When the world last heard about Stephanie Senna, she was vilified in Kensington as an “elitist” professor at Villanova who sued Philadelphia for defending street camps for homeless people.
“I came to represent all that is bad and evil in the world,” Cena said last summer, referring to her neighborhood animosity. “I am too much of a lightning rod.”
Frustrated but undefeated, Cena re-emerged as a hero in the upper town of Darby.
County and local officials specifically invited her to pursue her passion for helping the homeless, creating a homeless shelter from scratch near the 69th Street Transportation Center, a hub that attracts unoccupied transients who travel to and from Philadelphia. Depending on the source, Upper Darby has between 30 and 100 people living on its streets daily.
“Stephanie is fierce,” said Paulan Sabatino, partner at Upper Darby Recovery Without Barriers, a nonprofit that helps people with substance abuse. “She will defend the homeless tirelessly. She is the first person we have met who has fought like this.
“She is honest, and we actually believe what she says. We trust her.”
The same ideas and advocacy that drove Cena out of Kensington were exactly what Upper Darby wanted Cena to use to set up a refuge, local and county officials said.
However, as skilled as Cena is, starting a homeless shelter these days is the exception rather than the rule.
“More shelters are closing than opening across the country,” said Eric Tars, the legal director of the Washington-based National Center on Homelessness Law, the only national legal group dedicated to ending and preventing homelessness. Regardless of funding challenges, Tars said, planned shelters face complex zoning problems, and are voted on or yelled at by people who don’t want such facilities in their neighborhoods.
“People think that shelters reduce property value, but studies show they can actually increase it, finding use for previously vacant buildings,” he added.
Cena, 42, who is in the process of relocating from Queen Village to the Upper Darby area, has never run a self-contained facility before, but she has extensive experience with homelessness issues. It’s Philadelphia’s Student-Operated Emergency Housing Unit Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works with college students to provide shelter in church basements for homeless people during the colder months.
What’s great about the shelter that Cena will be opening at the end of January is that so many people are in favor of it.
“There was no resistance to this,” said Monica Taylor, vice chair of the Delaware County Council. “The community was completely on board. The town government could not be more helpful. It was a joint effort.”
Hafez Tunis, who grew up in Upper Darby and is a member of the town council, said the community’s embrace of shelter stems in part from advocates for the homeless who were “on us, and demanding more services.”
Tunis said businessmen were also tired of “non-dwellings who use alleys near shops as toilets.” “And they knew that if people had nowhere to go, these problems would stop.”
For his part, Tunis, whose family owns a Liberian restaurant in the city, added that over the years, he has seen firsthand the need for food and shelter among the less fortunate.
“I’ve been touched from all angles by how much people need help,” he said.
The next day outside the station, while Sina was walking with her 13-year-old daughter Silvia, she met Salvatore Fusco, 60, a former construction worker who had been homeless for a while.
“Homelessness makes me go crazy,” said Fusco, who was wearing a Velez jacket and carrying a Wawa bag.
Cena made an offer: “Sal, I’d like you to stay with us.”
“Does it matter if I go to the methadone clinic?” Asked. “You saved my life.”
“No, it’s okay,” said Cena, calming Fusco. “But we’ll ask the people who stay with us to contribute in some way, and you can help maintain the roofs, if you want to.”
Fusco smiled, admiring the idea that he could be on duty while receiving help. “I’ll see you soon,” he told Sina.
It took months, but Cena finally found a place to house her within walking distance of the station. A former daycare center, a 4,000-square-foot, two-story brick building, costing $490,000, paid for by a grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Delaware County will handle daily activities at the shelter, along with assistance from HUD. Cena learned that she won the Venue Management Scholarship in August.
The shelter, which will be called the Breaking Bread Community, will house about 30 people, Cena said, living two or three people in a room.
The place will be low profile, which means that people will be able to come and go without rigidly set times of arrival in the evening and departure in the morning, as in most shelters. Upper Darby actually has a more traditional shelter, known as the Life Center, which houses 32 people.
The Breaking Bread Community will also include services to help people connect with agencies that deal with substance abuse issues and other health needs and pathways toward getting home.
“The Stephanie facility will connect you to all kinds of resources,” said Tina Hamilton, founder of Upper Darby Recovery Without Barrier. “People can decide to sit down with us, have a warm meal, and that would be great. If they don’t want to go into drug treatment, well, they ate with you and you built a relationship. They’ll come back for help when they’re ready.”
Ultimately, creating a pathway to housing is the truest way to help, said Vincent Runjeon, chief administrative officer of Upper Darby. “This is why Stephanie Senna is so important, as she tackles this issue of homelessness that has been festering for decades,” he said.
Sina envisions the shelter as a place that would not only provide food and a bed, but would also increase political awareness among its residents, and she explained, “ultimately turns people into their defenders.”
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