In this July 9, 2021, photo Brett Roman Williams poses for a photograph while holding a pillow with a photo of his father, Donald Williams, lower right, and brother Derrick Williams who both were killed by gunfire 20 years apart, in Philadelphia.

PHILADELPHIA — As Brett Roman Williams stood at the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's office staring at a photo of his older brother's face, a familiar feeling welled in his chest.

Williams' father was shot and killed in 1996, when Williams was 11, and the ebb and flow of grief had washed over him for 20 years. But in 2016, when his brother was killed by gunfire, Williams reached out to a grief counselor for help coping.

Now, Williams serves on the board for the organization where he once sought solace, and he's trying to provide that same kind of support to others. But the demand is far outpacing the supply of counselors because of spiking crime.

With more than 270 homicides in Philadelphia during the first half of 2021, the city has been outpacing the number of murders in 2020, when 499 people were killed, mostly from gunfire — the highest homicide numbers in more than two decades. The number of people injured in shootings has also exploded over the past 18 months.

Williams is chairman of the board for the Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia, which provides counseling services to people affected by violence. He said there were 174 people on the waitlist at the end of June, compared with about 30 people at the same time last year.

Executive Director Natasha McGlynn said that since September, the agency has provided counseling services to 425 teenagers who have lost family or friends, or who have themselves survived gunfire. She said counselors are seeing layers of trauma and revictimization as gun violence increases.

Crime has been spiking nationwide after it plummeted in the early months of the pandemic, with many cities seeing the type of double-digit increase in gun violence that is plaguing Philadelphia.