[Urbanthusiat]

Originally Posted by McBane

Hidden behind paywall so I didn't read the article. But would be great to see them add 700 units of affordable housing as opposed to public housing. We always hear about the need to add affordable housing to market rate developments and we've heard the benefits. So why not apply a similar scheme here? In any case, I thought the "lumping poor people together" model had failed. If they're just adding 700 PHA units, well I am sure that is needed, too and I'm sure they're not rehashing concepts from the 1960's.

In fact, I'd love to see more affordable high rises. Wonder if the teacher's union can fund such a project for teachers out of their pension fund as a way to diversify their investment portfolio and provide an enticement for teachers (since Philly cannot compete with suburban districts on salary or work environment). And similar projects for cops, EMS, etc.

From the article:

The redevelopment proposal totals about 1,000 houses, in place of the 327 units that were in the towers. A spokesperson for LMXD confirmed that the units would come in a combination of low-rise “flats,” refurbished multifamily housing in the towers, and new “ground up” senior housing. LMXD states that 60% of the units will be affordable, although they did not specify how that would be measured.

“Affordable housing is not the same as low-income housing, which is what was in those towers,” Collins said. “Some of what is defined as ‘affordable’ would have been out of reach for me, and I’m an attorney.”