The Friends Rehabilitation Program (FRP), a non-profit organization based on Quaker principles, strives to increase affordable housing in Philadelphia. In the 1980’s, FRP started a housing rehabilitation project in the Belmont neighborhood in West Philadelphia that has come to be known as the Sarah Allen Lucretia Mott Community. Analyzing the FRP and the Sarah Allen project can yield clues about how other organizations can be effective in addressing poverty.

FRP’s philosophy is not overtly post-structural. However, its focus on housing as a means of addressing poverty conforms to the post-structural view. The tangible results of the Sarah Allen Project show that conceptualizing poverty through a post-structural lens can be effective.

Another key lesson to be learned from the Sarah Allen Project and the FRP is the way the organization has related to the people whose problems it is addressing. FRP is sensitive to not render the residents as clients; it has tried to empower them by involving them in decision making roles. Fostering community ties is also an integral part of FRP’s agenda. Although FRP’s efforts to empower the residents fo the Sarah Allen Project have only been partly successful so far, they still hold important lessons for other organizations seeking to address poverty.