Upcoming Women's Way Event Features WCRP Leaders

Statistics continue to reveal that the current COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected many areas that impact the financial security of women, including the affordable housing shortage, a crisis that was present long before the pandemic.

To learn more about the affordable housing crisis, join WOMEN’S WAY for "Closing The Gender Wealth Gap Forum: Increasing Access to Affordable Housing," a powerful panel discussion addressing the affordable housing shortage and its direct impact on women and their families. This is an online event on April 28, 2021 from 4-5:30 PM EST.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Anne Fadullon, Director of Planning & Development, City of Philadelphia and will feature industry leaders coming together to address these key issues from policy, practitioner and lived experience perspectives.

Panelists include Maria Gonzales, President, Hispanic Association Contractors Enterprises; Nora Lichtash, Executive Director, Women’s Community Revitalization Project; Rasheeda Phillips,

Managing Attorney of Housing Policy, Community Legal Services of Philadelphia; and Staci Moore,

Board Chair, Women’s Community Revitalization Project.

Rent-to-Own Home Offering Women Housing Security

Home ownership can be out of reach for young families living paycheck-to-paycheck. A new program tailored specifically to women is helping give them a leg up at finding a safe place to call home. NBC10’s Pamela Osborne reports.

6ABC: Local organization gains city council support for new legislation to control vacant public land

[PCAC member Nora] Lichtash says that almost one out of every three African-American households have been displaced out of their neighborhoods due to gentrification in North, South, and West Philadelphia, according to U.S Census data. "Housing prices are going up, food prices are going up, and that was before COVID. So since the pandemic, it's even worse," added Lichtash.

Philadelphia Tribune: Housing advocates call for community control of city-owned vacant land

According to the PCAC report, in the past five years only 7% of new homes built on city-owned land were affordable to families earning less than 30% of area median income, though households in this income make up 31% percent of the city’s population.

Inquirer: Philadelphia urged to use vacant land to curb shortages of affordable housing and food

The Philadelphia Coalition for Affordable Communities, a group of about 60 organizations, wants the city to change the way it distributes public land from a process that tends to favor wealthier developers to one that gives nonprofit developers and communities greater access and time to gather resources to provide permanent affordable housing. Philadelphia owns roughly 6,000 vacant lots, according to the city’s inventory.

South Philly Review: Affordable housing coming to Point Breeze

On Nov. 17, the Women’s Community Revitalization Project broke ground at Capitol and Reed streets on 33 affordable townhomes and apartments in Point Breeze, where Nichols lived most of her 91 years and became the executive director of the Point Breeze Federation.

PlanPhilly: 33 affordable rental homes named for Point Breeze hero Mamie Nichols break ground

Nichols was a community organizer in Point Breeze who played a pivotal role in fighting for affordable housing and other community amenities in the neighborhood south of Washington Avenue. She rightly forecast gentrification in the area as she helped establish resources like the Point Breeze Performing Arts Center on Point Breeze Avenue, a historic commercial corridor where conflicts over redevelopment continue to play out.

Philadelphia Tribune: Report finds affordable housing out of reach in Pennsylvania

No minimum-wage worker in any county, metropolitan area or state can afford a two-bedroom apartment by working a standard 40-hour work week, said the “Out of Reach” report released this week by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania.