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PHILADELPHIA

Turning Neighborhoods Around

During the 1990s the CDC members of the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations (PADC) responded to the increasing need for livable housing in neighborhoods around the city. Those CDCs, often with support from the Philadelphia office of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), developed over 3,650 housing units and created more than 1 million square feet of commercial space. It also turned 750 vacant lots into community parks and gardens and provided more than 7,000 residents with job training.

Then, in 2001, Mayor John Street , seeing that many areas of the city were still declining and in need of a massive and new sort of rejuvenation, created the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI). A multi-year, multifaceted urban revitalization plan, NTI has the goal of demolishing dilapidated and vacant housing to make room for new development, to be done by non-profit as well as for-profit developers. The new housing would be more diverse than what existed before—since the city will likely never again have to accommodate 2 million people, and thus can give more elbow room to each home.

 

Large Scale Neighborhood Initiatives: APM

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LISC is helping CDCs with large-scale residential and commercial projects. One is APM, Asociacion Puertorriquenos en Marcha (Association of Puerto Ricans on the Move), a CDC dedicated to assisting Latino residents in lower North Philly, where home ownership rates have for years lagged behind those in the rest of the city. With financial help from LISC, APM has developed 50 homes for ownership and plans to develop another 100. APM has also built and manages several successful rental housing developments, and built a free-standing shopping center in the neighborhood.

In 2002 APM, along with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, designed a Neighborhood Revitalization Plan. Its focus is on making optimal use of a designated development zone in North Philadelphia , where vacancy rates hover at 50 percent. APM's philosophy is that by building homes with yards and nearby green spaces (both in short supply in the city), integrated into commercial corridors, parks, pedestrian walkways, and transit points, it can create a more competitive property market.

Current Challenges

Although housing in the City Center is relatively plentiful and inexpensive, it often does not fit the needs of people looking to move to the area: most units are too old, require extensive repair, and are located in areas where too many other homes have been abandoned. Also, most are lacking yards or green space. In short, those who can afford Philadelphia 's housing find it undesirable and those who cannot afford it do not have enough viable options. The work of LISC and its partners is largely geared toward making the communities throughout Philadelphia more attractive to working families, young professionals, and immigrants. Through its continued initiatives in key commercial corridors, by refurbishing housing to make it more competitive, and by constructing attractive affordable housing, LISC is using Living Cities resources to make Philadelphia's neighborhoods magnets for people again. For example, several CDCs have been active in developing or cooperating in the development of charter and community schools, to help working families with children overcome issues with the city’s long- underfunded school system.