Rental and homeownership opportunities
On the same site, the housing authority plans to develop 15 affordable townhomes, which will be sold through the city’s Turn the Key program. There will also be a new basketball court and playground.
Homes built through the program start at $280,000, but buyers can obtain up to $75,000 in mortgage buydown assistance, which is often paired with funding from Philly First Home to further bring down the sale price.
Turn the Key participants typically pay around $1,400 a month for a three-bedroom house, which is considerably less than the median rent for a similar apartment.
“There are people at Temple, who work at Temple, who might want to be able to purchase a home,” Jeremiah said.
When everything is completed, the site will have 446 rental homeownership units — triple the total that comprised Norris Homes. Roughly two-thirds of the units were built across five phases between 2014 and 2021.
The work also included the construction of a new community center. The one it replaced will be demolished during the final phase of the project.
Construction on the apartment building is expected to start early next year and take 18–24 months to complete. Work on the homeownership units is slated to get underway before the end of 2026.