City to place abuse agencies under one roof

G ETTING justice for the victims of childhood sexual abuse in Philadelphia should now be a little easier.

In what he called a "major announcement" for the city, Mayor Nutter signed a bill Tuesday that will relocate the Police Department's Special Victims Unit, the Department of Human Services' Sexual Abuse Investigations Unit and the Philadelphia Children's Alliance to the same facility on Hunting Park Avenue near Macalester Street, in North Philadelphia.

"This is one step to making city government more efficient, and I would say more humane and sensitive to the victims of abuse," Nutter said.

Operating out of the same building, which is now vacant, will allow officers investigating abuse cases to pool resources with the social workers assigned to their victims and streamline how the cases are handled, Nutter said. Combining the departments into one location also relieves the pressure on young victims of sexual abuse by reducing the number of interviews they have to endure.

"If our response is not coordinated, children may be traumatized by the process intended to help them," said Christine Kirchner, executive director of the Children's Alliance. "When children find the courage to speak about abuse, we need to support them as best we can."

Kirchner said that her organization has been lobbying for decades to have the agencies housed in the same facility, after similar systems in Houston, Newark, N.J., and other cities found success in prosecuting sexual predators. An attempt to house a combined facility in East Falls was denied in July, after neighborhood opposition.

"This new facility will foster deeper collaboration between the services in an attempt to end sexual abuse in our city," she said. "This is something to celebrate."

Before the offices are relocated, the building will be expanded by 10,000 square feet. Nutter estimated that the project would be completed either "late this year or early next."