Philly City Council bans the city from extending lease at a controversial Fairmount shelter site

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration would be barred from renewing the city’s lease at a controversial Fairmount shelter under legislation passed by City Council on Thursday.

The bill represents backlash to the Parker administration’s effort to quietly increase capacity at an existing shelter site last month to treat people who use drugs amid a broader effort to crack down on open-air drug markets. It prohibits the city from extending its lease at the state-owned 2100 W. Girard Ave. site when the current agreement ends in 2026.

The bill now heads to Parker’s desk. It’s unclear whether she will sign it — her administration testified against it earlier this month. The legislation passed unanimously, meaning it could become law even if the mayor vetoed it. Overriding a veto requires a two-thirds vote of Council.

There are also open questions about the legality and enforcement of the bill, which exerts a rare level of legislative control over the executive branch and bars the city’s top lawyer from even reviewing any lease extension agreement.

Councilmember Jeffery Young Jr., who represents the district where the shelter sits and authored the bill, said Thursday that his legislation is responsive to Fairmount residents, who were incensed that they weren’t given a chance to weigh in on the expansion before it began. Their complaints came as the city was working to clear encampments from Kensington, the epicenter of the opioid crisis.

» READ MORE: Fairmount residents up in arms over Parker administration plan to house people in addiction

Young, who took office in January, has aggressively advocated against the city referring people who use drugs to the site, even introducing legislation to authorize subpoenas for Parker and members of her administration to testify to Council on its use.

Parker has since apologized and said her administration should have communicated with Young prior to moving forward with adding dozens of beds to the site.

During an interview Tuesday on WURD Radio, the mayor said her goal is to expand the number of treatment beds available citywide, saying “we do not have enough.” She added that her administration’s intent was not to “undermine the community.”

But Parker implied that some Fairmount residents who have complained about open drug use near the site are embellishing.

“It’s not beneath people to, for example, go and place needles in a particular place and then take a picture of the needles and say, ‘See, this is what’s happening in that area,’” she said. “I know that what I just said, somebody is going to say ‘We need to rewind that, did she just say what we think she just said?’ I absolutely did.”

Young said he receives complaints daily from residents who find drug paraphernalia in the area and trusts residents are logging legitimate concerns.

“When it was just a homeless shelter that did not take in folks from Kensington, there were no issues in that community,” Young said. “Folks don’t have a problem with it being a shelter.”