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Affordable housing in South Philly got a little more attractive with an April 2 grand re-opening in the heart of Point Breeze. The Tasker Village Apartments, 1508-48 S. 16th St., is an apartment cluster off Tasker Street that was the recipient of essential tax credits, thanks primarily to Diversified Community Services, 1529 S. 22nd St. Mayor Michael A. Nutter and 2nd District Councilman Kenyatta Johnson were on hand to cut a ribbon marking the completion of a multi-million dollar renovation.
“In March 2013, Pennsylvania Housing and Finance Agency awarded the Tasker Village project with an allocation of $3.4 million in Low Income Housing Tax Credits,” reads the event’s press release. “Upgrades include new EnergyStar appliances, water heaters, heating ventilation and air conditioning system upgrades, photo-voltaic solar panels to power public lighting, new kitchens, floors and bathroom upgrades, and a new community center.”
Tasker Village is 27,243 square feet and has 28 units in five buildings with an open-air garden and parking spaces. According to Diversified’s website, “the preservation project includes six 1BR apartments from 584-772 square feet, eight 2BR apartments ranging from 772-837 square feet, and 14 3BR apartments ranging from 970-1,025 square feet.”
In Diversified Community Services executive director Otis L. Bullock Jr.’s opening remarks, he pointed out that Point Breeze is a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, which makes affordable housing a priority for the non-profit.
“You can’t ride down the street without some new building going up, and people are worried they’ll be priced out and a nice complex like Tasker Village may have become high-end condos,” the Strawberry Mansion resident told the crowd on the sunny Thursday morning.
The units are beautiful and last week’s attendees were encouraged to inspect a couple model units. It’s a very dignified way for low-income residents to live, work and raise a family, something Bullock says was essential to the process.
“When we were doing the Tasker Village project, we had a number of things that we had to sacrifice because of budget, but the one thing that we refused to sacrifice was the dignity of residents,” he said. “To build something that the residents want, that was very important to us.”
In Johnson’s remarks, he commended Diversified as well as the other elected officials on hand for leading the charge on behalf of Point Breeze residents to have more choices surrounding where they call home.
“I’m a strong advocate for smart development,” the graduate of George W. Childs School, 1599 Wharton St., a few blocks away, said. “This is a new level of affordable housing here in the Point Breeze community, it’s [an opportunity] to grow up and live in the neighborhood regardless of your pocketbook or checkbook. My job is to make sure that the Point Breeze community moves forward – let’s keep up the good work.”
Philadelphia may be experiencing some smart development, but it’s also a deeply poor city. A 2012 U.S. Census report listed 16 percent of Americans as living in poverty. Philly, on the other hand, has a nearly 28-percent poverty rate, and it’s worse in some neighborhoods.
“You’re not going to close that gap overnight. If you’re going to be in it for the long haul you have to do it correctly,” Bullock, whose recent boss was Nutter in the Office of Community Services, which became the Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunities, said. “We kind of got back to the roots of being a poverty-fighting agency.”
Their foci were shared prosperity, focusing on early childhood education, workforce development, housing stability and “making sure that people in poverty are taking advantage of the help that is available to them,” Bullock added.
His former mission isn’t far off from what Diversified Communities is trying to do.
Diversified “aligns perfectly with my life’s mission as a kid who grew up in poverty, got out, and now has the opportunity to affect policies and programs to help others do the same,” he said. “I really don’t think there’s anything better than that.”
“Developing and maintaining neighborhoods is critically important to the growth of Philadelphia,” Nutter said at last week’s event. “We need development at all levels and all scales, but the critical one is affordable housing. It is the most critical need in our city and Tasker Village is the perfect example. It’s helping the environment and keeping hard-earned dollars in people’s pockets, a place you want to live, work, and raise your family and it doesn’t get much better. Point Breeze is on the rise – it’s coming back.”
Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency executive director Brian Hudson was in attendance, too, an essential player in the securing of tax credits for Tasker Village. In fact, Bullock says that Pennrose Properties, the previous owners, chose not to reapply for tax credits to keep Tasker Village an affordable housing hub, and that’s when Diversified Communities came in.
“We were losing money holding on to the property, the financials of the property don’t work without the tax credits,” Bullock said. “We went in one last time, and we got the credits.” Diversified is, theoretically, much more of a childhood education and workforce development non-profit, but helping area residents with housing has been an added-on element. It has supported the development of South City Gardens, 10 energy-efficient townhouses built by Innova Redevelopment on vacant lots throughout Point Breeze, as well as Latona Green, both projects funded in part by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority.
Housing tax credits don’t function as money in developers’ pockets; they get sold to banks and converted on the dollar.
“With the money that you get from the banks after selling them the credits, that’s what you use to renovate your properties,” Bullock added.
The units’ rents are between $500 and $900 and eligibility is based on area median income. If applying tenants make between 20 and 60 percent of the area median income, they’re eligible. That means if the average household income near 16th and Tasker streets is $40,000, eligible applicants’ household incomes will fall between $8,000 and $24,000.
Hudson, a national leader on affordable housing, said “this is a public-private partnership, and none of this could happen without those in the trenches. The credits are very competitive and we’re funding one out of three projects that walk through the doors, and the mayor’s been a big supporter of affordable housing in the city.”
He noted that Diversified earned the credits because of its commitment to the neighborhood.
“We look for partners that are going to be long-term. Diversified is stepping up because that is the most difficult job to come to the table – we’re going to take this project and give people a place to live.”
Contact Staff Writer Bill Chenevert at bchenevert@southphillyreview.com or ext. 117.
Mayor Michael Nutter and Councilman Kenyatta Johnson cut the ribbon on a multi-million dollar renovation that secured affordable housing in Point Breeze with tax credits.
Photo by Richard Barnes
Diversified Community Services executive director, Otis L. Bullock Jr., left, stands with Mayor Michael Nutter, his former boss.
Photo by Richard Barnes
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