Office of Homeless Services pitches FY27 plan, pledges 1,000-bed expansion and service upgrades

Cheryl Hill, executive director of the Office of Homeless Services, testified before the City Council Committee of the Whole about the department's FY27 operating budget and a strategy intended to reduce street homelessness.

Hill said the February 2026 point-in-time count recorded 711 unsheltered individuals and credited expanded shelter access and interagency work under Mayor Charerel Parker’s executive order for that decrease. She said OHS plans to add 1,000 shelter beds to an existing 2,859-bed system, noting that 785 beds are already online and 175 family beds are scheduled to open within weeks. Each new shelter site, Hill said, will include on-site behavioral health supports and some will offer on-site medical services through partnerships with Temple Health and Jefferson Health; Hill also mentioned plans to expand Hub of Hope hours.

The testimony framed homelessness as a public-health issue and emphasized investments to strengthen shelter physical conditions, improve service-delivery standards, and provide technical assistance to providers. Hill said the FY27 proposal aligns with the administration’s One Philly vision and Executive Order 725, which commits the city to ending street homelessness by ensuring immediate pathways to shelter.

Council members pressed OHS for data and fiscal detail. Council Member Katherine Gilmore Richardson asked how the cumulative $71 million increase in homelessness funding since 2018 translated into new shelter capacity and contracts; Hill replied that HUD-reported bed counts include privately funded shelters and that some safe-haven programs are funded through the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS). Hill offered to provide contract-by-quarter and obligations details in writing.

Several council members — including Dr. Amed and others — raised the tension between rapidly standing up shelter capacity and investing in permanent supportive housing. Hill said the 1,000-bed expansion was designed to move people off the street quickly (a timeline measured in months), while permanently supportive housing takes substantially longer to develop; she noted a spring 2025 analysis estimating the city needs roughly 3,000 permanent supportive housing units to meaningfully reduce homelessness over time.

Hill and staff also described operational changes intended to improve outcomes: a new homeless management information system to better track individuals, on-site case management in new shelters to support off-ramps to housing, and partnerships with the Philadelphia Housing Authority for subsidy and unit identification. OHS officials said some fiscal questions (exact counts, contract timing, and line-item allocations) would be provided to council in writing.

The hearing closed without a substantive vote on the budget at this meeting. The committee recessed and will continue its review on April 21, 2026.