Supervising Staff Attorney Raina Mehta and Staff Attorney/Martin Luther King, Jr. Fellow, Esteban Rodriguez have completed a case working with Community of Compassion CDC in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood of Philadelphia. Cobbs Creek is a historically African American community that has been heavily disinvested in by the city and is now being squeezed by neighbors to its east. RHLS represented the Community of Compassion CDC, a 501(c)3 non-profit, in its partnership with Gardner Capital, a for-profit developer to build 38 new homes for an affordable senior housing development.
It will be located on the 6200 block of Catharine Street in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood of West Philadelphia. This area is very near Cobbs Creek Park and is in a rapidly gentrifying section of the city due to the expansion of such institutions as the University of Pennsylvania and the Trinity Mercy Philadelphia Hospital campus.
Many people are only familiar with Cobbs Creek from the infamous MOVE bombing by Philadelphia police in 1985. The area has suffered from disinvestment for several decades. Now, its proximity to expanding university and hospital campuses has meant less affordable housing for the neighbors. The Community of Compassion CDC proposes to help alleviate some of the market pressures by creating an affordable, sustainable, green development for its residents 62 and over earning between 20% – 60% of AMI.
Community of Compassion is not the only entity investing in the neighborhood. Institutions such as the Church of Christian Compassion and Boys Latin of Philadelphia are working to bring more resources to the neighborhood. In addition to the proposed affordable housing, Community of Compassion CDCs provides various social services, such as support for the younger residents through education and family support, as well as homeownership and job counseling.