At PHA, we're bringing more than hope to this great city. We're bringing homes.
Neighborhood by neighborhood, we're changing the definition of public housing.
Public housing no longer means warehousing people in tall buildings. It means well-built, contemporary low-rise homes that residents can be proud of.
Public housing no longer means walling off a property where no one from outside the "project" dares to wander in. Today, it means building modern developments that blend in and become part of the surrounding community.
Public housing no longer means crime magnets that drag down the quality of life and property values for miles around. Instead, it means the kind of developments that drive down the crime rate and propel property values higher.
Take a drive through Philadelphia. Sections that not long ago were filled with boarded up slums are suddenly springing to life, thanks to hundreds of millions of dollars in public and private investment.
Drive by the Richard Allen development in North Philadelphia, once one of the most notorious addresses in the city. I promise you will not believe your eyes when you see what’s now on that property. The same goes for Schuylkill Falls in East Falls where we recently built and sold homes on the same site where we built homes for rent to low-income Philadelphians. In fact, a private developer is now building market rate homes on the same site.
And then there’s the biggest undertaking of them all, the former Tasker Homes in South Philadelphia. People driving by the site along the Schuylkill Expressway are quite surprised to learn that sparkling townhouse community is public housing. Now called Greater Grays Ferry Estates, this site is helping to lift the entire Grays Ferry neighborhood, which will be further enhanced by a new high school now being built next door.
Finally, we have made dramatic changes to the Section 8 housing voucher program. We are enforcing stringent new rules to ensure that both landlords and tenants in the program are good neighbors.
The message I hope to convey to you is that everything we do at PHA has one goal – to make life better for all residents of Philadelphia.
