PHILADELPHIA — Presby’s Inspired Life has opened Witherspoon Senior Apartments, an adaptive reuse project that turned a former nursing home into affordable seniors housing in Southwest Philadelphia.
The campus, which comprises almost an entire city block, currently features three other affordable housing communities managed by Presby’s Inspired Life. After today, the entire campus will serve more than 300 seniors.
The project was 100 percent leased before opening, with some residents waiting overnight for an application.
“Finding safe affordable housing has been and continues to be an ongoing issue for so many Philadelphians — especially the senior population who want to stay in the neighborhoods where they were born and raised,” says Judee Bavaria, president and CEO of Presby’s Inspired Life. “Witherspoon Senior Apartments is fulfilling a critical need for quality affordable housing for older adults in Philadelphia, and we are able to do this with help from local officials and organizations like Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, Philadelphia Housing Authority and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.”
In addition to Witherspoon, Presby’s Inspired Life is also opening Cantrell Place in South Philadelphia, a new construction project, at the end of 2018. The site of the new buildings will revitalize a city block by transforming 33 vacant lots into 61 units of affordable housing for seniors.
Presby was awarded tax-credit funding from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency in July 2016 to develop both new properties. The developer for Witherspoon Senior Apartments is TN Ward, and the developer for Cantrell Place is Domus.
Presby’s Inspired Life, a nonprofit, faith-based organization providing continuing care and affordable housing for more than 3,000 seniors across 40 communities throughout greater Philadelphia.