Kingsessing • Bartram
Where: Southwest Philadelphia
The target area for this PHA initiative is the 500-unit Bartram Village public housing development and the Kingsessing neighborhood of Southwest Philadelphia, stretching from the Schuylkill River west to Springfield Avenue and from 67th Street north to the Woodlands Cemetery, along the edge of University City. This 2.78 mile square mile area is home to over 30,000 people.
Read more about the Bartram Choice Plan
Built in 1942 as housing for defense workers, Bartram Village is now severely distressed with design and structural deficiencies that require total redevelopment. Its 41 brick buildings are isolated from the neighborhood, and the development has a reputation for crime, and poor health, education and employment outcomes. The goal is to enhance the quality of life for all residents with a reimagined development that preserves housing affordability and re-establishes safe connections to the resources needed to live life more fully and thrive.
Central to this vision is demolishing Bartram Village and replacing it with 608 new energy efficient, mixed-income rental and affordable homeownership units developed at on- and off-site locations. This will include 500 public housing replacement units with pedestrian-friendly linkages to the neighborhood.
Financial support for this effort began with a $1.3 million federal planning grant in 2018 and a $50 million federal Neighborhood Choice grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 2023. These funds are critical to leveraging future public and private investments, including federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits.
As with other PHA redevelopment initiatives such as Norris Apartments and Sharswood/Blumberg, PHA’s investments in housing are being coordinated with investments in the neighborhood. These include the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation’s efforts to redevelop an adjacent 40-acre site into a biotech campus that could generate up to 4,000 new jobs.
