Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Philadelphia\u2019s only free sexual assault exam center was so strapped for funding last spring that Drexel University<\/a>, its former operator, started drafting a closure announcement.<\/p>\n The school was facing financial strain of its own and state funding to rape crisis nonprofits was tied up amid a prolonged budget impasse in Harrisburg. Emergency funding from the city was tangled in City Hall\u2019s lengthy contracting process.<\/p>\n At the time, there was no plan for who would run the Philadelphia Sexual Assault Response Center (PSARC), where roughly 300 rape survivors a year go for the sexual assault exams used to collect forensic evidence that are commonly known as \u201crape kits,\u201d which often play a key role in prosecuting assaults.<\/p>\n Fast-forward to this month, when Mayor Cherelle L. Parker<\/a>\u2019s administration announced the city\u2019s public health department will assume all control<\/a> of PSARC. Officials presented the news as the culmination of a careful, collaborative handoff, and one city staffer framed the transition in a news release as \u201cseamless.\u201d <\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Philadelphia to take over sexual assault response center after years of funding uncertainty<\/a><\/p>\n But hundreds of emails obtained by The Inquirer through a right-to-know request and a review of public records tell a far messier story. The emails show that for more than a year the fate of PSARC lurched from one near-miss to the next and a failed bid process forced the city to take over the center\u2019s operations when no one else would.<\/p>\n Taken together, the records offer a granular view of how a critical piece of the city\u2019s safety net for sexual assault survivors nearly broke. And they portray a chaotic process in which the city for months sought to transfer control of the center from Drexel to the nonprofit, WOAR Philadelphia Center Against Sexual Violence, even as WOAR faced its own budgetary implosion.<\/p>\n Over the course of the last year, the exam center never shut its doors to patients. But it came close on several occasions, a collapse that would have had ripple effects in hospital emergency rooms across the region that typically route sexual assault patients to the center. <\/p>\n If PSARC suspended operations, hospitals would have to find specially trained staff \u2014 of which there are few \u2014 to perform the exams.<\/p>\n \u201cPhiladelphia emergency rooms were not ready for that,\u201d said Lila Slovak, director of the Philadelphia office of the Women\u2019s Law Project, who spent months warning city officials that PSARC was in danger. \u201cThey did not know that [the center] was at risk of closing. It was not on anybody\u2019s radar.\u201d <\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Shapiro planned to flat fund rape crisis centers. They convinced him to double their line item.<\/a><\/p>\n Crystal Yates-Gale, the city\u2019s deputy managing director for health and human services, said in a statement that the final outcome \u2014 the city running the center \u2014 is ultimately what\u2019s best for sexual assault survivors.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are proud to have secured the continuity of vital services for victims of crime in a dignified, victim-centered, culturally-competent atmosphere in Philadelphia,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n LaQuisha Anthony, WOAR\u2019s executive director, said in a statement that the organization was hamstrung by last year\u2019s monthslong state budget impasse<\/a> that froze much of its funding.<\/p>\n She said WOAR was transparent with the city about its financial position.<\/p>\n \u201cLike most Commonwealth-funded providers, we planned on the assumption that funding would resume,\u201d Anthony said. \u201cThe impasse instead ran 135 days. By the time it ended, we had drawn down our reserves.\u201d <\/p>\n A lifeline center on a shoestring budget<\/p>\n PSARC, located at 300 E. Hunting Park<\/a> Ave. in North Philadelphia<\/a>, has two full-time staff members and a network of about 15 contracted nurses trained to perform sexual assault forensic exams, provided free of charge under Pennsylvania law. The procedures are intended to gather physical evidence, such as DNA left behind by an assailant, and to document injuries that may aid investigators in a future criminal investigation. <\/p>\n Many hospitals lack the specialized staff required to perform sexual assault forensic exams, so they refer patients to PSARC or work with PSARC to have a trained nurse dispatched to the hospital.<\/p>\n The center is located next to the Philadelphia Police Special Victims Unit, but patients are not required to report the assault to law enforcement in order to have the free exam performed. <\/p>\n Founded in 2011 and initially operated by the now-shuttered Hahnemann University Hospital, PSARC has been run since 2019 by Drexel University\u2019s College of Nursing and Health Professions. For most of that time, the operation ran on a shoestring budget. <\/p>\n Until last year, PSARC received no dedicated city funding. The state reimbursed Drexel about $1,000 for each patient treated, with Drexel absorbing substantial losses, according to records. The exam reimbursements can take months to flow from the state. <\/p>\n Brian Keech, Drexel\u2019s senior vice president for government relations, shared a financial analysis with city officials last year that laid out an annual shortfall averaging more than $175,000.<\/p>\n As Drexel cut staff and benefits across the university<\/a> last year amid declining enrollment and a $63 million annual operating loss, its leaders told the Parker administration that the school could no longer manage PSARC on its own.<\/p>\n In a series of emails last spring, Keech pressed the city for a funding commitment for the center and warned that, without one, the university would have to tell hospitals to stop referring patients for sexual assault exams.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve begun to prepare the closure announcement,\u201d Keech wrote in a May 20, 2025 email to Adam Geer, the city\u2019s chief public safety director. \u201cObviously we\u2019re hopeful we can avoid this scenario, but we do have to adequately prepare area hospitals that they will have to begin providing sexual assault services come July 1 if PSARC closes.\u201d<\/p>\n By early June, the city found the money. <\/p>\n The scramble to save PSARC<\/p>\n Yates-Gale, the city\u2019s deputy managing director, said in a June 2025 email to Drexel officials that the administration had identified $250,000 in emergency funding to keep the center running.<\/p>\n The plan was for WOAR \u2014 the nonprofit formerly known as Women Organized Against Rape \u2014 to operate PSARC. The city would support its efforts by routing those funds to WOAR through an existing health-department contract. <\/p>\n Through the summer of 2025, the money was tangled in the city\u2019s often lengthy contracting<\/a> process. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, WOAR was itself under severe financial strain amid the state budget impasse<\/a> that left community organizations across Pennsylvania unfunded. WOAR\u2019s leaders told city officials that they could not make payroll without the check from the city.<\/p>\n PSARC was left in limbo. The handoff deadline from Drexel to WOAR was moved from Aug. 1 to Sept. 1, with Drexel agreeing to cover an extra month of payroll to bridge the gap. Then, on Aug. 28 \u2014 three days before the already-delayed transfer \u2014 WOAR\u2019s board chair, Joanne Strauss, wrote in an email to city officials that the organization \u201cwill not be acquiring\u201d PSARC.<\/p>\n She provided no reason other than saying the organization was \u201cfurther evaluating the proposed transaction.\u201d<\/p>\n City officials were alarmed. Within an hour, the city\u2019s victim advocate Adara Combs emailed Drexel officials to say she was \u201cdeeply troubled\u201d by the sudden shift.<\/p>\n Two weeks later, WOAR appeared ready to operate the center again. The group\u2019s board of directors voted unanimously to approve the acquisition, and money from the city began flowing to WOAR to operate the rape exam center \u2014 more than $80,000 in total.<\/p>\n Then, the plan fell apart again.<\/p>\n In early October, WOAR announced it would lay off staff and cut programs<\/a> due to its funding crisis. <\/p>\n Anthony, of WOAR, said in a statement the board\u2019s approval of the acquisition of the sexual assault center came as the nonprofit thought the state budget impasse would come to an end and was \u201ccontingent on conditions related to funding and our ability to responsibly take control of PSARC.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIt became clear that those conditions were not resolved,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Drexel continued to pay to operate the rape crisis center, and WOAR wired the university the city funding it had received. Drexel operated PSARC, with an additional $167,000 in help from the city, until June 30.<\/p>\n The back-and-forth saga highlighted a central question: Why did the city seek to transfer a critical service to WOAR despite the nonprofit\u2019s existing financial problems?<\/p>\n Slovak, of the Women\u2019s Law Project, said it made sense that WOAR stepped up to take over the center\u2019s operations, given its mission to treat and prevent sexual violence. It is common in other cities for rape crisis centers to manage forensic exam facilities.<\/p>\n But overseeing hundreds of sexual assault exams each year, she said, would have been a major expansion of WOAR\u2019s scope because it \u201cis about more than just providing emotional support or accompaniment for survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n Yates-Gale said WOAR was a natural choice to assume operations of the center. The group had an existing contract with the city and its mission aligned with that of PSARC.<\/p>\n \u201cDrexel agreed to continue operations until another suitable alternative organization could be identified,\u201d she said, \u201cand the entirety of the funds for the program were transferred back to them.\u201d<\/p>\n Britt Faulstick, a Drexel University spokesperson, said the school \u201cworked closely with city leadership to ensure a smooth transition.\u201d<\/p>\n Another failed effort to find an operator<\/p>\n The city\u2019s $250,000 in emergency funding bought PSARC time. But the same question remained: Who would run it long-term, and where would they find the money? <\/p>\n This spring, Parker\u2019s budget proposal, which was approved by City Council in June, included $300,000 for the center. The city put the operation out for bid, seeking an outside organization like another hospital or nonprofit to run it.<\/p>\n City officials met on April 13 with potential operators, including representatives from area hospitals that depend on the center, such as Temple University<\/a>, the University of Pennsylvania<\/a>, and Jefferson-Einstein Philadelphia. Several expressed concerns about PSARC\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n According to a public recording of the meeting, multiple attendees suggested that $300,000 a year in city funding would not be enough to cover PSARC\u2019s operations and salaries for medical staff who must be available 24-7.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has never been something that\u2019s been profitable, so it\u2019s always needed another source of funds to keep it stable,\u201d one hospital representative said. \u201cIt\u2019s the money, right, to keep it open and to be able to run this as a service for the city and keep it maintained so you\u2019re not back in this \u2018we don\u2019t have it\u2019 in six months.\u201d<\/p>\n Combs, the city\u2019s victim advocate, told potential bidders that they were welcome to \u201creimagine\u201d how PSARC operates and propose new funding streams.<\/p>\n But hospital representatives remained skeptical and pressed the city to find a different solution, citing a moral urgency.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be a tremendous tragedy if we lost the resources of PSARC in the city,\u201d said a representative from Jefferson-Einstein Philadelphia Hospital.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we all agree,\u201d said Azucena Ugarte, director of the city\u2019s Office of Domestic Violence Strategies. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n But following the meeting, no one bid.<\/p>\n The city takes over<\/p>\n With no outside bid to operate Philadelphia\u2019s only free rape exam center, the options in front of city officials were either to let it close, or take control themselves. <\/p>\n The city chose the latter. Parker administration officials framed it as a lasting solution.<\/p>\n Faulstick, of Drexel, said the school will continue to train nurses in sexual assault examination to help ensure the care is available. She said PSARC is \u201cpositioned for continued growth and long-term sustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n Others have questions about the stabilization plan.<\/p>\n