07/20/2017
UPDATE: A wealthy developer and Company stormed the ZBA To Stop Low Income Housing Complex.
POINT BREEZE
A DEVELOPMENT OF about 33 affordable rental homes in Point Breeze moved a step closer to reality Wednesday when the ZBA approved the valances of two vacant parcels to the Women's Community Revitalization Project (WCRP).
One developer and his boss "Howard" now plan to file a lawsuit against city zoning officials, hoping to stop this project.
Women's community revitalization project released renderings of the 33 low-incoming housing units that it wants to build on this land. They say that this will benefit the community because "It's affordable rental homes target it to Point breeze residents." And also " It's an opportunity to fill vacant lot with a productive use."
The Mamie Nichols Townhomes would consist of one- to three-bedroom apartments and townhouses. It is named for a Point Breeze community activist who died in 2009, said Nora Lichtash, executive director of the WCRP.
"This is something we've been working on for the last couple years," Lichtash said Wednesday.
She said Point Breeze has experienced some of the steepest rises in rental prices over the last two years.
"We've been working with Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, who knows we need affordable housing in the city," she said.
One of the parcels approved for zoning variance includes about 13 lots in a block on Taylor Street near Reed, between 24th and 25th Streets.
A frustrated developer mr. Feibush said he and several others will take their case against zoning officials to court to stop this project.
"I support low income housing just not the way that they are building it for 13 million I can build it better. Just give me 10% "
For years, Feibush has been a controversial figure in Point Breeze as a result of the market-rate homes he's been building. He has been accused of driving out long-term residents by gentrifying the area. He just purchased the old SMITH school building which he plans to turn into 120 market rate condos and and also the parking lot of the school in to over 20 three-story houses . He and his company, OCF Realty, have been subject to vandalism and harassment over the years. Feibush unsuccessfully tried to unseat Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, who represents Point Breeze, in the 2015 Democratic primary. In which he just file another lawsuit against.
Lichtash said her organization - which has built other affordable-housing developments, mostly in North Philadelphia - first must raise about $12 million. It will take one to two years to obtain the financing, and about a year after that for construction.
The WCRP is a 30-year-old community-development organization based in Kensington. For this project, it entered into a partnership with the Point Breeze group Citizens Acting Together Can Help (CATCH).
CATCH has been working on a project to help disabled veterans, and one-third of the new homes would be one-bedroom apartments for veterans with special needs.
Betsey Johnson , a Point Breeze long-term resident who has lived in the neighborhood for 50 years, was excited to hear about the new homes, all of which would be rental units.
"I feel good about it, because we need some balance in our community," Beaufort said.
Jonhson said most longtime community residents cannot afford the new housing being built, with price tags of $600,000 and up.
"We've been crying out for affordable housing for years," Johnson said.
She said longtime residents started organizing in 2008 to fight three to four-story homes that were starting to appear. "They were plopping them in a two-story block in the middle of the block, looking like a sore eye," she said.
A representative of 2012 Wharton St. LLC by the name "Howard" , which owns the property across the street from the lots, said it will take this appeal to court.
Lichtash said CATCH and WCRP still moving forward with plans for the town-homes.
