{"id":324427,"date":"2026-11-09T21:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T21:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/324427\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T21:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T21:56:07","slug":"philly-habitat-for-humanity-to-transform-germantown-apartments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/324427\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly Habitat for Humanity to transform Germantown apartments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have a question about Philly\u2019s neighborhoods or the systems that shape them? PlanPhilly reporters want to hear from you! <a href=\"#Section1\">Ask us a question or send us a story idea you think we should cover.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia is transforming a long-vacant apartment complex in Germantown into 16 affordable homeownership units, marking the first project in a wider initiative to redevelop blighted properties that <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/segments\/phillys-9-million-goodbye-to-germantowns-worst-landlord\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">once belonged to a notorious landlord<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>The townhomes on East Collom Street have sat empty for two decades, attracting squatters, illegal dumping and repeated complaints. The site is now fenced off thanks to a partnership with the Philadelphia Housing Authority, which essentially donated the properties to Habitat.\n<\/p>\n<p>The $3 million development will be known as Lena Commons. Habitat expects to complete the project within the next three years.\n  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese right now are houses. But these will become homes where families will grow and thrive and become part of a beautiful, thriving neighborhood here in Germantown,\u201d said Corinne O\u2019Connell, Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia\u2019s CEO, during Monday\u2019s groundbreaking ceremony.\n<\/p>\n<p>Construction is moving forward after Germantown experienced a <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/philadelphia-germantown-gentrification-development\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">wave of new residential development<\/a> after decades of disinvestment, a shift that continues to raise concerns about rapid gentrification among longtime neighbors.\n<\/p>\n<p>In the Habitat project, residents see an opportunity to add affordable housing to an area that still has a great need for it. It\u2019s also hoped the project will help revitalize East Collom Street, a block long impacted by gun violence and blight.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a bright future,\u201d said Robert Johnson, a block captain on nearby Lena Street.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have a question about Philly\u2019s neighborhoods or the systems that shape them? PlanPhilly reporters want to hear from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14780,4374,69,71,23730,70,2312],"class_list":["post-324427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-germantown","tag-habitat-for-humanity","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-housing-authority","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-planphilly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}