Subsidized Housing

The head of Coatesville's downtown-revitalization effort wants a moratorium on new government-subsidized housing, saying a steady influx of poor people has hurt the city. "It's time for all this to end," said Diane Bernardo, director of the Main Street program. "Either we take a stand and have some backbone behind it, or all of us working on revitalization might as well give up. " Bernardo, a leader in the effort to attract businesses and people to Coatesville, blamed subsidized housing for bringing in people who use police, fire and community services without paying taxes in return.

The Bristol Township Planning Commission voted to recommend approval of 15 townhouses for low-income families to be built on Beaver Dam Road next to the Venice-Ashby housing project. The one-acre townhouse complex known as Silver Lake Plaza is to be built by Better Homes Inc., a nonprofit community group that helps people find low- income housing. The project is the group's first foray into the development field, according to exective director Joseph Watts. "In the past, we've always been involved in buying homes and rehabilitating them, then selling them to low-income families at a fixed price," Watts said in an interview Thursday.

A Marlton firm has developed plans for a federally subsidized garden apartment complex in South Camden and is trying to line up financial backing for it. The Michaels Development Co. Inc. wants to buy a 12-acre site along Master and Van Hook Streets and build a 132-unit complex and a community center. The apartments would house low-income people eligible for rental assistance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, company vice president Ava Goldman told the county freeholders yesterday.

I'm writing in response to the Aug. 19 article "Mount Laurel dedication 'bittersweet,' " about the dedication of the Ethel R. Lawrence Homes affordable-housing development. I'm taking the "bitter" side. Whatever happened to the American dream? I grew up in a row home in Philadelphia, graduated from high school, got a job, worked hard, saved and saved, got married, purchased a row home, had a couple of kids, and saved some more. I make only $45,000 a year as a utility worker in Philadelphia.

Additional units of federally subsidized housing at the Regency Park building were approved unanimously by the Mount Holly Township Council last week after a request for the measure by its owner, John A. Jennings. Jennings said he has been unable to rent the units at the usual market rate of about $650 a month and wanted to offer them as subsidized housing through the federal Housing and Urban Development Agency (HUD). He needed local approval for the plan because when the federally financed $2.4 million project was constructed in the early 1980s, a previous Township Council agreed that the municipality would act as a guarantor for the loan.

As long as you don't get messed up with specifics, almost everyone will agree that "affordable housing" should be one of America's top goals. But what does that term really mean? In Chestnut Hill, a bank vice president can easily afford to pay the median price of $167,000 for a home. The bank clerk, whose spouse works part-time, may have great difficulty affording a $25,000 median-priced rowhouse in Schuylkill. Affordable housing has become too easy a concept for politicians to throw around, because they are rarely challenged to define it. Unfortunately, the latest housing plan submitted by Mayor Rendell to City Council doesn't help much.

Mention "subsidized housing," and, in many minds, up pop images of ramshackle apartments occupied by the unemployed and unsavory. In reality, poor working families and the elderly of all races live in private city rowhouses and suburban condos all across America - thanks to the federal rent subsidies called "Section 8 certificates. " For decades, Section 8 has ensured steady revenues and favorable mortgage rates to private landlords who, in return, are to supply safe, decent homes for the folks who make the beds, guard the buildings and wash the dishes in the workaday world.

Norristown and Pottstown officials have decided to band together in their fight for more equitable distribution of Section 8 housing in Montgomery County. The two municipalities, whose officials met on Tuesday night, are home to almost 70 percent of all the Section 8 housing, which is a federally subsidized county program. Both municipalities have blamed the high density of subsidized housing for a host of evils, including: increased taxes, urban decay, decreasing market value, transient neighborhoods and increased police activity.

Entering what it calls Phase 2 of welfare reform, the Whitman administration said yesterday it would spend $2 million this year on the simple training of welfare caseworkers it concedes should have had more instruction sooner. "There's no question that more training earlier on would have helped" with implementation of Work First New Jersey, starting in 1996, said David Heins, director of the state Division of Family Development. The announcement about caseworker training, along with a state plan to increase the availability of federal subsidized housing, was made by Human Services Commissioner Michele Guhl three days before the release of a long-awaited independent study of New Jersey's welfare system.

Washington Square West holds an eclectic mix of students and professionals, gays and straights, people with sizable disposable incomes and those with tight budgets and on government assistance. People, in short, who would seem open to just about anything. But a proposal by developer Walt Kubiak of the 1260 Housing Development Corp. has challenged that ideal. Backed by a federal housing grant, Kubiak hopes to rehab and refurbish nine neglected townhouses on the 900 block of Lombard Street along with an abandoned hotel around the corner on Ninth Street.

Instead of being strapped to an ambulance gurney and taken to the emergency room to be treated for a cold, Thomas Rhoe soon will be able to ride the elevator to the ground floor of his Camden apartment building to seek care in a brand-new examination room. "Just what the doctor ordered," the 11-year Northgate II resident said. With a "Bring Health Reform Home" sign in hand, Rhoe, 58, attended Tuesday's ribbon-cutting marking the start of construction for a medical office at Northgate II apartments, subsidized housing in Camden with more than 300 units.

CARL GREENE'S future is as secure as an icicle hanging from a willow branch. Some facts are out; the allegations jar has been opened. The Philadelphia Housing Authority board suspended him Thursday while it looks into the $900,000 he spent to stifle sexual-harassment cases. The feds are nosing around. Philly likely will soon need another czar to lead the PHA. If the city wants another tireless, short-tempered tyrant with a craving for praise and self-gratification - I'm your guy. As to sexually harassing those of the female persuasion - not a chance.

Homeless for five years, Robert Ford has slept all over Center City. On benches along the Parkway. On a grassy hill by a Vine Street Expressway ramp. Outside the Gallery mall. Near Independence Hall. At an overnight homeless "cafe" that offers only a spot on a floor with 50 others. But last week, Ford, 55, a disabled truck driver, was set to sleep someplace new - his own apartment. He was one of the first Philadelphians to get housing through a program being brought here from New York City as part of Mayor Nutter's plan to reduce homelessness.

Like many social welfare programs, public housing has had its share of critics over the years, and rightfully so. Few people would deny the old model of squeezing too many poor people into too small a space in old-style ghetto projects was more harmful than helpful. Still, providing government-subsidized housing for the poorest among us is one tradition most citizens agree should be maintained. As we have knocked down the old public housing in the United States, the question has become: How do we do it better?

Declaring that his city is under siege, Coatesville City Manager Harry Walker is calling on residents to stand up against crime, and on the county to stop sending poor people to the city. "Coatesville receives more than half the county's [housing] vouchers," said Walker in a lengthy statement that was read at Monday night's council meeting. "This ill-conceived policy has resulted in crimes that attack the basic rights of the citizens of Coatesville. " The statement was e-mailed to the news media, county officials and others.

There were many challenges facing Allyssa Schmitt when she arrived as the new principal at Thomas Mifflin Elementary in East Falls in 2005. She had no experience as a principal, and she was new to the city. And, as a white woman, she was in charge of a predominantly black school in a predominantly white neighborhood where tensions have long simmered. Last month, Schmitt stepped down from her post, her brief and turbulent tenure ended by an acrimonious and racially charged debate.

When the Schuylkill Falls towers were demolished back in 1996, the promise was that the dilapidated, oversized housing project would be replaced with a viable, mixed-income community. Now, at long last, the promise is on the verge of being fulfilled. Tomorrow morning in East Falls, dignitaries including Gov. Rendell and Mayor Street are to gather to cut the ribbon on the final element of the package: A private, market-rate development - featuring a number of large and expensive homes - sitting right next to public housing.

When the Schuylkill Falls towers were demolished back in 1996, the promise was that the dilapidated, oversized housing project would be replaced with a viable, mixed-income community. Now, at long last, the promise is on the verge of being fulfilled. Tomorrow morning in East Falls, dignitaries including Gov. Rendell and Mayor Street are to gather to cut the ribbon on the final element of the package: A private, market-rate development - featuring a number of large and expensive homes - sitting right next to public housing.

More rental housing is being demolished than is being built each year, putting the squeeze on millions of American families for whom renting is the only option. That's one conclusion of a study released earlier this month by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. The study, titled "America's Rental Housing: Homes for a Diverse Nation," says that though the low-income tax-credit program and other initiatives build 100,000 units of affordable housing annually, 200,000 rental apartments are demolished each year.

The attitude of many people toward our beloved city is captured in the words of Woody Allen: Humankind "faces a crossroad. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly. " Mr. Mayor, your task is to transform this attitude. It is not impossible. Consider recent signs of progress: the Kimmel Center, the expansion at the airport, launching a Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, the Constitution Center, new educational opportunities for youth, and Lincoln Financial Field, among others.