December 2, 2010; Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer | NPQ reported on the financial problems at the 126-year-old Germantown Settlement in Philadelphia in a previous Newswire. Thursday, despite a request from the agency’s attorney that the bankruptcy case be dismissed giving it a chance to try to continue to operate and satisfy its creditors, a federal judge ordered that all of the organization’s holdings be sold to pay off its debts of $16 million. This will be done under the direction of a U.S. trustee and Germantown will cease all business operations. Germantown Settlement along with its subsidiary, the Greater Germantown Housing Development Corporation had, itself, filed for bankruptcy in April. The group which has, besides running programs, built low income housing, established a shopping center, an office park and a charter school has been running large operating deficits for a decade under the leadership of Emanuel V. Freeman who ran the organization for 28 years. The Inquirer reports that Freeman did not comment after the hearing but as he left he was overheard as he walked down the hallway with David Yurky, a legislative aid to a supportive City Councilwoman. “Well, David,” Freeman could be heard saying, “it is all over.”—Ruth McCambridge
About The Author
Ruth is Editor in Chief of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.
