Sharswood • Blumberg
Where: North Philadelphia
Sharswood/Blumberg is another example of PHA’s ability to combine housing investments with a neighborhood revitalization strategy. The main goal is to transform distressed housing and vacant land into mixed-income housing that is more energy efficient, walkable, and connected to the community.
Read more about Sharswood/Blumberg Project
The focus is an eight-acre city block site that includes PHA’s Norman Blumberg Apartments, three 18-story towers totaling 510 apartments. Built in the 1960s, these properties were part of an economic upturn but became a symbol of crime, poverty and disinvestment in the 1980s and 1990s when the city lost population and businesses closed as a result.
PHA rehabilitated Blumberg Senior Tower and renamed it Sharswood Tower. The renovated 13-story building now features 94 affordable apartments for seniors. In addition, PHA converted all residents to project-based Section 8 vouchers. This conversion helped PHA secure financing for the $28 million renovation.
The two other towers have been razed and PHA will replace these homes with smaller-scale affordable rental and homeownership developments as part of a 10-year $500 million revitalization plan. The new and replacement housing will be built on land the PHA acquired through the purchase of 1,300 vacant or blighted parcels in the neighborhood.
A key part of the financing for this initiative was PHA securing a $20 million Choice Neighborhoods Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This has helped leverage an additional $517 million in private and public investments so far, including $143 million through the award of federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits.
Additional neighborhood investments include a new high school, a grocery store, a community center that houses PHA’s workforce center, and a public health clinic operated by Temple University. PHA has also constructed its new headquarters on Ridge Avenue, one of the neighborhood’s main business corridors.
