Abolitionist

City tales: Philip Mangano isn't out to reduce homelessness, he's out to end it | Mark Bergin

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness

SEATTLE— For nearly two decades, Philip Mangano dedicated himself to helping people on the streets the best way he knew how—shelters, soup kitchens, bread lines. He traces the call of compassion to Christian thinkers like St. Francis of Assisi and Simone Weil. But in recent years, now as executive director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), Mangano has adopted more innovative solutions and demanded quantifiable results for his efforts. He traces that calling to President George W. Bush.

In a 2003 budget address before Congress, Bush called for ending chronic homelessness, a bold vision that Mangano says reshaped the national conversation. "He changed the verb of homelessness," Mangano recalled during a recent two-hour interview with WORLD. "After 20 years of managing the crisis, the intent now was ending the disgrace."