Project H.O.M.E.

Project HOME is a nationally recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides housing, opportunities for employment, medical care and education to homeless and low-income persons in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The mission of the Project HOME community is "to empower adults, children, and families to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty, to alleviate the underlying causes of poverty, and to enable all of us to attain our fullest potential as individuals and as members of the broader society". Project HOME works to achieve this mission through a continuum of care, which provides individuals a range of supportive services suited to their particular degree of self-sufficiency.

The work of Project HOME is rooted in a belief in "the dignity of each person" and "the transformational power of building relationships and community". Project HOME is a vision-centered organization that believes "none of us are home until all of us are home".

Sister Mary Scullion and Joan Dawson McConnon co-founded Project HOME in 1989. Their work together began in the winter of 1988, when they opened a temporary shelter in a vacant recreation center donated by the City of Philadelphia benefitting chronically homeless men . With start-up funds from the Connelly Foundation, Scullion and McConnon were able to expand their efforts and found Project HOME the following year.

Project HOME gained national recognition for its four-year political and legal battle to open a residence for formerly homeless individuals at 1515 Fairmount Avenue. Though the property's zoning permit was secured from the project's onset in 1990, neighborhood associations slowed the development process when they sought to overturn the building permit in the courts. With the issue still unresolved in December 1992, the U.S. Justice Department sued the City of Philadelphia, on behalf of Project HOME, for violation of Fair Housing laws, which required the City to provide reasonable modifications in the building permits for the people with mental and physical disabilities who would live at 1515 Fairmount. As the case continued in the court system, Project HOME undertook substantial acts of advocacy to attract media attention including community petitions and a vigil outside the Mayor's office that ended in 23 arrests for civil disobedience. After several steps in the appeals process, the final verdict came from a U.S. Court of Appeals in June 1994. The court ruled in favor of Project HOME and "reasonable accommodation". 1515 Fairmount is now home to a 48-unit single room occupancy facility.

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