(Philadelphia, PA - May 04, 2016) - The Philadelphia Housing Authority has been recognized with an

Outstanding Achievement award for project design at the Oakdale Street Apartments in the historic Strawberry Mansion neighborhood. The award from the Middle Atlantic Regional Council of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Organizations (MARC NAHRO) acknowledges and touts the work that PHA has done.

"It's great to know that our peers believe that we are producing a first-class product," said Kelvin Jeremiah, PHA President and CEO. "PHA has shown time and again that it will go the extra mile to produce quality affordable housing."

The Oakdale Street Apartments have previously received recognition from the Pennsylvania Association of Housing and Redevelopment Agencies (PAHRA) for design and 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania for affordable housing which advances community development initiatives, positively impacting low-income households.

The development demonstrates what is possible throughout the neighborhood in a very limited space. Oakdale Street Apartments also meet accessibility standards. Without the economies of scale, in this case developing only 12 homes, PHA found a way to finance a high-quality, energy efficient, sustainable, small scale affordable housing development in the community.
The financing of the development broke new ground for the agency. Construction of the new units was partially funded using project based vouchers (PBV) from PHA's Housing Choice Voucher Program. This approach was the agency's first attempt to build and manage PBV units.

Typically, PHA awards these subsidies to non-profit housing providers.
In anticipation of HUD's new Rental Assistance Demonstration Program (RAD), where housing authorities can convert traditional public housing to project based voucher units, PHA wanted to test on a small scale using this method of financing in the development and operation of new homes. When fully implemented, RAD will allow PHA to leverage private funds to complete approximately $100 million in improvements, preserving affordable housing for approximately 3,000 families for the next 40 years.