Philadelphia Housing Authority is taking over the former Germantown Settlement properties

Stewardship of the residential properties of defunct nonprofit Germantown Settlement is being transferred to the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA). The decision, which moved forward in City Council last week, is garnering mixed reactions from community members.

The dozens of properties — a mix of rowhouses, apartment buildings, and duplexes — have been largely abandoned for over a decade. The housing authority says only 17 units remain occupied. The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority took them over from Germantown Settlement after the politically connected nonprofit imploded in 2010.

They are set to be transferred to the housing authority after Councilmember Cindy Bass introduced a resolution in City Council on Thursday moving dozens of former Germantown Settlement properties from the Land Bank to PHA. This kind of legislation regarding city-owned land falls under the tradition of councilmanic prerogative, so it is likely to be passed this week.

Neighborhood activists say they were surprised by the transfer. Turning the properties over to PHA wasn’t an option discussed last year when the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority conducted a monthslong public engagement campaign about the properties’ fate, advocates say.

“Anyone who has been following this redevelopment opportunity is surprised by the move,” said Emaleigh Doley, executive director of Germantown United CDC. “It’s a big deal for a city agency to transfer ownership of [so many units] in a dense area of a single neighborhood to any entity. A lot of people will have questions about this.”

Specifics of the plan are not fully clear. According to PHA, it will absorb 116 units across 27 properties, and the process of transferring the land to its control could take up to six months. After redevelopment, PHA said it plans to manage them as rental properties, although that could change.

Whatever entity ends up running the refurbished properties, the goal is to establish long-term affordable housing. PHA’s president, Kelvin Jeremiah, said that he’s been petitioning the city for control of the former Germantown Settlement properties for years.

Previously, PHA briefly managed some Germantown Settlement properties. That mostly included periodic contracting with the city to remove garbage, seal properties, and repair the few occupied units. But Jeremiah said his agency has largely been looking on while market-rate development in the neighborhood heated up.

“It shocks my conscious that we’ve collectively let that property deteriorate,” Jeremiah said. “More than six or seven years ago, I shared with the city a desire to acquire and rehab the property to maintain affordable housing at that site. Germantown is quickly becoming unaffordable.”

Neighborhood advocates question why the housing authority should get the entire portfolio, rather than dividing the work with private and nonprofit entities like Habitat for Humanity that have expressed interest.

During the Redevelopment Authority’s community engagement process, local residents said they wanted more affordable housing, including an option to own. The Redevelopment Authority did not select any of the eventual bidders, which included nonprofit and for-profit entities, and the properties continued to languish.

“We’re glad to see something happening, finally,” Alison Weiss of the SoLo Germantown Civic Association RCO said at the April Land Bank meeting where the transfer of the properties was begun. “But … a lot of money went into community meetings, community engagement, what the community wanted, and now that’s been totally disregarded.”

Some critics of the transfer pointed to PHA’s neglect of so-called scattered site properties — formerly single-family homes that aren’t part of a larger agency development — in neighborhoods like Germantown.

Thousands of vacant homes were transferred to PHA as neighborhoods including Germantown, West Philadelphia, and lower North Philadelphia hemorrhaged population during the white flight era. As residents abandoned properties they couldn’t sell, the housing authority was seen by local policymakers as an owner of last resort.

But PHA did not have the resources to maintain and restore the houses and many remained vacant for years, although of the remaining 4,000 units the agency says the vast majority are occupied today.*

This situation has long been a source of grievance in neighborhoods, like Germantown, where the vacant homes still blight the area.

“I’m sure most of the people in this community would object to PHA receiving [the Germantown Settlement] properties, and there being no community engagement in making that decision,” said Yvonne Haskins, a longtime community activist who has, herself, developed properties in the neighborhood. “PHA is probably one of the worst landlords in the city.”

Proponents of transferring the former Germantown Settlement land to PHA argue that times have changed under Jeremiah’s leadership, and the agency is more ambitious and active than it has been in decades.

At the April 9 meeting, Land Bank executive director Angel Rodriguez noted that Jeremiah’s PHA has secured more federal resources to redevelop properties in North Philadelphia’s Sharswood and Southwest Philadelphia’s Bartram Village.

“A lot of the time folks have a view of PHA that was shaped by decades-old history, not what PHA is currently doing,” Jeremiah said.

Councilmember Bass represents Germantown, and her approval of the plan was essential under councilmanic prerogative, which gives Council members oversight of zoning and city-owned land in their districts.

“We thought that [PHA] had the best ability to move quickly,” Bass said. “They have assured us that they will be able to provide this housing in a very short amount of time. It’s desperately needed and we wanted to go with a known and trusted partner.”

Critics of PHA’s takeover of the Germantown Settlement properties believe it may shield the properties from Act 135, a state law that allows conservators to petition the court for control of a derelict or vacant property that isn’t used as a primary residence. Although the act has stirred controversy in some neighborhoods, where it is seen as a tool of gentrification, proponents see it as a means to revive long-neglected properties.

Germantown-based developer Ken Weinstein used the law at the end of last year to try and get control of the Germantown YWCA, which has been in limbo for years after the developer selected by Councilmember Bass did not move to fix up the property.

But properties that receive a subsidy from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) cannot be seized using Act 135.

Critics like Haskins see the transfer to PHA, which is largely backed by HUD, as a means to shield the former Germantown Settlement properties from what Weinstein is trying with the Germantown YWCA.

The Redevelopment Authority declined to comment, citing active litigation over some of the properties. PHA spokesperson Nichole Tillman said in an email: “PHA’s only objective is to preserve affordability for the families that deserve it. There’s been no discussions whatsoever regarding Act 135.”

Regardless of the reason for PHA’s assumption of the properties, some outside housing experts question moving almost the whole portfolio to the agency.

“PHA’s track record has improved a lot, but that doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t be a good idea to open up an opportunity like this to some competition,” said John Kromer, who served as Philadelphia’s housing director under Ed Rendell. “There are more creative ways to handle this opportunity.”

This story has been updated to correct inaccurate information from PHA on how many scattered site units were “inhabitable.”