A Golden Opportunity: On February 28, 2023, the Philadelphia Housing Authority held a grand opening for Harrison Plaza Senior Tower, a newly renovated building of affordable housing for seniors. From left, PHA Board Chair Lynette Brown-Sow; Gwendolyn Boyd-White, daughter of PHA honoree Christine Boyd; Darrell L. Clarke, City Council President, Cynthia Boyd; Adrianne Todman, Deputy Secretary of HUD, and far right, Kelvin A. Jeremiah, President and CEO of PHA.

Harrison Plaza Senior Tower is Remade, Bringing a Promising Future, And Transforming a Tower of Aging Public Housing

 

 

Media Contact:
Nichole Tillman, 215-888-2869
[email protected]

(Philadelphia, PA – February 28, 2023) – The Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) today celebrated the preservation and renovation of Harrison Plaza Senior Tower, a 15-story high rise that offers seniors an affordable, comfortable and secure living experience.

The building, located at 10th & Master Streets, features energy-efficient appliances, and units with grab bars and other life safety features that offer older residents peace of mind. In addition to the complete redesign of the residential units and ground floor, the exterior of the building has been significantly renovated, including repointing of the entire building, selective brick and sill replacement, and new insulated aluminum and glass awning windows.

“This newly renovated building allows Philly seniors to age well, and, with dignity. PHA preserved a 67-year-old landmark and, in doing so, transformed an aging tower of public housing in urgent need of costly repairs,” said Kelvin A. Jeremiah, President and CEO of PHA. “Low-Income Housing Tax Credits were crucial for this transformation. They are critical to address preservation, development and redevelopment goals.”

“Harrison Plaza is a wonderful example of how federal, state, and local leaders can create high-quality and affordable homes,” said Adrianne Todman, HUD’s Deputy Secretary. “Through HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration process, Philadelphia’s local housing authority was able to modernize and preserve an elemental property in the heart of the city. The impact of our collective work will certainly be felt by the seniors who live here and for those seniors seeking an affordable place to live in the future.”

The new Harrison Plaza Senior Tower, a 4 percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credit gut renovation, has a total of 116 units, consisting of 104 one-bedroom and 12 two-bedroom units, a community room with an outdoor patio, health screening room, management and maintenance offices, a common laundry, and a 15-space parking lot.

Congressman Dwight Evans (D-PA-3) said, “I’m pleased to see this 116-unit building preserved and renovated, and I’m optimistic that the major affordable-housing investments we passed in the last two years under President Biden’s leadership will result in more progress for Philadelphia!”

“We’re proud to support the preservation and renovation of the Harrison Plaza Senior Tower for our senior citizens who need safe, modern and affordable housing,” said Council President Darrell L. Clarke. “This is also a project that makes sense – renovating existing housing stock where possible, as opposed to always relying on new construction, which is more costly. We’re delighted to work with our strong partners at the Philadelphia Housing Authority and Kelvin Jeremiah in support of this renovation for senior citizens.”

PHA converted the Harrison Plaza to Project Based Voucher (PBV) assistance under the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) Program. One of the major benefits of RAD conversion is that it enables leveraging of new financial resources to improve living conditions and address the long-term capital needs of public housing developments either through renovations to existing buildings or the development of new replacement housing units.

The total development costs are approximately $48 million, which includes a $6 million acquisition cost of the building, and construction costs of approximately $37 million. Perryman Shoemaker was awarded the construction management contract.

Angelo Perryman, President and CEO 
of Perryman Construction, and Maura Hesdon, General Manager of Shoemaker Construction Co. said, “Perryman Shoemaker is proud of our work with PHA to transform the Harrison Plaza tower into a safe, modern, and comfortable home for senior residents in North Philadelphia.”

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 About the Philadelphia Housing Authority:
The Philadelphia Housing Authority’s mission is to open doors to affordable housing, economic, opportunity, and safe sustainable communities to benefit Philadelphia residents with low incomes. To learn more visit www.pha.phila.gov.

About Perryman Shoemaker:
Perryman Shoemaker has proudly served the Greater Philadelphia Area since 2004. Both founding firms are multi-generational family businesses, with a combined 140+ in the construction industry. Their areas of building construction expertise include apartments and multi-family, K-12 schools, retail, parking garages, hospitals and healthcare facilities. Perryman Shoemaker is a nationally certified MBE firm. 

A lottery will randomly select 10,000 applicants to be added to the list

NEWS RELEASE
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[email protected]; 215-888-2869 ; 

Philadelphia – January 9, 2023 – The Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) today announced that — for the first time in more than 12 years — the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program will open its waiting list.

HCV (formerly known as Section 8) is a federal government program for assisting very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market.  With the current waiting list now exhausted, PHA will open the list by accepting on-line applications at www.pha.phila.gov for a two-week period from Monday, January 23 at 6:00 a.m. to Sunday, February 5 at 5:59 p.m. 

“Our goal is to ensure a fair, open, transparent barrier-free process with broad community outreach and equal access for all interested applicants. Getting the word out is a top priority since previous applications periods favored those who applied first. Under this system, all applications in the lottery pool have an equal chance of being selected.” said PHA President and CEO Kelvin A. Jeremiah. “Going forward, this process will allow PHA to open the HCV waiting list more frequently, providing others in the community a chance to apply in just a few years when the waiting list is re-opened.”

“I applaud PHA for not only re-opening the waiting list, but doing so in a way that is fair and transparent,” said Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney. “The Housing Choice Voucher program is an important part of Philadelphia’s commitment to providing affordable housing to all residents, and we welcome this opportunity to make more vouchers available to those in need of housing.”

“There is an urgent need in our City for more affordable housing of every kind, and Philadelphians are clamoring for it,” said City Council President Darrell L. Clarke, a champion of affordable housing in Philadelphia. “We applaud our partners at the Philadelphia Housing Authority, including President & CEO Jeremiah, for diligently working to reduce and clear the waiting list for this Federal program to a point where they can now open it up to new applicants. We strongly endorse this effort and our shared goal: a safe, well-maintained place to live for every Philadelphian who needs one.”

“PHA is committed to extensive, multi-lingual outreach efforts through the enrollment period — with the goal of reaching all racial and ethnic groups, persons with limited English proficiency, seniors, and people with disabilities,” said Jeremiah, who added this warning: “Don’t get scammed.  Applicants should not share personal data or send money to anyone who claims they can get them on the PHA waiting list.”

Congressman Dwight Evans (D-PA-3) said, “This is very welcome news, made possible in part by historic funding for housing that we approved in the last Congress! And I want to reinforce what PHA President and CEO Jeremiah has said about how important it is for people to make sure they are getting on the official PHA list and avoiding potential scams.”

At the end of the period, there will be 10,000 applicants randomly selected in a computerized lottery system to be placed on the waiting list.  A preference will be given to applicants who currently live, work, or have been hired to work in Philadelphia. PHA will make 2,000 vouchers immediately available to qualified applicants within that group.

PHA created barrier-free access for this opportunity by working with partners in diverse communities throughout Philadelphia.

The lottery method is allowed under federal regulations and has been successfully used by other large U.S. housing authorities. PHA anticipates that a list of 10,000 applicants will be sufficient for an approximate three- to five-year period to cover voucher issuance and turnover needs.

Once the application period opens on January 23^rd, through February 5^th, applicants can go online to www.pha.phila.gov from any device. The online application and important informational materials will be translated into Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese and Russian. Other languages will be available through Google Translate.  They can also apply the designated call center at 215-999-3102. Individuals with hearing or speech disabilities using TDD or TTY technology may call 7-1-1 for assistance. The phone line will include live agent and interpreter services for applicants who may require translation or additional support due to a disability.

Following the closure of the two-week application period, PHA will:

Notify, by March 1^st, the 10,000 applicants who were randomly selected by lottery of their place on the waiting list via mail and email.

Notify all other applicants that they were not selected for a spot on the waiting list via mail and email.

Make 2,000 vouchers available to the selected waiting list applicants. As PHA begins to pull applicants from the waiting list, each household will be evaluated for eligibility (including for the residency preference) prior to voucher issuance. 

Currently, PHA houses over 19,000 individuals and families and over 44,000 household members under the HCV program. There are also over 5,200 active landlords under the HCV program. The HCV wait list was closed in 2010 because the number of families on the waiting list at the time (over 55,000) far exceeded the number of vouchers allocated to PHA. 

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