Germantown woman has big ideas on affordable housing

Nora Lichtash has lived in Germantown for more than 40 years. Now she is pitching a development project there for affordable housing that would allow renters to convert their units into equity and home ownership.

Lichtash's vehicle is a nonprofit known as the Women's Community Revitalization Project (WCRP). WCRP has operated in Philadelphia since 1987, and Lichtash has been director since 1990. In that time, the nonprofit has developed 250 affordable townhouses and apartments in all five counties of the region, investing about $4 million to date.

Among them are a 39,000-square-foot development completed in 2011 at Ninth Street and Indiana Avenue, the Evelyn Sanders Townhouses. These are 31 new-construction affordable housing units in the North Philadelphia neighborhood. The architect was Kramer + Marks Architects, along with MaGrann Associates and the Sheward Partnership. The builder was Domus Custom Builder.

Another is a new $12.5 million project that the group hopes will break ground in May in Port Richmond.

"We're a private nonprofit with a two-part mission," Lichtash says. "We build buildings, mostly rental housing as well as health-care and child-care centers. We also support women.

"We make sure there's enough money to build affordable housing. Not a lot of women understand the field, and my board has more than half women. Our tenants are low-income families, and our constituency has broadened to women with kids."

A proposed project at 417 E. Wister St. in Germantown would be Lichtash's first in her own backyard. Some community members don't support it.

"She does good work, but she can't fathom why anyone would be against new low-income housing in their neighborhood," says local activist Emaleigh Doley. "She is also a longtime Germantown resident and lives on the Mount Airy-Germantown border in a pretty nice part of town. Her neighbors wouldn't want this development next to them. And a lot of poor residents oppose this project, as well."

On a vacant parcel, the proposed Nicole Hines Townhouse development would include 35 new townhouses for rent, with an option to buy after 15 years.

Who can apply? Income limits depend on the number of people in the family. For example, a family of four earning less than $40,000 a year would be eligible, which Lichtash points out is right around the median income for Germantown. Rents would be similar to what WCRP already charges: $355 a month for a two-bedroom, $410 for a three-bedroom, and $500 for a four-bedroom.

An official at the Planning Commission suggested this parcel to WCRP for redevelopment and City Council did support it but then backtracked, Doley contends.

"Neighbors were not privy to the discussions until WCRP began canvassing in the area," Doley said. "There are a lot of near neighbors that opposed it, but unfairly, the opposition was attacked for being anti-poor or asking too many questions."

Lichtash says that "many people are eligible for these homes. It's us, it's not 'those' people. Most people in the neighborhood are eligible."

Moreover, she points to data showing that in neighborhoods where the group has worked as developer, property values have more than doubled.

For Wister Street, development money would come from the city through the Housing Trust Fund/Community Development Block Grant/HOME Investments Partnership Program administered by the Office of Housing and Community Development. When the land goes to WCRP at closing, it will be transferred for a nominal price, Lichtash said.

The WCRP project in Port Richmond at 2201 E. Auburn St. is a few blocks west of Aramingo Avenue and is called Grace Townhomes. The $12.5 million deal is a partnership with Firm Hope Baptist Church, next to the site.

"They've wanted affordable housing," Lichtash said. Renters there also will have the opportunity to become owners.

"Both the Grace and Nicole Hines are rental projects that can turn into home ownership, which hasn't really been done" in Philadelphia, but is modeled on similar projects in Cleveland, Lichtash said.

Equity investors in the project receive 10 years of tax credits. By year eight or nine, renters "will be counseled to make sure they're eligible for a mortgage and become homeowners," Lichtash said.

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