|
PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia Housing Authority has no plans to slow down its robust pace of building affordable housing for low-income seniors, disabled citizens and families in the New Year even in the face of the weak economy.
The agency has announced its schedule, which includes beginning and completing development of the first phases of a 101-home site called Mantua Square in West Philadelphia (where PHA demolished an 18-story high-rise in 2008) and a 95-unit complex with commercial space and a senior center in Germantown called Warnock Street.
“We have found a way to leverage and stretch our dollars through good economic times and bad over the past 11 years. The citizens of Philadelphia have come to expect, and have a right to expect, that PHA is going to continue rebuilding distressed communities,” said PHA Executive Director Carl Greene.
Mantua Square, a $27 million development, will be located in the area of 35th and Fairmount Avenue. Warnock Street, a $38 million project, is located off of Germantown Avenue and the 1000 block of West Cambria Street. Both projects will be funded through a combination of public housing dollars and private investment through the Low Income Housing Tax credit program.
Aside from the two announced construction projects for 2009, PHA is working on a plan for a major transformation in Southwest Philadelphia of the high-crime Paschall neighborhood. A major benefit to PHA reconstruction at previous sites such as Martin Luther King, Richard Allen, Cambridge, and Greater Grays Ferry Estates has been a dramatic drop in the crime rate.
“The Paschall deal has the potential to produce the kind of positive impact that only a plan of that scale can achieve. You need a number of committed public and private sector partners to bring a plan like that one to fruition, especially with tight credit markets,” Director Greene said. “But if the will is there we can make it happen.”
PHA completed three projects in 2008, the 80-unit Marshall Shepard Village in West Philadelphia, Ludlow Homes in North Philadelphia featuring 192 homes (including 53 by PHA partner APM), and most recently Nellie Reynolds Gardens, a 64-unit senior building with adult daily living center.
Since the arrival of Carl Greene at PHA’s helm in 1998 the agency has completed more than 7,000 homes and apartments, about half brand-new and the other half completely renovated.
The 2008 results may seem even more remarkable considering that PHA’s federal funding was threatened at one point by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. PHA filed suit against HUD claiming the federal agency tried to punish the Philadelphia agency for not turning land over to a private developer at little or no cost. A HUD secretary resigned, in part, over the allegations in lawsuit. A new HUD secretary took office and working with Pennsylvania U.S. Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey Jr., resolved the issue, keeping PHA’s federal funding intact.
PHA begins 2009 with a restored positive relationship with HUD and plans for continued construction and expanded services to the growing senior market.
For Mantua, Warnock, and Paschall site plans, please click here.
|
