Dozen protesters vow to continue demonstrating for shelter in Philly

Protesters spent Tuesday night sleeping on the streets at 15th and Cherry streets to send a message about Philadelphia’s homeless shelters.

 

About a dozen people, mostly mothers and their children, slept outside a city of Philadelphia housing office saying they didn’t have any where else to go.

Keyanna DelValle says she wishes she didn’t have to resort to sleeping on a sidewalk.

“We’ve been here since 6 o’clock (Tuesday) morning trying to get shelter and they turn us away,” she said. “They have no where for us to go … they have us sit here all day and at 5 o’clock they tell you got to go and they pretty much expect us to disappear.”

 Mayor Michael Nutter’s spokesman Mark McDonald says the city does the best it can to find beds for homeless people.

“We have a shelter capacity in the city, we have an intake process,” he said. “If the shelter system is full, we cannot take any more people into it and that is the issue here.”

The protesters vow to continue sleeping outside until they get spots in shelters.