Overspent | Morning Newsletter

🪟 It’s looking like overcast skies this week. Hope you enjoyed our taste of spring Sunday.

Today’s top story is about how Philadelphia Office of Homeless Services is under scrutiny for overspending the last four years. Ace reporter Anna Orso is all over tracing what actually happened during this uniquely tumultuous period.

And Philly officials are waging war on those unlicensed slot parlors in corner stores.

In more heartwarming matters, before Valentine’s Day I had asked for a story about two morning newsletter readers who had fallen in love. And though Valentine’s Day has passed, it’s easy to get behind today’s Only in Philly story any day of the year.

Our new lead writer of the morning newsletter, Julie Zeglen, will take the reins and see you in your inbox Tuesday morning. That’s it for me writing to you in the mornings for a while. As the team lead on the strategic direction of all our newsletters, I’m always so interested in incorporating your feedback. Let me know what you think about any of our charismatic newsletters from Real Estate to Outdoorsy and Down the Shore which will come back this summer! Drop me an email on my favorite medium.

— Ashley Hoffman (@_AshleyHoffman, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

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From the outside, the picture seemed promising. Officials say the population of those experiencing homelessness here is down, and it looked like the Office of Homeless Services was flush with city and federal cash.

In reality, the office struggled internally with the bills and used questionable accounting practices to do so. The office had been juggling all different kinds of unexpected challenges. There were pandemic-related emergencies making life within the shelters themselves more complex, higher security costs as gun violence instances ticked upward, and more migrants in need of shelter.

“The problem snowballed,” reporter Anna Orso writes. “By this year, city officials estimated that the Office of Homeless Services had overspent its budget by at least $15 million, and it’s now the subject of at least three separate investigations into financial mismanagement.”

So what went wrong despite the big investment? We looked into financial records and Council transcripts, and talked to current and former staff to trace the last four years of spending at OHS.

What’s the name of the show Paola told you about in this newsletter that got the immediate approval of my very favorite musician whom I chase to see all over the country?

A) Ragamuffin

B) The Scenery in his Mind

C) Girl From The North Country

D) Mr. Jones

Think you know? Check your answer.

Hint: The theme of this year’s flower show

DEBTORS UNWIFELY

Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Elsa Black who correctly guessed Friday’s answer: Mare of Easttown.

And Paola tells me that while Kate Winslet has cast doubt on any #MoreMare to come, this is not exactly the end. They were filming a follow-up called Task in Delco this weekend. Kate Winslet’s relationship with that hoagie will forever be more special than the one she had with Leo D in Titanic.

A moment for Neighborhood Ramen.

My husband, Joe, and I started dating in 2003 when I was a senior in high school at Northeast and he was a freshman in college at Penn. Our first date was on Valentine’s Day at La Vigna, a tiny long-gone Italian restaurant in Pennsport. We took the bus from Penn because we couldn’t find a taxi at rush hour. I was impressed that Joe knew the bus system well enough to get from University City to South Philly on a moment’s notice.

At La Vigna, I had no idea what to order. Joe ordered ossobuco, a towering veal shank over pasta. I ordered ravioli with no sauce and our server asked if I wanted the half or the full portion. In a foolish attempt to be ladylike, I asked for the half. It hit the table as three sauceless ravioli on a narrow white plate, and you’d better believe that I cut the smallest pieces and ate so slowly to make it look like this tiny dinner was my intention all along. La Vigna eventually became Ginza and it was our go-to sushi place when we lived in Center City as adults.

This was our 21st Valentine’s Day together. Joe makes steak frites every year; a tradition that started one year when we had no money to go out to dinner. He bought a cheap cut of steak and hand cut potatoes to make fries. It was a total surprise to me and is still the best Valentine’s meal I’ve ever had. — Sarah Maiellano

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