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The Development, Major Goals and Strategies of a Skid Row Program: Philadelphia

1966; Alcohol Research Documentation; Volume: 27; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.15288/qjsa.1966.27.242

1946-7214

Leonard Blumberg, Thomas E. Shipley, Irving W. Shandler, H. Richard Niebuhr,

Place Attachment and Urban Studies

The first phase in the development of a program to relocate and rehabilitate the inhabitants of the Philadelphia Skid Row, so that the Row could be terminated without creating a new one in a different location, consisted in orienting and organizing the cooperation of social welfare agencies, professional planners, the City Council, and other decision-making elements in the community, and the publication of recommendations for a casework-oriented program. In the second (exploratory) phase a census of Skid Row was taken: 2,249 of an estimated 2,857 men were interviewed (and 28 women). They were typically middle-aged or elderly; a relatively large number, especially of the older men, had never married; they lacked strong family or friendship ties. About 35% were pathological or uncontrolled drinkers; about 16% were nondrinkers. Chronic illnesses were common; 20% had tuberculosis. Spree drinkers tended to be younger, better educated and married; nondrinkers, elderly, less educated, and never married. The majority claimed to live on Skid Row because it was cheap; they did not know whom to trust; and did not desire relocation. In the third phase a diagnostic and relocation center was established, located near Skid Row, staffed by professionals and a research team as well as former Skid Row residents, and offering to a systematic sample of the men diagnostic, recreational, therapeutic, vocational-counseling and housing-relocation services, including training in social as well as occupational skills. The full development of this project took over 10 years and has received favorable newspaper and television publicity, indicative of community perception of Skid Row as a civic problem. The fourth phase is contemplated as the transition of the pilot project into full-scale application. A program to eliminate Skid Rows and alcoholism is conceived of as a political process requiring the involvement of all sociopolitical levels from neighborhood to Federal Government, with several interrelated goals. Four necessary goals—a program of action research on civic problems, experiments in relocating Skid Row men in healthy environments, establishing alternative facilities for subgroups of men who cannot succeed outside of institutions or Skid Row (halfway houses, residential institutions), and development of a set of theories allowing generalization of the findings to other localities—are outlined, together with the major strategies and processes believed requisite for their achievement. Toward the latter goal, a limited "optimal discrepancy theory" is presented, suggesting procedures to maximize goal orientation and positive affect in the relocation and rehabilitation process.