Community Members Speak Up About PHA’s Planned Development of North Philly Neighborhood

Hien Bui was able to save her business, Ann’s Nails, from being seized through eminent domain by the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) as part of their project to rebuild the Sharswood neighborhood in North Philadelphia.

Located at 2234 Ridge Avenue, Ann’s Nails was on a list of 1,330 properties to be seized by PHA under the eminent domain law. Hui spoke with City Council and was able to go through a lengthy and complicated process to have her business removed from the list.

The project to rebuild Sharswood, led by Philadelphia developer Domus, whose other projects include the redevelopment of the Divine Lorraine on North Broad Street, involves rebuilding a commercial corridor along Ridge Avenue.

In November 2013, PHA, with its 23 partners, received a Choice Neighborhood Initiative (CNI) Planning Grant for $500,000 to support the transformation plan for Sharswood and the Blumberg site. Sharswood became a blighted neighborhood shortly after the three Norman Blumberg apartments were built at 2311 W. Jefferson Street in 1969.

However, the PHA’s plan has come under criticism by locals, as many question the agency’s ability to maintain its properties. After all, residents blame PHA for Sharswood’s condition to begin with.

An interview was scheduled with PHA CEO Kelvin Jeremiah. Due to a scheduling conflict, he was not available and could not reschedule the interview before deadline and therefore could not comment.

Not all residents were as fortunate as Hui. Property owner and Sharswood resident Adam Lang said PHA is taking two houses and two lots he owns and he is still fighting with them over his properties. Lang owns the house he currently lives in on Master Street, two of the four vacant lots next to his house that he bought from the city several years ago, and two properties from a PHA auction two years ago.

In January of last year, Lang received notices that his two lots and two investment properties fall under eminent domain, and received official offer letters last June he tells Spirit News.

Lang uses the empty lots that he owns adjacent to his house as a yard and hosts neighborhood cookouts there. Because PHA filed eminent domain, he cannot refinance them with his house. The other two buildings he owns are investment properties that he planned to fix up. Lang currently cannot do any work on those properties now that PHA plans to take them away.

The contract for Lang’s investment properties, which he bought at a PHA auction, requires him to develop them within a certain time frame or PHA takes them back and that clock is still ticking.

“Everything for the last year or so is on hold, because you don’t know what to do anymore,” Lang said.

Lang said he received PHA’s letter of intent for the side yards a week before he was planning on taking out a $15,000 loan to put brand new windows in the house.

He said PHA offered him half of what he paid for everything, so Lang continues to fight with PHA over the properties. Unfortunately, he said, it is not as easy to find a lawyer versed in eminent domain law.

“Part of the process is fighting with them about it,” Lang said. “You have to get attorneys and appraisers and it’s a headache.”

There are a lot of people in the neighborhood who cannot afford those resources or who do not realize that they can fight PHA.

“You have to realize that at the end of the day, the city has a team of lawyers on their side that does this all the time,” Lang said. “They know what the ins and outs are.”

He claims PHA does not have a good track record with keeping up on its properties. He is among neighbors who blame PHA for the blighted condition of Sharswood.

“The irony is the reason they are looking to do this type of project here is because the property values are so low because they neglected the neighborhood and ran it down for a couple of decades,” Lang said.

Blumberg towers has one of the highest crime ratings out of all the housing projects in the city, he said. PHA has had scattered-site properties in the neighborhood that have been boarded up for decades.

Lang is also concerned that PHA could lose interest in this project over the six to 10 years it is supposed to take place. He also claims that, while the housing authority plans to build affordable housing in the Blumberg apartments site, “The term ‘affordable housing’ is a misnomer.”

Lang also sees PHA’s attempts as insulting to poor people, because it is as though the agency is saying poor people are not capable of finding their own housing.

PHA scheduled the implosion for two out of three of the Norman Blumberg Apartments for Saturday, March 19th. One will remain as senior housing. But Lang has reservations about the effect imploding the buildings will have on the neighborhood.

One of those concerns is rodent infestations, Lang said. Blumberg Apartments were known for their poor living conditions and are heavily infested with rodents. Many locals fear that when the towers come down, the mice and rats will relocate to neighboring residences.

In conjunction with the residential portion of the project, PHA also wants to do a commercial portion on Ridge Avenue, too. Lang said PHA does not have a good track record with commercial properties, either. He cites a project on Ridge Avenue in Manayunk where most of the commercial property is still vacant.

With the amount of property the PHA is taking from the neighborhood, the health and well-being of Sharswood is completely dependent on one government agency that does not have a good record managing properties.

Business owner Glenn Mancini, who lives in Harrowgate and bought two houses in Sharswood with his business partner, lost these homes to the city’s eminent domain action. Mancini and his partner operate a business in architectural design and build. They invested $70,000 of their own savings into the properties located at 2020 and 2022 W. Master St.

In October, PHA seized the houses under eminent domain. As a result, the two cannot make improvements to the properties or rent them out. Because Mancini and his partner have not yet been paid by the city for the properties, they have no capital to invest in other properties to replace the income lost due to their inability to rent out these properties

“Our business is in limbo because of it,” Mancini said.

Another issue, Mancini said, is that until the PHA reaches a settlement date, he has to keep paying taxes and the water bills even though the water company cut off service. Mancini called the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (PRA) a consultant for PHA and he was told he would need to continue to pay until a settlement date is reached.

“I was told there’s nothing that can be done about the bills,” Mancini said.

Additionally, Mancini received reports that he would be liable for old liens and encumbrances from previous owners of the properties that were taken from him.

Mancini thinks private developers and investors would have been a better solution to improving Sharswood.

“I think it would have been better for investors to invest in the neighborhood and in the private development process,” he said. “I think it could work if it stayed a mixture of market rate and low income.”

“My story is just one example of incompetence being spurred on by corruption,” Mancini accuses the PHA. “A corruption of trampling on the rights of voiceless citizens in the guise of trying to help them. Kicked to the curb and exploited for a profit by the very agencies who claim they want to help. By seizing 1300 properties, PHA and [Council President] Clarke have cornered the real estate market in Sharswood, placing a virtual wall around the neighborhood that says developers and private investors keep out.”

For photos of the implosion click here.