Pathways to Housing PA

"They’re easy to work with…."

Pathways to Housing PA works on an elegantly simple model – Housing First – to transform the lives of homeless and disabled people by housing them directly from the streets, without precondition, then addressing their underlying mental health, addiction, medical care, employment, and education issues. A “scattered site” model relocates individuals in apartments throughout Philadelphia, fostering a sense of home and self-determination and accelerating their reintegration. Pathways’ goal is for people to become part of the community – not just live in the community. The model was created in New York in 1992 and came to Philadelphia in 2008; since then, more than 400 people from the city’s chronic street homeless population have reclaimed their lives. Housing the homeless costs less than the expenses of living on the street – jail, ambulance services, hospitalization, soup kitchens and police interventions – and creates a “win-win” situation by renting vacant apartments throughout the city.

When Pathways split off from the New York office, President & CEO Christine Simiriglia realized that their infrastructure for accounting needed significant improvement. “We had an accountant but no one with the skills to be a CFO or a controller, and we needed to get a lot into place quickly,” she recalls. She called Your Part-Time Controller and got an immediate response.

“I was in the middle of a hundred things and they took the accounting issues off my plate. They helped me understand what we needed in a CFO, then they helped me screen, interview and hire one.”

Years later, Pathways maintains its partnership with YPTC through such projects as developing standard operating procedures for the billing processes of the organization’s various programs, which include the Furniture Bank, workforce development, and treatment for substance abuse, mental health and medical needs. Simiriglia is very happy with the relationship.

“There aren’t a lot of vendors that I’d give accolades to, but Your Part-Time Controller is one that I would,” she says. “They’re easy to work with. I can give them a project and not have to monitor them. You can use them as much or as little as you need with no sales pressure. It’s nice to feel comfortable with a company like that.”

More than anything, she appreciates what YPTC has done for the organization. “They helped us put an infrastructure in place that has enabled us to grow exponentially – we’ve quadrupled in size. And that has enabled us to help more people.”