Presby’s Inspired Life Opens Witherspoon Senior Apartments, Low-Income Housing in Southwest Philadelphia

Presby’s Inspired Life is also opening Cantrell Place in South Philadelphia, a new construction project, at the end of 2018.

Rendering of a portion of Witherspoon Senior Apartments, Philadelphia, PA

PHILADELPHIA, PA—Presby’s Inspired Life has opened Witherspoon Senior Apartments, an adaptive reuse of a former nursing home, which sits on Presby’s 58th Street Campus in Southwest Philadelphia. The campus, which is composed of almost an entire city block, currently features three other low-income Affordable Housing communities managed by Presby’s Inspired Life. The entire campus will serve more than 300 adults aged 62 and better.

“Finding safe affordable housing has been and continues to be an ongoing issue for so many Philadelphians—especially the senior population who want to stay in the neighborhoods where they were born and raised,” says Judee M. Bavaria, president and ceo of Presby’s Inspired Life. “At the heart of Presby’s ministry is its service to older adults of limited financial means. Witherspoon Senior Apartments is fulfilling a critical need for quality affordable housing for older adults in Philadelphia, and we are able to do this with help from local officials and organizations like Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, Philadelphia Housing Authority and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. We are thrilled to say that these residents have a new ‘home for the holidays.’”

In addition to Witherspoon, Presby’s Inspired Life is also opening Cantrell Place in South Philadelphia, a new construction project, at the end of 2018. The site of the new buildings will revitalize a city block by transforming 33 vacant lots into 61 units of affordable housing for seniors.

Presby was awarded tax-credit funding from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency in July 2016 to develop both new properties. The developer for Witherspoon Senior Apartments is TN Ward, and the developer for Cantrell Place is Domus.