RHLS and Community Ventures tour Francisville-area affordable housing developments.

Executive Director Troy Hannigan and Controller Derek Lawson very kindly took RHLS staff on a tour of the organization’s work in the Francisville neighborhood of Philadelphia. In attendance were Supervising Attorney Jack Stucker, Staff Attorney Esteban Rodriguez, Dechert Fellow Blayne Cekine, Communications Specialist Yours Truly, PLAN Martin Luther King, Jr. legal intern Leanne Almedia, and the two summer legal student interns, Becki Marcus and John David Barnett.

We also had a chance to meet LaToya Murray, the Director of Affordable Housing Operations at Francisville East. She graciously showed us the community room and an empty unit currently being cleaned in the building.

History of Community Ventures

Community Ventures was established in May 1987 to develop low- and moderate-income housing in cooperation or joint ventures with neighborhood organizations. Their first long term effort was preservation and development in the Francisville neighborhood. They build using the highest level of environmental sustainability possible within the limits of affordable housing funding. The inclusion of sustainable practices not only protects the environment; it ultimately saves renters and homeowners money.

The two buildings on the left, with their beautiful brick work and amazing stone lintels, are the first preservation project that Community Ventures did. They are now planning another renovation that will replace the windows and the roof.
 

The cheerful red houses on the right are an example of one of CV’s earliest scattered site developments.

Some other notable projects that Community Ventures has produced are Old First, a new construction transitional apartment building for formerly homeless individuals in the Olde City neighborhood. They also developed Susquehanna Square, an affordable multi-generational apartment building for seniors raising their grandchildren. This won the PACDC 2021 Blue Ribbon Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement by community development corporations.

RHLS has worked with Community Ventures for many years.  In addition to Old First and Susquehanna Square, we worked on several of the developments that we toured. Jack and Blayne are working with Community Ventures on a case that involves the preservation and rehabilitation of approximately 35,000 square feet of space across seven single-family and nine duplex-style row homes, including the perseveration of the multi-family units, shown above, that are on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places.