Philadelphia Housing Project Aims To Get Young And Old Mixing It Up, Be A Model Of Inclusivity

Hi, new renter. Meet your senior citizen neighbor.

That is the vision a Philadelphia nonprofit had when it laid out $66M of its own funding to create a new inclusive housing development aimed at desegregating young and old. The project, which sets aside nearly a quarter of its units for lower-income seniors, is meant to be a unique alternative to senior living or living alone in a city where half the senior population is on its own.

Affordable housing and healthcare nonprofit NewCourtland is redeveloping a 279K SF former hospital property in East Falls into a mixed-use development with 173 housing units called The Tower At Henry.

The development will feature 40 one-bedroom units set aside for seniors on low incomes, executives told Bisnow during a tour of the property Monday. In addition to the senior units, the 11-story tower will feature 133 market-rate units ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments. 

One floor will be set aside for 8K SF of commercial space. Each resident will have access to a walking trail, a rooftop atrium, an event space and other amenities that promote socializing and intergenerational mixing once the development opens this November, executives said.

NewCourtland is hopeful other developers will copy their blueprint.

“One company can't solve the housing problems, right? So our goal is that people pay attention to what's being done here, converting the old buildings in the city, and saying that people in the community are not excluded from being part of that,” NewCourtland CEO Joe Duffey said. 

Duffey said the development will be a model for including nontraditional renters in a multifamily project, and he hopes others will be motivated to replicate it, setting aside 5% to 20% of units for underserved renters, especially seniors.

Statistics from the 2022 U.S. Census Community Survey show that 14.7% of Philadelphia is older than 65, and half of that demographic lives alone.

In addition to offering an attractive alternative to living alone, the Tower At Henry will cost far less to develop on a per-unit basis than a more typical senior housing development funded by federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. Duffey estimated units at the building would cost around $300K per unit, whereas LIHTC-funded construction for a non-mixed development could range in the ballpark of $400K to $500K per unit.

The project is an addition to NewCourtland’s existing 85-unit senior apartment community located toward the front of the new building at 3232 Henry Ave. 

“This project had the potential to be a senior-housing-only facility, but then we would have put 300-plus seniors’ homes on one campus,” Duffey said. “And we didn't think that would be comparable to the quality of life we wanted the seniors to have.”

In addition to making sure 40 units are set aside for senior affordability, 10 of those units will be made accessible to those with hearing or sight disabilities thanks to a smart home system, said Shawn Frawley, vice president and partner at Axis Construction Management, a partner on construction for the tower.

Frawley said that most construction teams don’t get the opportunity to build inclusive housing.

“It’s a project we’ve never seen before and couldn’t pass up,” he said.

The project is the first inclusive adaptive reuse project to debut in the Philadelphia city limits this year, though funding has rolled in for senior-only or low-income-only projects.

State Sen. Vincent Hughes secured $5.9M in LIHTC funding for 163 units scattered across four complexes in Philadelphia, his office announced last week.

In addition, several nonprofits or nonprofits partnered with developers have begun senior-only projects this year.

Two weeks ago, nonprofit Federation Housing broke ground on its 60-unit Daniel B. Green House at 4695 Somerton Road in Bensalem Township, Delaware Valley Journal reported. In May, Pennrose teamed up with nonprofit Chinatown Development Corp. to break ground for Man An House 萬安樓, an all-affordable 51-unit senior development in Chinatown, according to Affordable Housing Finance.

But The Tower at Henry represents a new way forward and a testing ground for multigenerational living. Duffey plans to monitor how fast the units fill and whether market-rate apartment rents and event revenue can cover the cost of amenities, including an ADA-compliant gym.

The need is great. About 11.2 million older adults are cost-burdened, meaning they spent more than 30% of household income on housing costs, an all-time high, according to a 2023 report from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. At the same time, a new Pew report indicates a worsening housing affordability crisis threatens to end Philly’s standing as one of the nation's most affordable big cities.

“You need more cost-effective solutions to housing,” Duffey said. “And we need more scale if we're going to address the aging population.”