The Philadelphia Housing Authority has expressed interest in building the units but said it needed city funding to “offset the cost of redevelopment.”
A PHA spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who pushed for the new development, is thrilled the development is back on track. The full council must still pass Parker’s budget, but it is very unlikely the project’s funding will be stripped between now and then.
“I look forward to welcoming back the working-class, Black and brown families that have called this place home since it was known as the Black Bottom,” said Gauthier in a statement.
With backing from the government, IBID built the University City Townhomes with the explicit goal of providing affordable housing in this section of West Philadelphia. This was after the city demolished hundreds of neighborhood homes in the late 1960s and 1970s to build a science and technology campus — what today is known as the University City Science Center.
The roughly 3-acre site, once home to predominantly Black families, sits in the same swiftly gentrifying section of the neighborhood the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University call home. Home prices in the neighborhood have skyrocketed since 2000, pricing out working-class families.
IBID still controls the majority of the land the complex occupied. It’s unclear what will be built there, but the parcel sits amid a growing life science market.
“In terms of the private development portion, we’re not at a point where we can discuss anything publicly,” said spokesperson Kevin Feeley.