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Honoring and recognizing the Senior Council of Golden Age Living Accommodations (GALA), Melvin Price, Betty Johnson, Claire Higgins, Dale Hunter, Corinne Days, Joy Humbert, Denny Samen, and Sandy Moore, for their advocacy on behalf of the residents of GALA, and for demonstrating that having a voice matters, civic engagement matters, and no Philadelphian should ever be afraid to voice their concerns.
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WHEREAS, Golden Age Living Accommodations (GALA), located at 2022 Haines Street in the West Oak Lane section of the Ninth Council District, is an affordable senior community providing homes to Philadelphians aged sixty-two and older, developed as a joint venture of Mt. Airy Baptist Church, Conifer Realty, LLC, and BCM Affordable Housing; and
WHEREAS, The Senior Council of GALA is a body of neighbors through which the seniors of GALA organize, speak for one another, and work to ensure that their community is safe, well maintained, and treated with dignity; and
WHEREAS, The members of the Senior Council herein honored — Melvin Price, Betty Johnson, Claire Higgins, Dale Hunter, Corinne Days, Joy Humbert, Denny Samen, and Sandy Moore — represent the best of civic engagement in the City of Philadelphia: neighbors who, rather than suffer in silence, stood together and spoke up for themselves and for one another; and
WHEREAS, For years, the neighbors of GALA raised concerns about the conditions in their homes and went unheard; those conditions came to a head in the summer of 2026, when neighbors endured a loss of air conditioning during the summer heat, trash storage problems that produced persistent odors and attracted rodents, and management that too often failed to respond to their residential concerns with the responsiveness and respect they deserved; and
WHEREAS, It was because they had not been heard for years that the Senior Council took action: they organized, they documented their concerns, and they engaged their elected official — and through their...
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