Parker administration details plans for Fairmount site for people with addiction

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration said Thursday it has expanded capacity at a homeless shelter in Fairmount and can serve people with addiction, a move officials said is part of a broader effort to improve the city’s offerings for people with substance use disorder.

Managing Director Adam K. Thiel made that announcement during a news conference Thursday, a day after The Inquirer reported the administration and addiction service providers were preparing to accept new clients on a city-run campus at 2100 W. Girard Ave.

News of the expanded site comes as the Parker administration has made cleaning up Kensington’s open-air drug market a key priority and days before the city is expected to clear several blocks in that neighborhood where people are living on the street. As part of the cleanup, city policy is to offer shelter to people camping in the area.

Questions remained Thursday, including where else the city is looking to expand treatment capacity, how much money it will cost, and how much space is ultimately needed to meet the demand for drug treatment and shelter.

Sources involved in the planning of the Fairmount site, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plan publicly, said the revamped facility would be a “triage center,” a concept administration officials have previously described as part of its goal to end open-air drug markets, including in Kensington. Officials have said they are still developing how a triage center would function or the exact services it would offer, including whether such a site would involve law enforcement.

After The Inquirer reported Wednesday that the Fairmount site would be a “triage center,” a spokesperson for Parker’s administration said it is a “wellness center.” On Thursday, Thiel rejected that characterization, too, saying that the city is merely adding beds to an existing shelter site with plans to connect more drug users with treatment.

“That is the goal of the comprehensive wellness ecosystem that we are building with health care,” Thiel said, “with taking care of our fellow Philadelphians as the primary lens that we are using to build this.”

In March, Parker unveiled her first budget proposal, which seeks to borrow $100 million to establish “triage and wellness facilities” across the city — and Thiel in late March said the first such facility could be open “within weeks.”

News of the city’s program at the Fairmount site caught some City Council members and other officials off-guard following months of heated debate about how the city’s drug treatment infrastructure could absorb potentially hundreds of people who live in Kensington.

» READ MORE: Mayor Parker’s plan to ‘remove the presence of drug users’ from Kensington raises new questions

Councilmember Jeffery Young Jr., whose district includes the site on Girard, said in a statement he has been “concerned about the lack of transparency from the Parker administration on the proposed plan for triage centers to combat the addiction crisis in Kensington.”

He added that he opposes any such site at that location “without undergoing a thorough review and discussion with the community to address potential implications.”

The administration cast the project as an expansion of already existing services. Home to the former Philadelphia nursing home that closed in 2022, Thiel said the site has also housed homeless clients for a decade.

He said renovations began in April to add more beds to the facility and increase capacity for more substance abuse treatment services where people could come voluntarily to get help — similar to how officials previously described the triage model.

Thiel said the Fairmount facility is not a medical facility and would not offer inpatient treatment at this time, though he added that could change in the future. Addressing concerns from residents in Fairmount, he said recent renovations have already helped stabilize the Girard Avenue campus and that dialogue was ongoing with neighbors.

“As we are building this system, we are meeting the needs of the people that we are going to be taking care of and the communities and the neighbors surrounding these facilities,” Thiel said, adding that existing city-run facilities are operating “with minimal complaints.”

In its search to expand treatment and housing options, Thiel said the city has been examining a number of publicly and privately owned facilities as well as vacant and unused buildings.

The long-term goal is to build a citywide treatment ecosystem that will be “the first of its kind in the United States.”