(Philadelphia, PA - December 21, 2016)- 2016 will go down as an
extremely productive year for the Philadelphia Housing Authority
(PHA) but nowhere was the positive impact felt more than in the
Sharswood neighborhood of North Philadelphia where PHA is
overseeing a historic transformation.
The highlight there was the grand opening of Blumberg Phase I,
57 homes on vacant land adjacent to the site where the high-rise
Blumberg Apartments formerly stood. The Sharswood/Blumberg
Transformation Plan includes 10 phases and when fully realized in
5-7 years it will yield over 1,200 homes with a mix of affordable
and market-rate, rental, and homeownership.
Also as part of the plan, PHA expanded a successful home repair
program with Habitat for Humanity aimed at helping an additional 30
Sharswood homeowners remain in the neighborhood. The partnership
with Habitat was further expanded to include development of 20 new
affordable homes for sale in the community to attract and retain
lower-income families to the neighborhood.
PHA's commitment to Sharswood went beyond building homes. The
agency took major steps toward developing a new headquarters
building there as well. The housing authority board approved a $45
million contract for the construction of the building on Ridge
Avenue. A deal was also reached with Sav-A-Lot to bring a
supermarket to the neighborhood on the same block. Finally, in
December, PHA and the School District of Philadelphia reached
agreement to reopen the former Vaux building to serve students in
the Sharswood community with a locally managed high quality high
school.
Later in the year, unrelated to Sharswood, PHA reached an
agreement to work with Alterra Property Group, LLC to convert PHA's
former headquarters location at 2012 Chestnut Street into 160
market rate apartments and 40 PHA-supported apartments for
lower-middle income tenants. The idea here was to include an
affordable component within a Center City luxury apartment
building.
"We know that the Chestnut Street property is attractive and had
received numerous inquiries about it," said Kelvin Jeremiah, PHA
President and CEO. "It's in our interest and the City's interest to
redevelop this site to maintain a vibrant, healthy atmosphere in
Center City. Including affordable apartments was a critical
component of this deal for us as well."
PHA was busy in other parts of town as well. The agency's plans
to develop a three-square block area in the Strawberry Mansion
neighborhood received a big financial boost when the Pennsylvania
Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) awarded Low Income Housing Tax
Credits worth over $13 million toward the construction of the new
$23 million development. Construction will begin early in 2017.
PHA's partnerships with HELP USA and the Archdiocese of
Philadelphia made the construction of 139 new affordable housing
units possible at the old Spring Garden School, St. Francis Villa,
and St. John Neumann Place II. In April 2016, the PHA Board of
Commissioners agreed to sell the former site of the Liddonfield
Homes in Northeast Philadelphia to NewCourtland, Inc., for $5.5
million. Once a final agreement is reached, the nonprofit will
build 300 units of affordable senior housing on a portion of the
site. Another portion of the site will also be developed as
athletic fields for Holy Family University along with other site
improvements.
The housing authority also made strides in rehabbing its
scattered site portfolio. In the past year, 211 scattered site
homes were rehabbed. This again underscores PHA's efforts to
produce as many affordable homes as possible, especially in
improving neighborhoods.
PHA's Police Department officers began using body cameras to
improve transparency and service to residents and the general
public in early 2016. By mid-year, two more PHA residents joined
the department as officers. There are now eight residents on
the force with the agency committed to hiring a total of ten
qualified residents to become officers.
PhillySEEDS, Inc., a charitable PHA subsidiary, honored 62 PHA
residents seeking higher education with $256,000 in scholarships in
2016. The scholarship total this year increased $37,000 from a year
ago. The charitable group also provided a total of 2,500 book bags
stuffed with school supplies to PHA residents at 23 sites across
the city.
Funding was approved for the extension of a successful after
school program at the Norris Apartments. The Department of Housing
and Urban Development (HUD) highlighted the program as a model for
resident engagement under the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative
(CNI). The City of Philadelphia, the lead partner in the CNI grant
for the North Central neighborhood, and HUD have agreed to support
the program over the next three years under that grant.
The Jobs Plus program opened at the Raymond Rosen Community
Center in North Philadelphia in mid-summer. The program allows
residents to conveniently access the job related services they need
to get ahead economically at a "one stop" service center.
Topping the year off, the Philadelphia Business Journal named
PHA President and CEO Kelvin A. Jeremiah one of the Most Admired
CEOs. The Pennsylvania Apartment Association and the National
Association of Housing and Redevelopment Organizations honored
several PHA developments with awards for design, maintenance, and
community presentation.
"I could not be more proud of our PHA team for the
accomplishments we achieved in 2016 for the families and
communities we serve," Jeremiah said. "At a time of steadily
decreasing federal funding for our programs, we have to be smarter
and more resourceful than ever in order to carry out our mission
and serve as many people as possible."