PHILADELPHIA -- It seems as if almost everyone has a connection to the violence.

Bill Richardson owns a flower shop a few blocks away from a North Philadelphia Dunkin' Donuts, where a police officer was fatally shot on Oct. 31. Janice Winston's son-in-law was shot and killed in April 2006. Wardell Ali's son was killed the year before.

And Hassan Freeman, of South Philadelphia, shot a man when he was 17 and spent more than a decade in jail.

For him, Sen. Barack Obama's message of "change" is a welcome one.

"I've got to try something new, man," said Mr. Freeman, now 37 and outreach coordinator for the antiviolence group Men United for a Better Philadelphia. "That's what Barack Obama brings to me."

Although Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has a formidable lead in the rest of Pennsylvania, here in the state's largest city the senator from Illinois is 25 points ahead, according to a poll released by Quinnipiac University this week.

A quarter of the city's residents lived below the poverty level in 2006, according to census statistics. During that same year, there were 406 homicides, giving Philadelphia the top homicide rate among the country's 10 biggest cities.

At the same time, key federal programs aimed at combating crime have been disappearing.

Since 1994, the Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, has helped Philadelphia hire more than 750 police officers and spend nearly $3 million on anti-crime technology. But COPS has seen a steady decline in funding under the Bush administration, from $1.6 billion in 1998 to $359 million this year.

The administration has proposed even more cuts this year, although it is beefing up funding for newer programs like the Violent Crime Reduction Partnership, which doesn't provide money to hire more officers.

The changes are a major disappointment for Philadelphia's U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, an Obama supporter and chairman of the Congressional Urban Caucus.

"This administration has paid almost zero attention to cities," Mr. Fattah said.

Mayor Michael Nutter, an African-American and Clinton supporter who took office this year after running on a public safety platform, called the president's policies a "disgrace."

"Is it any wonder crime is on the rise?" he said after leaving a packed community meeting at a police district in West Philadelphia.

In fact, the city has seen a fall in its murder rate in recent months. The front page of the police department's Web site features a homicide counter, showing that, as of March 20, there were 61 killings, a nearly 27 percent drop from the year before.

But city residents aren't ready to celebrate, especially in the 16th police district, which sits on the edge of the campuses of Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania and hosted the mayor earlier this week. As of Tuesday night's meeting, there had been seven homicides in the district in 2008, up from five in the same period in 2007 and more than in any other district in the city.

"It's not a distinction we like to have," said Capt. Christine Coulter, the district's commanding officer.

A 20-year police veteran, she said she would gladly accept more federal help for the city, including an expansion of COPS and the Weed and Seed program, another Justice Department initiative that gives money to selected neighborhoods to help reduce drug trafficking, gun violence, blight and unemployment.

"There are certain issues beyond the control of police," Capt. Coulter said. "If people are working, there is less crime."

More than 80 percent of the perpetrators and victims of homicide in Philadelphia have prior criminal records, creating an urgent need for programs aimed at rehabilitating ex-offenders.

Capt. Coulter and Mr. Nutter both touted the city's new $10,000 tax credit for businesses that are willing to hire former prisoners. The mayor said the federal government should consider a similar tax credit.

Dozens of neighborhood residents squeezed into the police district's meeting room to hear Mr. Nutter speak and to share their frustrations about dirty streets and abandoned houses. But many didn't hesitate when asked if their lives had been touched by the city's recent spasms of violence.

"I have a lot of security on my home," said Dolores Montague, 67, a former special aide in the public schools. "I would like to live in a better area."

Ms. Montague said her niece's husband was killed several weeks ago. Her daughter, who lives in San Antonio, has been pushing for her to move, but she doesn't want to leave behind other family members, including her 87-year-old mother.

She said she doubts that any presidential candidate can solve the city's crime problem, especially if parents don't take responsibility for keeping their own children away from the streets.

"I don't care how much money they put out. They have to get to the parents," Ms. Montague said. "People know their children are committing crimes."

Ms. Winston's son-in-law, Arien Robinson, was murder victim No. 112 in 2006. But her top issue is government funding for health care.

She praised Mrs. Clinton for trying to adopt a universal health care system in the early 1990s. At the time, Ms. Winston sent a letter to the then first lady and President Bill Clinton, asking for help for her son, who was uninsured and suffering from cancer.

She was impressed when she received a response from a White House staff member.

Ms. Winston's son died from his illness.

A bespectacled Mr. Freeman, of the Men United group, now seems far removed from his days as a teenage "hustler" selling drugs on the streets of South Philadelphia.

He said he shot a man who was trying to steal from him, then turned himself over to police. When he left jail, he started working in a car detail shop. It was there he met Sylvester Johnson, the city's former police commissioner, who connected him to Men United.

Every Wednesday night, group members gather at Hatfield House, a Greek revival farmhouse that dates to the 18th century and sits at the edge of Fairmount Park, serving as a refuge from the nearby crumbling rowhouses, empty lots and drug corners.

The group often heads out into those streets to advocate against gun violence that is killing hundreds of young black men every year in their city.

"Anybody and everybody can get a gun in Philadelphia if they want one," said Mark Harrell, Men United's executive director and co-founder.

He blames both Congress and the state Legislature in Harrisburg, which has been unwilling to give the city the ability to create its own stricter gun laws.

Another Men United co-founder, Bilal Qayyum, spent six days last year walking from Philadelphia to Harrisburg to persuade state legislators to pay attention to the city's plight.

This week, a steady rain kept the group from conducting its regular street patrol. Instead, nine members gathered around a conference table to discuss their feelings about the presidential primary and the national political spotlight coming to Pennsylvania.

They readily told their own tales of violence. It was the third anniversary of the murder of Rasheed Hightower, the 25-year-old son of member Mr. Ali. A maintenance worker at Penn, he was shot and killed after getting into an argument with a friend, Mr. Ali said.

Mr. Harrell argued that the federal government could create thousands of jobs by investing federal dollars in the country's crumbling infrastructure. It was a hot topic in the city last week, when a cracked pillar forced Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials to close a stretch of I-95, one of the nation's busiest highways.

The group also called for an end to the Iraq war, which is costing billions of dollars a month in taxpayer money that could aid urban America.

"If we created jobs," Mr. Freeman said, "there would be no excuse for brothers to be on the corner selling drugs."