“I just have to be here when the Pope comes,” says Femi, a 38-year-old black man sitting behind a table on Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway. On green tablecloth, he displays artwork, pictures he drew and wants to sell: one of the Pope caught in a selfie, another of the Pope delivering a speech. He also sells a T-shirt showing the Pope with a sheep around his neck.
The artist’s real name is Adetokunbo Oluwafemi Ige, and he sleeps a few feet behind his table on the grass beneath the trees on Parkway.
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Femi has been living on the streets for over a year, he says, since he left prison, where was incarcerated for eight years. He’s been on Parkway since the end of May.
He is homeless, but not lazy.
Femi would probably sell some of his pictures during the papal visit, since the Pope will come to the Parkway on Saturday and Sunday. The Pope is even scheduled to pass the very spot where Femi is posted up right now during his his motorcade tour. Officials estimate that up to 1.5 million fans and tourists will come to see Pope Francis.
That’s a lot of potential customers.
Adetokunbo Oluwafemi Ige, or “Femi,” at his spot on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia. All photos by the author
But Femi will almost certainly do no business at all this week, as he’s set to get kicked out of the place he calls his “little community” by Thursday at 10 PM—along with around 150 other people living on Parkway and in the surrounding parks and Logan Square. For other big events, it might not be so surprising that homeless folks get cleared out, but this security measure is rather bizarre given Pope Francis’s focus on helping poor and homeless people throughout his public life.
Some of the homeless people have already been pushed out.
The western part of Parkway, where many men and women live, is now clear of cars, clear of bikes and clear of people. You can still wander through it, but security officials target anyone who tries to sleep on the grass.
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Tonight, the whole Parkway, including Logan Square and its surrounding parks, will be closed and all unofficial residents removed. On Friday morning, homeless people will have the chance to return to the eastern part when the gates open for the public. But there will be restrictions that could make it nearly impossible for them to go about their business.
For instance, homeless people will not be allowed to return to the larger, western part of Parkway. You need a ticket for that, and the 10,000 tickets that were given away for free on the web were gone within 30 seconds. Homeless people can return to the eastern part of Parkway, to Aviator Park and Logan Square—but only if they store their belonging somewhere. Security procedures do not allow backpacks or bags exceeding the size restrictions (18″ x 13″ x 7″). That means no carts, no mattresses, no large suitcases—exactly the things that homeless folks usually take with them.
Darryl Williams is furious about this. A small man with very bad teeth, he walks restlessly around on the grass of Aviator Park next to Parkway, where he lives. Williams does not believe that he has to leave Parkway because of security reasons.
“There will be cameras from all around the world here—and they don’t want us in the picture,” he says, wandering faster and faster while talking. “This violates our civil rights. Is this America or is this Nazi Germany?” he shouts. “They could just as well take us and burn us.”
Another black man wearing a new sweater, clean jeans, and a chain with a cross around his neck, steps up to calm Williams, but shares the man’s disappointment.
“The Pope is coming for the poor,” he says. “He wants to see the homeless. But they don’t let him see us.”
This is Malik Robinson; he lived on Parkway for three years, and was addicted to cocaine. Now he’s clean and lives in a shelter, but comes to see his old community frequently during the day.
“People should see this,” he says. “The Pope should see this.”
Philadelphia’s most vulnerable aren’t the only ones pissed off; the organizations that care for them are agitated as well. Will O’Brien is the special projects coordinator of Project Home, a local organization that provides help for people living on the streets. He is humble and low-key, but can’t help getting a bit fiery.
“The whole security plan feels excessive to me,” O’Brien tells VICE. “And a lot of people feel angry about that in Philadelphia.” (Multiple calls to the Secret Service, which is helping coordinate preparations for the papal visit, were not returned.)
While some Philadelphians are mostly concerned about whether they will get to work on time or where to park their car, the Parkway homeless feel like—as usual—they’re getting the worst of it.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter’s office isn’t saying a whole lot about the people being cleared out for the papal visit.
“Once areas are cleared, anyone including the homeless can come back into the Parkway area through magnetometers,” Mark McDonald, the mayor’s press secretary, writes in an email. Asked whether he thinks it appropriate to shut them out for one night and to forbid bringing larger bags afterwards, McDonald writes, “The measures in place are appropriate to the security task.”
Marie Nahikian from the Office of Supportive Housing in Philadelphia assures that there will be additional beds in shelters for “the residents experiencing homelessness” during the Pope’s visit. “When the sweeps are happening, there will be outreach teams out there,” she explains. “The residents experiencing homelessness will be offered places to go. They will have a choice.”
But the people living on the Parkway are not fond of city shelters.
“It is often not very secure there,” says Mark Wise, a formerly homeless man who used to live on the Parkway and has since gotten off he street but still returns as a volunteer. “There is a lot of criminal activity going on and you have to obey to a lot of rules. I never liked it there and neither do the guys from Parkway.”
Just outside the city center (where, according to homeless people, cops do not tend to allow them to congregate), the Parkway—with many benches, and lots of grass to sleep on—has been a natural destination for homeless people in Philadelphia for years. They get served free meals there; they can get vouchers to get an ID; the library on the other side of the street has a café where they can sit as long as they want and where they can recharge their phones.
“None of us likes it here on Parkway,” Williams says angrily. “But it is a place close to everything.”
For one man, it will be especially hard to leave. Karlo Dudley, or “KD,” claims he’s lived on the Parkway for 34 years, since 1981. He may be not very reliable—he also says that he has met the Pope three weeks ago for dinner and that he is the head of the Pope’s security team—but Carol Thomas, director of homeless services at Project Home, knows him well.
She also knows that he hates to leave his spot.
“During Hurricane Sandy he slept outside on the cathedral’s steps,” she recalls. The Cathedral Basilica of St Peter and Paul is right next to Parkway and Logan Square.
“KD said, ‘I’ll be fine.’ We came very early in the morning to look after him. He was still sleeping, just slept over the storm.”
KD at his spot
KD remembers the storm and says he wanted to stay outside that day to witness it. He also calls himself “head of CIA” and wears a red jacket covered with signs and writing drawn with a felt pen on all sides.
He is probably schizophrenic, according to Thomas. But he’s also a friendly guy who only gets anxious when taken away from his spot against his will.
This will be a problem.
“We hope that he will come with us and does not have to be taken by the police,” Thomas says. “He really wants to see the Pope.” Thomas already offered to help KD return within the security zone on Saturday to see witness the visit, but the procedures make it very difficult. “I’m not sure he will make it,” she says.
Femi, the artist, wants to stay too. “They haven’t thrown us out yet. We are standing strong,” he says. “I like to be underneath the law.”
He does not seem to understand that the plans to kick him out are finalized.
“Maybe Cuba did it better,” Thomas says, having seen the pictures from the Pope’s trip there. “Everyone was there to see the Pope. They probably don’t have the concerns about security that we have.”
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