Written on: January 6, 2016
Philadelphia has a newly elected Mayor, Jim Kenney. During his campaign, he took part in a Vote For Homes Mayoral Candidate Forum: Real Solutions to Hunger and Homelessness on May 2, 2015 and made commitments in the Vote For Homes Voter Guide to use holistic approaches to alleviate poverty in Philadelphia.
I promise to serve you, to be accountable to you and, most importantly, to work with you, so we can make every Philadelphia neighborhood the best that it can be.
-Mayor Jim Kenney,
Inauguration Address,January 4, 2015
We congratulate newly inaugurated Mayor Jim Kenney – and we are hopeful that his Administration can make progress in our efforts to address homelessness and poverty.
Mayor Kenney has been serious about educating himself on issues of homelessness, going so far as accompanying Project HOME’s outreach team on its rounds on Philadelphia streets. Also promising is Kenney’s knowledge of and commitment to the Philadelphia Housing Trust Fund, a largely unexplored way to draw state monies into housing development. You can read more about his promises at our recent blog post.
We look forward to partnering with the new administration. Please sign the Vote For Homes Coalition petition to welcome Mayor Kenney and ask him to keep ending poverty and homelessness as the center of his work.
As a Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate dedicated to the Gospel among and for the sake of God’s Poor I congratulate the Mayor’s Commitment to providing shelter for the Poor. On this Thursday of the Epiphany Season I am both encouraged and edified!