Former Transition To Independent Living Center building at 4534 Spruce St.
Following up on Monday’s post about Mission First Housing Group’s decision to withdraw their application for zoning variance at 4534-36 Spruce St, which would allow them to build a four-story 24-unit affordable housing structure, we have some more information from Mission First and Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA).
Mission First had to withdraw their application because the “project was not allocated funding in the 2015 round,” according to Mission First’s spokesperson Becky Lang Staffieri. The project was contingent on state funding. Staffieri could not provide more details about the future of the property, but said that Mission First still owns it and are weighing their options on next steps.
According to SHCA Zoning Chair Barry Grossbach, opposition from at least one immediate neighbor may have contributed to the decision to withdraw the application. Mission First “sensed that the immediate neighbor was prepared to challenge any positive ruling by the zoning board in court, and they were not willing to withstand a protracted process that could stretch for months or longer,” Grossbach said.
The project, which would have included demolition of the current fire-gutted one-story building (the former Transition To Independent Living center), was approved by the Spruce Hill Community Association’s zoning committee in December 2014.
Nearby residents had some concerns about the height of the new building, which required the zoning variance, and its proximity to nearby buildings, including the Kingsbury apartment building on 46th Street,
Mission First have put the building up for sale, according to Grossbach. Several bids have already been submitted ahead of the July 9 deadline.
The building was heavily damaged by fire in 2011 and has been vacant since then. Mission First, which develops and manages affordable housing projects for low-income residents, acquired the building last year.
We’ll keep you posted on further developments.
July 8th, 2015 at 8:21 am
Another sad day for the working class in Philadelphia. Only in America would we fight against new construction apartments for single working class citizens in a city where rents are skyrocketing. #tragedy
July 8th, 2015 at 11:38 am
I really hope this neighbor who “was prepared to challenge any positive ruling by the zoning board in court” is happy today.
This building was to be re-built for disabled under 62 and vets, those on limited fixed incomes who deserve a clean, affordable, accessible (wider doorways, etc. for walkers and wheelchairs) place to live. Yes those people pay rent, it’s 30% of meager monthly benefits. Yes most who would be applying already DO live in are area and have a strong connection to the neighborhood, have friends, family, doctors, hospitals, local shops where they would be spending their money (keeping it in the neighborhood). There are also a number of rules and regulations Section 811 tenants MUST abide by, and generally, these people like a quiet, safe, secure life.
So Neighbor, you’ve removed the possibility of disabled independent living adults and vets from having access to what’s a drop in a very large bucket. You’ve contributed to the lack of affordable housing for this segment of the population (there are officially 111 section 811 disabled units in the entire state of PA), you’re actually helping to continue stigma against the disabled and vets and you’re contributing to continued homelessness or “couch surfing”.
Instead of a maintained, secure, quiet, clean building with long term tenants and neighbors who CARE about the neighborhood, this will probably be torn down for more over-priced student housing. I hope you enjoy the weekend-long (or longer) loud parties, band practices, beer cans and bottles, cig butts and whatever other trash the students just drop as they go. Because they’re short term, they have no investment in the neighborhood, no sense of community, they don’t care. The disabled and vets living in this building would have cared.
So again, hope you’re happy and feeling vindicated. And I hope you or someone you love or know never finds themselves in need of affordable disabled housing. And I hope you never say you support our troops and our vets – because by stopping zoning/stopping funding (can’t get funding without zoning), you have turned your back on vets as well as looking down your nose at what you think affordable housing is.
July 9th, 2015 at 7:49 am
I’m a near neighbor and I would have gladly supported a worthy project like this. BUT, these Mission First people are clearly incompetent. The building has been sitting vacant since 2011, and suddenly now they decide to sell it? I’m sad to lose an affordable housing project, but anything these guys would have been involved in would be clearly be substandard.
July 9th, 2015 at 9:20 am
From their website, there was a process involved in determining an insurance payout and then transferring the asset from one nonprofit to another. Or you think HUD approves things lickety split? Similarly, lining up affordable housing funding and financing takes time and can be lost quite easily as the opposing neighbor had to have known.
http://missionfirsthousing.org/properties/spruce-hill-apartments/
“Spruce Hill Apartments will create 24 units of affordable housing in the Spruce Hill neighborhood of West Philadelphia. The project consists of 20 one-bedroom units and four two-bedroom units, ranging from 613 to 960 square feet. The building totals 26,284 square feet.
Spruce Hill Apartments is located in the vibrant, multicultural neighborhood of Spruce Hill in West Philadelphia. A 2011 fire displaced the residents at the former Transitions to Independent Living (TIL) building on the corner of 46th and Spruce Streets. Mission First housed displaced TIL program participants in its stock of housing throughout Philadelphia, and after investigating the possibility of rebuilding, TIL determined that the insurance proceeds would be insufficient to rebuild at the Spruce Street property. Subsequently, the TIL Board of Directors voted to disband, and asked Mission First, with HUD’s approval, to take on the responsibility of redeveloping the property. Since then, Mission First has worked to stabilize the building, making necessary roof repairs and installing new windows.
Rather than selling the property, Mission First intends to keep it as an affordable housing resource in the Spruce Hill neighborhood. This project will demolish the fire-damaged structure and construct a four story, elevator serviced building. The new building will contain a community room, on-site laundry room, and office space for support service and property management staff. The project will meet Enterprise Green Community standards.”
July 13th, 2015 at 12:19 am
To GX
Those Mission First people are so not “clearly incompetent”. Have you done any research on them and what they do?
http://missionfirsthousing.org/ that’s their home page, here’s a page of their properties http://missionfirsthousing.org/properties/ Please tell me how “incompetent” they are or how their project would have been “substandard”.
This whole thing is another form of NIMBY – except the neighbor who decided they didn’t want disabled or vets living near them is completely off the mark. That area is almost ALL apartments already, many are student rentals. It’s not like out of nowhere in the middle of strictly single family homes a building was going to be put up and would be *gasp* affordable housing for the disabled (independent living diaabled) and vets who would have to abide by the rules under section 811.