PHILADELPHIA - Organizers of an encampment of homeless people near Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway are vowing not to leave despite the city's announced intention to clear the camp by week's end.“Residents have decided they’re not leaving,” one organizer, Jennifer Bennetch, told reporters Monday. “Organizers have advocated that they stand up for themselves.
We’re not going to get kicked around by the city like a soccer ball.”Another organizer, Scott Matt, said the group now has the city's attention “because we're visible all in one spot" and cannot leave that place.City officials last week announced that the grouping of scores of tents will be removed Friday from the athletic field where they’ve been for the past month.