9 months after Kensington cleanup, Philly officials offer progress report

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Last May, Philadelphia police and city workers cleared sidewalks of tents, structures and people along a two-block stretch of Kensington Avenue, the start of an ongoing effort to reduce open-air drug use and homelessness in the area.

City leaders who gathered in the neighborhood Monday afternoon say that effort is paying off.

About nine months since the cleanup effort began, the city says there’s been a 57% reduction in shootings in the community and that police have seized 24,000 grams of the dangerous drug fentanyl, along with $40 million worth of drugs in total.

Despite those gains, there are still people without homes living on nearby streets and open-air drug use still occurs. That activity has mostly moved to the area known as “The Avenue” or “K and A,” for the intersection of Kensington and Allegheny avenues, the site of a Market-Frankford El stop.

“The status quo is unacceptable,” said Philadelphia Public Safety Director Adam Geer. “We reject the status quo. We can and must do better. We’ve come a long way this year, but we have a long way to go. We acknowledge that. But we are in this fight. We are here standing shoulder to shoulder and we ain’t going nowhere. The early results are encouraging.”

Part of the city’s efforts to address underlying problems facing the community are the implementation of a new “wellness court” and hundreds of rehab beds.

Geer pointed to the city’s gun violence intervention initiative, which features hundreds of specialists who reach out to people in the community following a shooting incident in an effort to prevent retaliation.

“We gave $8.6 million in violence grants to 19 community-based Kensington-servicing organizations. We also distributed $3.5 million to 77 organizations for overdose prevention and community resilience,” he said.

“This community has been struggling for a long time and finally I feel like there is some breathing room,” said Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, who represents parts of the neighborhood. “We have a long way to go, but the reason we have had some success is that we continue to show up.”

The cleanup has been part of a joint city, state and federal effort. There are some concerns that federal funding could slow down as part of the new Trump administration. Philadelphia has been a so-called “sanctuary city.” Mayor Cherelle Parker has emphasized that nothing has changed since she took office.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Mayor Cherelle Parker was not in attendance.