When it comes to Gay Philadelphia, there’s a lot to be proud of. After all, the city features one of the country’s most recognizable, tightly knit
‘Gayborhoods’ in Center City, acting as the focal point of GLBT civic life for the region. Building off this identity, City, State and gay leaders will later this week officially break ground on the William Way residences, a one of a kind, $20 million gay-friendly senior affordable housing project on 13th Street, smack dab in the middle of the Gayborhood.
“There is only one other type of facility like this in the nation. That’s in L.A.,” explains Mark Segal, who is the publisher of the
Philadelphia Gay News and has spearheaded the project thus far. He says that what makes the William Way residences so unique because of how it has been funded. “It’s the first effort to use traditional ways to finance and build an affordable GLBT-friendly housing project.”
By 'traditional,' Segel means 'public' - the project is being financed with a multitude of city, state and federal funds. One of the funding sources, the
Dr. Manus Hirschfeld Fund, is a GLBT advocacy group that was formed in 2004 to support the gay community. They received an $11 million grant from the
Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency earlier this year. This money, combined with $8 million in already allocated government grants, allowed the project to move forward to where it is today.
The new 6-story structure will feature 56 one-bedroom units, a 5,000-square-foot enclosed courtyard, and multipurpose spaces that residents and the community can use. Plans also include roughly 2,000 square feet of retail space that will front 13th Street.
Living in the residences will be geared towards seniors in the gay community so they have a place to comfortably live without possible stresses of being discriminated against in other public housing. Even though affordable housing laws dictate that eligibility to live in public housing based on sexual preference is illegal, the building is able to market itself as ‘gay friendly’ to draw special interest from GLBT seniors. But the facility will be open to anyone that is at least 62 years old and earns less than 60 percent of the Philadelphia median income.
Due to Hurricane Sandy pushing construction timetables back (the original groundbreaking was set for Oct. 29th), the official groundbreaking is now set for later this week on Friday, Nov. 9 at 11 a.m. at
249 S. 13th Street. Mayor Nutter will be in attendance and will unveil the official name of the new building. He will be joined by former Governor Ed Rendell, numerous city and state officials as well as a number of high profile GLBT civil rights pioneers. Segal believes the project will take up to 15 months to complete and should be ready for occupation in early 2014.
Source: Mark Segal, Philadelphia Gay News
Writer:
Greg Meckstroth