The non-profit owners of the Arvilla, an affordable housing building on the 4500 block of Osage Avenue, insisted on Monday that they will go through with the sale of the building despite pleas from some residents and neighbors.

Representatives of Mission First Housing Group, one of the largest providers of affordable housing in the city, said during a Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA) zoning meeting that it can’t afford the necessary renovations required to maintain the 14-unit building and will go through with a sale that will likely convert the building to market-rate apartments.

“The costs of modernizing the building are much higher than we can cover,” Mission First’s Director of Business Development Mark Deitcher said. “We have to pull the plug on the building because of the capital needs of the building.” 

Deitcher said Mission First has found a prospective buyer.

That means that residents, including one man who has lived in the building for decades and a mother of two young children who moved in this year, will have to find new places to live. Residents received a terse eviction notice in mid-October notifying them of a pending sale ordering them to leave by November 31 (Deitcher apologized for the tone of the letter, saying a property manager had sent it out without clearing it first). Mission First later extended the deadline to January 31. Several residents have found new housing, Deitcher said.

Dozens of residents and neighbors who have been organizing against the sale crammed into the SHCA headquarters and pressed Deitcher to reconsider and work with the community to find a buyer that would keep the building as affordable housing. The crowd spilled out on the sidewalk and occasionally chanted “Put your mission first.”

“We want to keep this neighborhood as diverse as possible,” said Mary McGettigan of West Philadelphians for Progressive Planning and Preservation and a long-time neighborhood resident. “By selling the building you’re going against that goal.”

Deitcher said that Mission First is helping residents find new apartments in the company’s other buildings. But most will have to leave West Philly for apartments in North Philly or Roxborough that the company owns.

One neighbor asked: “Are you willing to hold off (on the sale) until it can be sold to affordable housing owner?”

“No,” Deitcher replied. “There is not a non-profit solution. This needs an investment solution.”

Mission First had hoped to fund renovations through tax credits it would have received for a project it proposed at the corner of 46th and Spruce, which would have included 24 units of affordable housing. Zoning was approved for the project and the SHCA gave its blessing.

But an adjacent property owner vowed to keep the project bogged down in lawsuits if it were approved. Now, market-rate apartments are going up on the site instead.

Mission First said it will invest the proceeds from the sale of the Arvilla in other affordable housing. The non-profit owns several buildings in West Philly.