Project HOME opens multi-million dollar facility in troubled Kensington neighborhood

PHILADELPHIA - Project HOME, the longtime non-profit organization fighting homelessness in Philadelphia, commemorated its newest facility in the city's troubled Kensington section on Thursday. 

The Inn of Amazing Mercy will offer shelter, healthcare, and drug rehab for the homeless living in ground zero of Philadelphia's ongoing opioid crisis.

Project HOME collected $27M, mostly in private donations, to remodel a mult-story brick building on Hunting Street for 62 residents that comes with a kitchen, workout room and place to gather.

Rick Peterson, a recovering heroin addict who has been homeless for 35 years, called the new center "fantastic." 

"It gives you a sense of self, a sense of responsibility," Peterson said. "When you have a home base you have a purpose, you have a way to work, you have a foundation."

The opening of Inn of Amazing Mercy was commemorated Thursday with a ceremony attended by big-money donors, including iconic rock star Jon Bon Jovi who called the center a sign of hope. 

"What I see at the Inn of Amazing Mercy is hope," he said. "I see a community that is committed to ending chronic homelessness and offering real solutions to a crisis that has gripped the country."

Project HOME co-founder Sister Mary Scullion has created 1,000 units of housing, an accomplishment that reflects the non-profits motto of "None of us are home until all of us are home." 

"ProjectHOME is not the solution, we have the way, we understand what is necessary, the solution lies in all of us," Sister Mary Scullion said.