This project brings together an intergenerational university-community research team to investigate the landscape of residential displacement and affordable housing options in the rapidly gentrifying, federally designated West Philadelphia Promise Zone. Our Community-driven Participatory Action Research (CPAR) study illuminates the existing housing options, how well these options are understood by residents, and community interest in alternative options, specifically in university-community cooperative living. Our project builds community partner's capacity to educate and share knowledge as essential steps towards engaged participation and whole-community involvement. By centering the funds of knowledge of ground-level community stakeholders, this study aims to build a tangible model that can be used as a resource to support other residents, youth, practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and organizations who wish to respond to the urgent need for more affordable housing in the West Philadelphia Promise Zone.

Partner(s): Second Story Collective, Writers Room, Mantua Civic Association, YouthBuild Philadelphia, Westphal College of Media Arts and Design, Artist Year

Funder: AmeriCorps

Publications

Allen-Handy, A., Meloche, A., Likely, R., Thomas-EL, S., Sterin, K., Richardson McCullough, C., Wenrick, R., Nicholas, D., Kaschock, K., Drummond, D., Jung, U., Jenkins, G., & Welsh, D. (under review, 2023). “The sandwich effect: A critical examination of gentrification and African American residential displacement in a U.S. federally designated promise zone. Journal of Race, Ethnicity and the City.

Allen-Handy, A., Meloche, A., Sterin, K., Likel, R., Mathew, K., Thomas-EL, S., Richardson McCullough, C., Datts, K., Wenrick, R., Nicholas, D., Kaschock, K., Drummond, D., Jung, U., Jenkins, G., & Welsh, D. (under review, 2023). The “inaccessible and inadequate” landscape of affordable housing in a rapidly gentrifying West Philadelphia: A view from Du Bois’ megascope. City and Community.

Richardson McCullough, C., Datts, K., Allen-Handy, A., Sterin, K., & Escalante, K. (2022). Zip code colonization: Counter-narratives of gentrification’s traumatic impact on Philadelphia’s Black communities and schools. Journal of Trauma Studies in Education 1(3), 23-44.

Presentations

Allen-Handy, A., Meloche, A., Sterin, K., Likel, R., Mathew, K., Thomas-EL, S., Richardson McCullough, C., Datts, K., Wenrick, R., Nicholas, D., Kaschock, K., Drummond, D., Jung, U., Jenkins, G., & Welsh, D. (2023, April). “And before you know it, a culture is moved out”: A Case Study of Gentrification and Residential Displacement in West Philadelphia. 51st Annual Conference of the Urban Affairs Association. Nashville, TN.

Allen-Handy, A., Sterin, K., & Escalante, K. (2022, November). Moving Toward Transformative Solution for the Place-Based Educational Trauma of Black Students in Urban Schools. Paper presented at the International Conference on Urban Education. Cancun, Mexico.

Sterin, K., Meloche, A., Welsh, D. Richardson McCullough, C., Allen-Handy, A., Wenrick, R. & Nicholas, D. (2021, February). Integrating the Arts into Community-led Critical Participatory Action Research. Workshop presented at the 38th Annual Winter Roundtable Conference hosted by Teachers College, Columbia. Virtual Conference.