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• Spring 2004
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Women of Fairhill:

Their Stories and Struggles

By Talmeedah Y. Samacah-Greer, Drew Subit and Ben Warrington

This is a Web site devoted to stories about women in the Fairhill section of North Philadelphia. We chose to explore the condition of women in this area because this topic has been largely overlooked by traditional media. Our editorial decisions reflect what we have learned about Fairhill this spring from conversations with residents and community leaders.

The Women’s Community Revitalization Project

Women working for housing and the betterment of lives in North Philadelphia

By Talmeedah Y. Samacah-Greer, Drew Subits and Ben Warrington

One of the many persistent problems that plague low-income, struggling communities is the need for affordable, livable housing.  With the many different issues that afflict people in these systematically ignored urban areas, affordable housing can serve as a steady foundation for people to begin a process of building towards the betterment of their lives.

The Women’s Community Revitalization Project (WCRP) has been providing low-income housing for women in North Philadelphia for 20 years. Nora Lichtash has been with the WCRP since its inception in 1987, starting out as a student volunteer.  She is now the program’s executive director, working to help mitigate the endless need for affordable housing in North Philadelphia. Lichtash comments on the need for the work of the WCRP, “The vast majority of people coming to us are spending 80 percent of their income on housing costs…One out of every three households in Philadelphia earns less than $20,000.

The WCRP makes low-income housing available for women, following their mission as “a multi-racial community based development organization committed to advocating for and organizing low-income women to promote their own social and economic empowerment, especially in the neighborhoods of Eastern North Philadelphia.”

WCRP Director Nora Lichtash speaking out for women’s housing rights.  She has been involved with the program from its beginning in 1987.

The organization is a traditional real estate developer in that it supervises the construction of houses and acts as landlords, but the overall business goal is to break even as a service to surrounding communities. 

Lichtash adds, “We are the only traditional real estate developer who can rent to people who are so poor.”  The WCRP subsidizes rents to match the need of each of the tenants with rents that start at just $92 per month. 

“The way we do that is any one who builds one of our houses gets a developer fee,

any for-profit or non-profit, and we invest that in mortgage back securities. We don’t ever touch the principle and the interest makes a difference.  We work very hard to subsidize our rents.”

Top: Adolfina Villanueva WCRP residences on Seventh Street in Fairhill were built in 1995.   Below: New WCRP houses south of Fairhill

According to the organozation's Web site, “WCRP’s women earn an average of $10,000 a year. Many earn less than $5,000. Rent is based on income.” 

As the societal low-income trap burdens women in all areas of their life, the WCRP has created and offers supportive services to help families resolve emergencies, find work and education, and perhaps most important for struggling single women trying to better their situation, child care services.

The need for these types of programs for women can be seen by the lack of resident turnover at the 175 housing units built by the WCRP.  “People come and they stay. Most people stay between seven and nine years. Some people have been with us 20 years.”  Women involved in the program are also encouraged to become involved in the community, with many of them learning leadership skills

from serving on the program’s board of directors and in other committees, and speaking at City Hall.

A prime example and embodiment of the work being done by the WCRP is Priscilla, who was a tenant for two years and now is a homeowner who works at the WCRP office at 407 Fairmount Ave.  She originally applied for WCRP housing so she could raise her child the way she wanted to. “Things weren’t really in order," she says. "I wanted it to be different from my experience.”

The supportive services offered through the WCRP also helped her through some difficult personal issues she was experiencing while living there. “I felt comfortable going to that one person and talking to her like she was my best friend. So pretty much I didn’t have to count on my family.”

Priscilla sums up her time spent there as a positive experience in her life that provided her with the security and space to be in control of her life and live how she wanted to.  “The house had a little back part where my daughter could play. It was a two bedroom. It was great. It had a washer and dryer…We had our own privacy…I also wanted to buy my own home.  That was one of the goals I wanted to achieve and I did.”

Priscilla’s WCRP experience: “It let me see that I was doing good, because I had everything I needed for me and my children.”

Helping women like Priscilla to fight through their struggles and achieve their goals is what the WCRP is about.  Lichtash’s experience in fighting to help women has taught her that the only way they will get these vital services is by speaking up to those in power. “We know there is no point in just waiting our turn and being nice. We understand that nothing would come to our communities or especially our low-income women if we weren’t able to find our voice and speak up.”

The WCRP’s story is one of trying to get women’s voices heard, respected and listened to.  Lichtash feels that greater progress and expansion are impeded by the simple fact of who and where those voices are coming from.  “Women’s issues are issues of poverty a lot and economic violence, as much as it is about domestic violence…It's really hard for people to have so many responsibilities as women have, when we have kids and to be good citizens and to do the things that need to be done. It's very hard.”

She feels strongly that while women are sometimes listened to, they are not taken as seriously or given the same importance and value as male-led activist groups.  “Sexism means that our issues our spoken to before the election, but after the election they rarely are.”

Lictash believes that the issue of sexism is only part of the problem. She adds, “I see a tremendous bias against poor people and it is as if poor people are blamed for the problems, not that they are survivors but they are part of the problem.”

The fight against these obstacles and discriminations continues for Lichtash and the WCRP, with an $8 million, 40-housing-unit project currently in the works.  Although such expansion requires intensive negotiation, planning and work, as the struggle for women’s rights and self-determination goes, the women of the WCRP are as ready as ever for the ongoing fight.  

Women’s Community Revitalization Project Facilities

(Taken from the WCRP Web site)

A RECORD OF SUCCESS

• Lillia Crippen Townhouses: 46 units at Sixth and Montgomery/Berks streets, 1999-2002.

• Johnnie Tillmon Townhouses: 23 units at Fourth and Master streets, 1997.

• Model Blocks Program: Provided low-interest loans and grants for home repairs to over 150 households in Fairhill neighborhood in 1994 and 1995.

• Adolfina Villanueva: 54 units at Seventh/Eighth and Somerset streets, 1993-95.

• Rehabilitated eight scattered-site houses for rent in 1990-1991. WCRP recently sold many of these homes to first-time homebuyers in 2001-2002.