Gimme shelter: Why a city as poor as Philly has relatively fewer people living on the streets
Despite being America's poorest big city, Philly has a surprisingly low rate of street homelessness compared to other large cities. What's behind this counterintuitive trend?
Listen 12:23
Luke Dunn talks to a homeless man and takes down his contact to make sure he gets entered into the homeless database, and promises to return for a referral for an I.D. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)
Despite being America’s poorest big city, Philadelphia has surprisingly low rates of homelessness compared to other large cities like Los Angeles and New York. What’s behind this counterintuitive trend? On this episode of The Why, WHYY reporter Aaron Moselle explains how a combination of outreach and housing options are working to keep people off the streets.
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