Mayor Parker says new facility in old Hahnemann building is not a homeless shelter but a ‘solution center’

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A new homeless services facility has opened inside part of the former Hahnemann University Hospital site in Center City as part of Mayor Cherelle Parker’s push to add 1,000 beds across Philadelphia.

Parker is calling the site, called Hope 220, a “solution center” for more than 90 people experiencing homelessness. It will offer health care and social services intended to help residents transition into permanent housing.

The Salvation Army is running the facility at 220 N. Broad St., financed in part by a half-million-dollar donation from PHL Cares, a business-led initiative aimed at addressing chronic homelessness in the city. The facility offers low-barrier entry, unlike other facilities with stricter requirements.

The city’s 2025 Point-in-Time count shows close to 1,200 people experiencing chronic homelessness in Philadelphia, and that doesn’t include people who are “couch surfing” or don’t have a specific address and are relying on family or others to help them.

John McNichol, co-chair of PHLCares and president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Convention Center right down the street, said he believes the business community has a responsibility to help fight homelessness.

“We have to do business here in Philadelphia, but running parallel to that, we have to take care of the people who need us most,” McNichol said.

Parker said the facility is more than a traditional homeless shelter, because it offers residents a multitude of services and the ability to transition to permanent housing by building relationships with other city, state and federal agencies.

“We are the architects of developing solutions. And so this is a ‘solution center’ model that will allow our most vulnerable to get the support and services that they need while having a sense of dignity,” the mayor said.

Councilmember Mark Squilla, who represents the district where the center is located, said people are often afraid to go to shelters because they aren’t always nice places, but that the new, clean facility gives people hope.

“When they come here, they’re going to want to come here, right? … Shelter is one thing, but you want to go … eventually into housing, right? So the goal is to move people along and to build them so they become self-sustaining,” he said.

Officials spoke of people who have already come through the facility and found family members who will take them in. In one case, a woman was reconnected with her late husband’s pension, which gave her an income and a new chance of a stable life instead of living on city streets.

Cheryl Hill, of the city’s Office of Homeless Services, said the Hope 220 facility offers plenty of services to bolster people who come in off the streets.

“We wanted to be a step above and transcend what you think about when you think about shelter. We wanted to feel like home while the individuals are living here. We also wanted to make sure that it came with dignity and comfort to the residents,” Hill said.

Jefferson Health is also offering free medical services with a primary care practitioner on site who, executive Dixie James said, can refer residents to other services within their network as needed.

Capt. Benjamin Lyle of the Salvation Army said Hope 220 is working to provide people a pathway toward stability.

The facility is about half full, and the Salvation Army is working with city agencies to make sure people find out about the facility. PHLCares is expected to give more funding to the facility later this year, including matching on a one-to-one basis up to half a million dollars in donations from the business community.