have good schools, parks, and libraries, and that we all have support when times get tough.

Unless structural change is made, and our communities are reinvested in, the violence in our neighborhoods is not going to stop.

Shawmar Pitts and R Merriman-Goldring are staff organizers with Philly Thrive, a community organization in Grays Ferry that won the permanent closure of the South Philly oil refinery in 2020. Philly Thrive’s current campaigns contest for justice in the historic refinery site redevelopment, and fight to ensure Grays Ferry residents can stay in their homes.