People find protection, support and solidarity by forming their own outdoor communities like Camp Chloe, which is currently located on property owned by real estate developer Bart Blatstein and his company, Tower Investments Inc.\n<\/p>\n
Tower, and the city Office of Homeless Services, did not immediately respond to WHYY News\u2019 requests for comment about the site and Friday\u2019s planned encampment sweep.\n<\/p>\n
Shelters should not be the only option for people who are waiting for housing placements or saving money to rent, Cookman said. Advocates are proposing safe sleep sites that could include bathrooms, showers and a mailing address where social services can easily find them with resources.\n<\/p>\n
They also want to see the city make bigger efforts in bringing people directly off the streets and into permanent housing.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cHousing first instead of shelter first, that\u2019s what we mean when we\u2019re talking about that,\u201d Cookman said. \u201cDon\u2019t make people go into shelters if they can safely habitat out here while they wait for housing.\u201d
\n![\"Camp](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Chloe-4-n-leonard-2026-03-20-891x1024.jpg\")
Residents and outreach workers at Camp Chloe, a homeless encampment on a vacant private property in South Philly, are calling on the city for safe outdoor sleep sites and other protections for people who are unhoused. A sweep originally planned for the site on Fri., March 20, was postponed. (Nicole Leonard\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n
Camp Chloe residents and advocates also want city agencies to show more consideration for people\u2019s personal property when sweeps are conducted, as well as the creation of a community oversight board filled by people with the lived experience of homelessness.\n<\/p>\n
Mayor Cherelle Parker announced the city\u2019s \u201cOne Philly Plan to End Street Homelessness<\/a>\u201d in her State of the City address in December. Plans include adding 1,000 additional shelter beds<\/a> as a \u201cfirst step\u201d to getting more people off the streets.\n<\/p>\n Expanding the number of shelter beds across the city can help to some degree, said outreach worker Colleen Stepanian, who has been supporting Camp Chloe residents for about three years with an organization called South Philly Good Not Bombs.\n<\/p>\n But that strategy alone is not enough to address homelessness in Philadelphia and the complex issues people face, Stepanian said. Constant fear of displacement and a cycle of moves do not put people on a path toward stable housing, she said.\n<\/p>\n \u201cIt requires being in one place that the people living there know they are safe where they are, that they have a support system around them, that whatever issues they\u2019re currently facing, they don\u2019t need to be permanent problems, but they need to feel like they\u2019re safe to deal with those things first,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n Kelsey Leon, a harm reduction researcher and advocate, said she wishes others would see past stereotypical issues often associated with homelessness, like drug use or mental health issues, and instead recognize people for their skills, talents and value as neighbors.\n<\/p>\n \u201cPeople think that if you are unhoused, that is somehow a moral failing. We know it\u2019s not, but I don\u2019t think the rest of the city knows that,\u201d she said. \u201cWe all have a duty to stand up and protect each other when our structures fail us and we have to figure out how to survive. This is not just a fight for these residents, but it is also a fight for everyone in Philadelphia.\u201d\n<\/p>\n It\u2019s not yet clear what will happen next for residents of Camp Chloe, but advocates hope city leaders consider more \u201cout-of-the-box\u201d solutions to help people experiencing homelessness.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People find protection, support and solidarity by forming their own outdoor communities like Camp Chloe, which is currently…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49995,26423,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-144234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-homeless-encampments","tag-homelessness-in-greater-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}