Women's Community Revitalization Project Cuts Ribbon on 27 New Affordable Townhomes

The Women’s Community Revitalization Project (WCRP) celebrated the completion of its newest affordable housing development, 27-unit the Arlene Thorpe Townhomes, with a ribbon cutting ceremony on July 11.  Philadelphia City Council President Kenyatta Johnson, whose Second Council District the townhomes were built in, was on-site to honor the occasion.

The Arlene Thorpe Townhomes are the latest WCRP properties developed on land owned by the Community Justice Land Trust (CJLT) which ensures the homes will remain permanently affordable. This unique partnership is part of WCRP’s strategy to prevent residents from being displaced in neighborhoods like Grays Ferry as the area undergoes rapid gentrification. The Townhomes are named after Arlene Thorpe, a beloved community leader and fierce advocate for the Grays Ferry neighborhood.

Lynnette Perez joins Women’s Community Revitalization Project Copy

The Women’s Community Revitalization Project has added a prominent Latina leader to its executive leadership team.

Lynnette Perez has joined the organization as its new Director of Finance. She arrives to the organization after spending the last 12 months as financial controller at St. Joseph’s Villa.

In her new role, Perez will be responsible for guiding the organization’s long-term financial health and growth, devising strategies to help earn profits and overseeing accounting operations, among other duties.

The Women’s Community Revitalization Project is a nonprofit organization committed to social and economic equity for low-income women and their families.

Five families buy affordable homes in Point Breeze Copy

After building affordable housing for 30 years, a program led by the Women’s Community Revitalization Project (WCRP), made five families and individuals homeowners when they moved into town homes in the Point Breeze section of South Philadelphia.

The town homes, known as the Mamie Nichols Homes, are named for an activist and founder of the Point Breeze Federation. It is the first development from the Community Justice Land Trust, (CJLT), a non-profit sponsored by WCRP. The families moved in at the end of last year.

Utilizing low income housing tax credits, WCRP has built hundreds of affordable housing units. This is the city’s first project to utilize a land trust model for home ownership — a model other Philadelphia groups hope to duplicate.

“The CJLT is pioneering a new affordable housing model that allows long-term residents to stay in Point Breeze and preserve the fabric of their community,” said Nora Lichtash, WCRP executive director.

Philly community groups could get priority in sale of thousands of vacant city lots under new bill Copy

For decades, community gardeners have tended to abandoned land in neighborhoods redlined by the insurance industry, neglected by government and ignored by developers. Yet as values rise across the city and builders see opportunity in long-overlooked lots, gardeners find themselves fighting to hold onto the spaces they’ve cultivated.

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Nora Lichtash, who directs the Women’s Community Revitalization Project and has   worked in housing and community development for decades, sees Gauthier’s   proposal as a big step toward permanent affordability in the city.

“It feels almost revolutionary,” she said.

Housing in Philadelphia: What to watch in 2022

The pandemic put a renewed spotlight on Philadelphia's housing issues. And with COVID-19 protections expiring late last year, pressure to address the city's affordable housing crisis and homelessness could fuel changes in 2022.

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What they're saying: Nora Lichtash, executive director of Women's Community   Revitalization Project, wants the city to prioritize giving some of its   publicly owned property to nonprofits that focus on affordable and accessible   housing instead of only giving it to market-rate developers.
 

"Our next focus is to focus on land. Land justice is a 2022   issue," Lichtash said.

The transformative potential of Community Land Trusts

Our country has been struggling with an affordable housing crisis for decades. Simply put, there is not enough housing, and what is available is too expensive for those with limited means. However, there’s an up-and-coming player in the affordable housing world that offers the potential to transform it: community land trusts (CLTs).

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Another example is the Nicole Hines Townhomes in Philadelphia, a 32-unit community where the Women’s Community Revitalization Project (WCRP) has used federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) and state and local funds to cover 93 percent of Hines’s $12.1 million development costs. Rents will be kept low through a fund made up of “developer fees” collected over the years by WCRP, augmented by a per-unit contribution by the local public housing authority. Again, all the units will house families earning less than 30 percent of AMI.

More than just a check

Social Venture Partners is investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in local nonprofits that fight poverty. But it’s their “engaged philanthropy” that really sets them apart.

Over the next three years, the organization is investing $600,000 in funding, plus operational support, in three local nonprofits that target a different root cause of poverty. Center for Black Educators targets education inequities; Resilient Coders provides job training through their coding bootcamps; and the Women’s Community Revitalization Project works to create affordable housing. They hope to make multi-year grants of this size to different organizations every year.

Money Moves: More than $13M has been awarded to local nonprofits in the past few months Copy

The William Penn Foundation awarded more than $8M in grants to 90 nonprofits through its Family Recovery Fund.

In June, the William Penn Foundation announced that it was awarding 90 grants totaling more than $8 million to support nonprofit organizations focused on providing access to healthy food, support for families to stay in their homes, and enhanced K-12 learning opportunities.