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Ludlow: The Consequences of New Homes By Mike McDevitt, Mike Sands and Robert Doughtery |
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As the Philadelphia Housing Authority moves to complete its multi-million dollar redevelopment of Ludlow, the lasting effects of its work are still causing great concern about the neighborhood's future.
In June of 2005, the PHA received a $17 million grant to work on Ludlow, courtesy of the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). A total of 100 new houses were scheduled to be built throughout 17 different blocks between Girard and Montgomery Avenue.
However, community members worry that the new housing will only be affordable to new, upper-class citizens, and not the current citizens of Ludlow.
Marvin Louis, the head of the Ludlow Community Association, has expressed some deep worries about the direction of development. He believes that upper-class people are taking over in the wake of Ludlow's gentrification, and that citizens, especially seniors, will not be able to afford to live in any new houses or condos. “They don’t have the right to put in condos,” he said. “They can take you out of your home in a minute."
Lenny Cool, a decorator who’s lived near the neighborhood for 45 years, has already seen some of the effects.
“How would you feel if you had an old home, and a new home came around?” he asked. “Most of them can’t afford to fix their own home, so they had to move out.”
Louis added that citizens are being "pushed back to a reservation." He was excited about the grant when it was first announced, but has since grown cautious.
Louis said the problems started when the PHA began to what he called “land grab.”
“I can’t say it caused problems from the start. But when they started to land grab, people had to move out because the land was being taken.”
Cool said that some people moved away. “Most of them are living on fixed incomes.”
They can no longer afford the upkeep of the home, that’s what happens.”
Cool remembered more prosperous days for the area. “I remember the neighborhood used to be plentiful,” he said. “There were some big homes over here, big three story houses.”
Cool said that houses have been getting torn down in the area for over 15 years before the PHA began its work. “People started moving out after they tore down houses,” he said.
Grace Julius, the program director of the local Cruz Recreation Center, and her husband Derek, the assistant program director, have found an upside to the new homes.
“In a way it’s bad, because it’s driving out a lot of people. But in a way it’s good, because it’s driving out the bad elements,” she said. “There are kids that are just troublemakers- selling drugs, sticking people up. If their parents can’t afford to pay rent, they can’t stay in the neighborhood.” Julius saw immediate progress once the local projects were torn down to make room for the new developments.
“That’s where all the trouble started,” he said. “It just breeded. But knocking it down and building better houses may keep those elements out. “It’s a good thing that they’re building houses where there were just empty lots. Hopefully they are affordable homes.” Louis doesn’t have much, if any, contact with the PHA itself, and has a hard time sharing his own concerns about affordable homes to them. “I’m not connected to them,” he said. “They’re not going to give out any information.”
Louis had previously worked on improving housing in the community with the building of the Ludlow Village, located between Cecil B. Moore and Jefferson avenues, and from B Street to Frankford.
“We’re doing what’s right from there,” said Louis. “We made progress on what we did.”
Despite the struggles, Louis admitted what’s happening is a little better than what Ludlow has lived through before.
“Anything that they do is better than what they had,” said Louis. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I can’t say it’s what I want, either.
“This money’s in their hands, not in ours. We don’t have the money and we don’t have the land to get a lot of the things we want.”
The Juliuses also admitted that the new homes have both an upside and downside.
“It’s a mixed blessing, some good, some bad,” Mrs. Julius said. “There’s different people coming in and we don’t know them,
so it’s not really a neighborhood anymore.
“If people can’t afford homes, they’re gonna go someplace where they can.”
Her husband added, “Some people can’t afford to pay taxes on their homes. They get forced out. But I guess that’s just the economics that’s forced on people.” The PHA began its construction in March 2006 and is scheduled to finish in December 2008.
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