UC Townhomes is slated for demolition. Former residents say the fight to preserve affordable housing isn’t over.

Demolition crews will begin work on the University City Townhomes site before the end of the year, according to owner IBID Associates. The last of its residents, whose planned ouster sparked a wave of protests over the decline of affordable housing in a rapidly developing part of the city, moved out last Friday.

“Working in partnership with the Philadelphia Housing Authority, the city of Philadelphia, the United Way, and Clarifi, a nonprofit housing and financial services counseling agency, the relocation process has successfully relocated all the residents from the 70-unit townhomes complex,” said IBID spokesperson Kevin Feeley in a statement.

Though IBID doesn’t have a developer yet, the announcement caps a yearslong fight over the 2.7-acre complex at 40th and Market Streets, which served as affordable housing in the area formerly known as Black Bottom for more than 40 years.

IBID announced in July 2021 that it would not renew its Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments contract, eyeing a sale to a developer with plans for the life-sciences real-estate market that had seen a development boom.

Area residents, affordable housing advocates, and university students campaigned to preserve the complex through protest encampments, rallies, sit-ins, and urging their councilmember, Jamie Gauthier, to step in, which she did.

Gauthier placed a demolition moratorium on the property and sponsored a bill that aimed to restrict redevelopment on the block. IBID sued Gauthier and the city, arguing they had violated its constitutional right to sell the property. The parties reached an agreement in April, transferring about a fifth of the property to the city, which has plans to build “70 permanently affordable units plus community green space.”

Under the agreement, IBID would allocate roughly $50,000 to each townhome household’s relocation and housing costs. In exchange, the property will be largely exempt from inclusionary zoning overlay legislation that requires new residential buildings in the neighborhood to include affordable housing units. Gauthier, Mayor Jim Kenney, and City Solicitor Diana Cortes lauded the settlement at the time.

Yet even as the UC Townhomes are prepped for demolition, former residents say the fight to keep affordable housing on the site is far from over, as they’ve received only verbal assurances of what’s to come for the portion of land the city will use for the 70 affordable housing units.

Sheldon Davids, who sits on the resident council and lived in the townhomes for 13 years, said residents want a guaranteed “right to return” to the proposed 70 units, a housing subsidy attached to the site so that the units could be accessible to low-income residents, and the ability to weigh in on the design and developer.

“A signed commitment is the only thing we can place our faith in; anything short of that is speculative and I believe subject to the whims of change,” he said.

The city and Gauthier’s office were not immediately available to comment.