To: Michael Nutter, Mayor of Philadelphia, Name, Title or Position (optional), The Pennsylvania State House, The Pennsylvania State Senate, and Governor Tom Wolf
Restoration of PA General Assistance Benefits
This petition is to demand that the city of Philadelphia continue making payment arrangements with people who have no income due to the elimination of General Assistance.
Before the demise of General Assistance people who received $102.50 were able to qualify for payment arrangements, and thus were able to continue basic utility services to their homes and keep their homes from sheriff’s sale for back taxes. Currently, on February 13, 2013, the Philadelphia Solicitor’s are planning to schedule a date for sheriff’s sale, because they will not give me a payment plan since I have an income now of $0.
Let me tell you a bit about myself and how I came to own the house the city would take from me. What has happened to me can happen to any middle-class working individual. I’ve worked since the age of 14 and decided on a career helping others. For years I worked street outreach to the homeless. I went into the abandoned houses of Philadelphia to link some of the most vulnerable and needy Philadelphians to the services they desperately needed. I worked multiple jobs, saved my money, did without things, and kept a simple one room apartment for shelter. Eventually I was able to save enough money to purchase my home free and clear of any mortgage or bank involvement.
In 2008 my health began to seriously fail which lead to three heart attacks. Eventually my doctors called me permanently disabled, and I was forced to go onto welfare while I’m attempting to be approved for Social Security Disability, a process that usually takes two years.
I am the victim of two policies which were not arrived at democratically. The first is the elimination of General Assistance. The ruling republicans of the Pennsylvania House & Senate filed a shell bill with the legislation that killed General Assistance. They did this on the last day of legislative session, completely ignoring the Pennsylvania Constitution which requires three days of debate.
Now the city of Philadelphia is involved in a second non-democratic process by not revisiting the decision of how to deal with people who have no income which will leave me without the home I worked so hard for and essentially homeless. I believe a democratic process would lead to a different outcome, and this petition is part of a process that perhaps might finally be democratic.
Do the citizens of Philadelphia really want to send most of their former General Assistance recipients into a situation where they’re forced to sell their homes or go to sheriff’s sale? Even though many of them will eventually receive Social Security Disability and then be able to make payment arrangements and even though the city would eventually get their money whenever the house is finally sold.
That is the question which my petition seeks to address. By signing my petition you are weighing in that you want the city to show more compassion and be more sensible with this group of people.
Before the demise of General Assistance people who received $102.50 were able to qualify for payment arrangements, and thus were able to continue basic utility services to their homes and keep their homes from sheriff’s sale for back taxes. Currently, on February 13, 2013, the Philadelphia Solicitor’s are planning to schedule a date for sheriff’s sale, because they will not give me a payment plan since I have an income now of $0.
Let me tell you a bit about myself and how I came to own the house the city would take from me. What has happened to me can happen to any middle-class working individual. I’ve worked since the age of 14 and decided on a career helping others. For years I worked street outreach to the homeless. I went into the abandoned houses of Philadelphia to link some of the most vulnerable and needy Philadelphians to the services they desperately needed. I worked multiple jobs, saved my money, did without things, and kept a simple one room apartment for shelter. Eventually I was able to save enough money to purchase my home free and clear of any mortgage or bank involvement.
In 2008 my health began to seriously fail which lead to three heart attacks. Eventually my doctors called me permanently disabled, and I was forced to go onto welfare while I’m attempting to be approved for Social Security Disability, a process that usually takes two years.
I am the victim of two policies which were not arrived at democratically. The first is the elimination of General Assistance. The ruling republicans of the Pennsylvania House & Senate filed a shell bill with the legislation that killed General Assistance. They did this on the last day of legislative session, completely ignoring the Pennsylvania Constitution which requires three days of debate.
Now the city of Philadelphia is involved in a second non-democratic process by not revisiting the decision of how to deal with people who have no income which will leave me without the home I worked so hard for and essentially homeless. I believe a democratic process would lead to a different outcome, and this petition is part of a process that perhaps might finally be democratic.
Do the citizens of Philadelphia really want to send most of their former General Assistance recipients into a situation where they’re forced to sell their homes or go to sheriff’s sale? Even though many of them will eventually receive Social Security Disability and then be able to make payment arrangements and even though the city would eventually get their money whenever the house is finally sold.
That is the question which my petition seeks to address. By signing my petition you are weighing in that you want the city to show more compassion and be more sensible with this group of people.
Why is this important?
The Pennsylvania ruling republican house & senate passed a shell bill effectively eliminating General Assistance Benefits to ten's of thousands of Pennsylvanians. It is more than a loss of $102.50 it is also a loss of a way for those most in need to show a 'proof of income'.