New Affordable Housing Units Transform North Philadelphia Neighborhood
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A grand opening was held on Wednesday for the nearly five dozen new affordable homes in the Sharswood neighborhood of North Philadelphia.
Kelvin Jerimiah, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, says the 57 new construction homes in "phase 1" of the Sharswood-Bloomberg neighborhood take the place of what used to be the Bloomberg housing project high-rise.
"The folks who lived here before in our towers, that was hosing of last resort for them," Jerimiah said. "I want families to want to live here."
He says change has finally come to the 1500 block of North 24th Street.
"We've asked families for over 20 years to wait," he said. "The wait is over."
With the grand opening, families will begin moving in right away.
"They're going to be low-income families, "57 of them, who are going to be under 80% AMI -- Area Median Income," Jerimiah explained. "The families can expect to pay 30% of their income for rent. The rest will be subsidized by the government."
And Jerimiah says over the next five to seven years, about 1,200 units will be built, according to the Transformation Plan.