[PRESS RELEASE] Vote For Homes Coalition To Hold Forum and Release Voter Guide on Housing, Jobs, and Services

PHILADELPHIA, May 6, 2015 - How will the next Mayor address Philadelphia’s 27 percent poverty rate - the highest of the ten largest cities in America, and the unacceptable numbers of those experiencing homelessness and hunger that plagues our city?

Come find out at the Vote For Homes Real Solutions to Hunger and Homelessness Mayoral Candidates Forum on Thursday, May 7, 6:30-8:30 pm at Broad Street Ministry (on Broad between Spruce and Pine Streets).

This Forum will be moderated by Cherri Gregg of KYW Newsradio and will include questions developed by advocates, homeless and formerly homeless individuals, and ex-offenders.  Anticipated attendees will be 500 housing and service providers, shelter consumers, mental health and recovery program participants, advocates, and allies.  Most candidates are expected to attend or will be represented.

Both the Vote For Homes Candidates Forum and the newly-released Vote For Homes Voter Guide are part of a strategy to ensure that candidates recognize that homelessness, affordable housing shortages, and food insecurity are critical obstacles for ensuring a better future for all Philadelphians.  Vote For Homes will hold the next Mayor accountable for implementing real solutions based on his or her responses in the Voter Guide and at the Forum.

While issues of homelessness and poverty have barely been raised in the election campaign, they are the focus of this printed Voter Guide, currently being distributed throughout shelters and affordable housing programs and available online at www.voteforhomes.org.  The Voter Guide features responses by mayoral candidates about how they will prevent and end homelessness.

There are approximately 990,000 potential voters in Philadelphia, more than 250,000 of whom live in poverty, are homeless, or live at the brink of homelessness, while this election will be decided by just a few thousand votes. The Vote For Homes coalition has targeted 120 shelters, soup kitchens, health centers, jails, and probation offices in the City of Philadelphia to ensure that they are educated, addressed, and included in the electoral process. This collective voice will be key to moving the candidates to speak to the 14,000 homeless, the 220,000 uninsured, and the one in 13 unemployed Philadelphians who will be voting on May 19.

The Guide and Forum were produced by the Vote For Homes coalition, a group of 50 organizations interested in issues of housing, jobs, and services for people living on low incomes.  The Coalition has registered 16,000 voters and trained 300 volunteers to register and mobilize voters since 1999.

Vote For Homes Members: AchieveAbility • ActionAIDS • ACTION United • Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Zeta Omicron Lambda Chapter • Arch Street United Methodist Church • Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha • Back on My Feet • Bethesda Project • Broad Street Ministry • CATCH • Calcutta House • Catholic Social Services • Catholic Social Services St. John's Hospice • Church of the Advocate • Civic House, University of Pennsylvania • Coalition Ingenue • Depaul USA • Dignity Housing • Disabled in Action • Drueding Center Project Rainbow • Episcopal Community Services • Ex-Offenders Association of PA • Families Forward Philadelphia • Family Shelter Support Team • Friends Rehabilitation Program, Inc. • Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia • HELP Philadelphia • Homeless Advocacy Project •  Horizon House • Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania • Impact Services Corporation • Interfaith Advocates • League of Women Voters of Philadelphia • Liberty Resources, Inc. • LIFT Philadelphia • Lutheran Settlement House • Mental Health Association of Southeastern PA • Mercy Hospice • Mercy Vocational High School • My Place Germantown • New Kensington CDC • PathWaysPA • Pathways to Housing PA • Pennsylvania Prison Society • People's Emergency Center • PHMC Nurse Family Partnership • Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations • Philadelphia Beauty Showcase National Historic Museum • Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND) • Philadelphia Senior Center • Prevention Point Philadelphia • PRO-ACT (Pennsylvania Recovery Organization Achieving Community Together) • Project HOME • Public Health Management Corporation • Ready, Willing & Able • Resources for Human Development • SELF Inc. • SHARE • Tenant Union Representative Network • The Salvation Army • The Time is Now to Make a Change • Travelers Aid Society Philadelphia • Unity Fellowship of Christ Church Philadelphia • United Communities Southeast Philadelphia • United Way Southeastern Pennsylvania • The Welcome Church • Witnesses to Hunger • Women Against Abuse • Women of Hope-Lombard • Women of Hope-Vine • Women's Community Revitalization Project • Women's Law Project - WomenVote PA • WOMEN'S WAY • X-Offenders for Community Empowerment • Young Involved Philadelphia • Young People in Recovery - Philadelphia Chapter. List current as of 5/6/2015. JOIN US! www.voteforhomes.org or email [email protected]

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