The CARES Rent Relief Program administered by the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency has a process so cumbersome that in August almost 17,000 tenants applied for relief but only 1,800 tenants were approved.

The majority of COVID-19 rental relief funding has come from the federal government’s $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES), not grantmakers.

On Monday the City gave notice it would evict the residents of two encampments the next day. After a flurry of actions on Tuesday, the residents find themselves with a reprieve until Thursday morning, when a federal judge is slated to hear their testimony.

The City announced this morning it will disband the autonomous tent city by next Friday. But Brandon Dorfman takes us inside, to meet organizers and the people experiencing homelessness who called it home.

"Are we trying to eradicate homelessness without providing adequate, affordable housing? Are we innovating rather than investing?" asks columnist Andrew Huff.

The pandemic is raising what has always been an important question, but which has now become an urgent question: Is shelter obsolete?

"If we care about health, education, crime reduction, economic growth, and the growth of our city as a whole then we need to care about the housing that makes these things possible," says guest columnist Corrine O’Connell of Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia.

Deepen your knowledge base, stoke your passions, maybe even learn how to save a life.

The Housing First model focuses on people experiencing chronic homelessness — and on long-term housing retention and supportive services.