Who is working to save Kensington? For some Philadelphians it's personal.
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - As Philadelphia outreach workers and police removed tents, needles and trash along the Kensington corridor, 41-year-old Robert Keepsey remembered the painful struggles of his childhood growing up in the neighborhood.
"I grew up here. There's families here, like grandmothers, children, people that got to go to school," Keepsey said. "People that go to work and it's not fair to them. I was thrown out of my house when I was 8 years old. Tried to stay with other family. Tried to figure it out. Was on the run. Didn't go to school. Stuff like that. Winded up living with people on the streets. Terrible situation. Mother on drugs."
Now sober, Keepsey runs a recovery center in South Philadelphia. He said Wednesday's sweep only clears the surface of what's truly needed.
"If you have a bunch of people that are on drugs and suffering from the disease of addiction and then you have people around that are selling drugs, it's like purgatory," Keepsey said. "They need help, these people. They need, real help. Like not free but in treatment given to them and a fair chance to live life again."
While many business owners along the K and A corridor were afraid to speak about Philadelphia's ongoing open-air drug market because of who they claim are drug dealers, Savage Sisters executive director Sarah Laurel is not.
"I went up to him and he was like, 'You're not allowed to be on the block,'" Laurel said. "And I was like, 'My storefront is here. They are going to come back. There were no services that were offered as promised by the city."
City officials said while most people living in the encampment left before outreach teams could offer help, dozens have since last month's "planned encampment resolution."
"I don't understand why you would have outreach workers engaging with upwards of 100 people telling them they can gain access to resources and treatment," Laurel said, "and then on the day of, have the police displace them completely."
Keepsey hopes more will be done.
"This way right here seems like it is working," Keepsey said, "but it's going to take a lot more than what they are doing. And I know that for a fact. It's a tough question because really, what they're going to do is roam the other areas and stuff like that. But it still doesn't justify the fact of, 'OK, just let them stay.'"
