Philadelphia City Council blocks the lease renewal on city-run homeless shelter

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Philadelphia City Council blocked the lease renewal for a controversial treatment facility in the Fairmount neighborhood.

The building on the 2100 block of West Girard Avenue currently houses a city-run homeless shelter.

Residents in the neighborhood expressed alarm after 90 beds were added to the site by Mayor Cherelle Parker's administration, however.

Neighbors fear the facility could be used as an addiction treatment center for people displaced from the streets of Kensington.

The city says that won't be the case.

The council's vote prohibits the city from renewing the facility lease when it expires in 2026.