Strawberry Mansion on deck for new affordable housing

JENNY DeHUFF, Daily News Staff Writer dehuffj@phillynews.com, 215-854-5218 Posted: Monday, August 18, 2014, 3:01 AM

STRAWBERRY Mansion residents will be the benefactors of three Philadelphia Housing Authority projects within 24 months.

The neighbors say they want and need the housing but they want to make sure they have a say in how it's done.

City officials broke ground on the first development Tuesday: the Oakdale Street Apartments, on a longtime vacant lot in the north end of Strawberry Mansion. Twelve units will be built on Oakdale Street near 28th, across from the Widener Library. The three developments will result in a total investment of about $30 million.

City Council President Darrell Clarke, PHA president Kelvin Jeremiah and nearly a dozen others pitched their shovels in the dirt and gave it a toss Tuesday, ceremonially ringing in the start of the undertaking.

Early on, a 12-member task force was assembled with the intent of having full community involvement and participation in the awarding of contracts for the job, from initial construction to plumbing to painting and all the way down.

Dale Corp., a construction-management firm based in Glenside, Montgomery County, was the lowest and most qualified bidder, Jeremiah said. Dale will oversee the project's development, but some members of the task force - half PHA and City Council staff and half neighborhood residents - are skeptical about whether their voices are being heard.

"The approach on this one could have been better," said Tonnetta Graham, of the Strawberry Mansion Community Development Corp.

"You have to remember that this is a very old community and a lot of our residents have something to say about what happens."

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Strawberry Mansion on deck for new affordable housing