Twenty-eight vacant properties across Germantown are slated to come back online as affordable housing through a new Philadelphia Housing Authority project.
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The agency purchased the properties through the Philadelphia Land Bank in October and plans to invest $84M to turn them into 121 affordable housing units, WHYY reported. Work on the apartments is slated to begin in spring 2027.
While plans for the properties remain fluid, the PHA expects to provide units with between one and five bedrooms to residents making up to 30% of the area median income, which comes out to just under $36K for a family of four.
Until 2020, the properties were owned by companies with ties to Emanuel Freeman, who helmed the once-powerful Germantown Settlement social services agency.
A judge ordered the organization to liquidate in 2010, but Freeman held on to some of the properties, where he continued collecting rent but faced deferred maintenance issues.
The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority seized 45 properties from him following a lengthy court battle.
“We inherited property that is currently uninhabitable,” PHA President Kelvin Jeremiah said, according to WHYY.
The agency has been busy expanding its portfolio in recent years.
The PHA earlier this month started its rehabilitation of the Westpark Apartments complex overlooking the Market-Frankford Line in West Philadelphia, which is slated to bring 1,000 mixed-income apartments to the neighborhood.
It has also shared plans to build 75 new units at the former University City Townhomes site a few blocks east. An effort to demolish the complex elicited intense protests from residents and housing activists, and the City Council ultimately stepped in to preserve the site’s affordable status.
In April, the PHA completed work on 63 new affordable low-rise units on Harlan and 23rd streets in the Sharswood section of North Philadelphia. They replaced the former Norman Blumberg Apartments, which had become a magnet for blight and drug activity before being demolished in 2018.
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