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| Neighborhoods Now (Greater Philadelphia) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Neighborhoods Now (Greater Philadelphia) |
| Formation | 2016 |
| Purpose | Community revitalization |
| Headquarters | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Region served | Greater Philadelphia |
Neighborhoods Now (Greater Philadelphia) Neighborhoods Now (Greater Philadelphia) is a collaborative urban revitalization initiative based in Philadelphia, serving the metropolitan area including parts of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and Camden County, New Jersey. The program brings together municipal agencies, philanthropic institutions, nonprofit organizations, and community associations to coordinate housing stabilization, small business support, public safety partnerships, and neighborhood planning in alignment with regional priorities set by entities such as City of Philadelphia departments and county planning boards. Its model emphasizes place-based interventions connected to broader projects in Fairmount Park, West Philadelphia, Kensington, South Philadelphia, and adjacent townships.
Neighborhoods Now positions itself at the intersection of municipal policy, philanthropic strategy, and community-led development, linking stakeholders like the William Penn Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia Housing Authority, Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority, and civic networks including Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation). It integrates neighborhood-level organizing seen in groups such as Southwest Philly Neighborhood Assembly, West Philly Rising, and faith-based partners like Archdiocese of Philadelphia parishes to deploy interventions ranging from vacant property remediation to storefront activation. The initiative coordinates with regional transportation projects such as Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority corridors and with health systems like Temple University Hospital and Penn Medicine on place-based health strategies.
Neighborhoods Now emerged in the mid-2010s as part of a wave of metropolitan coalitions that included counterparts in Cleveland, Baltimore, and Detroit. Early convenings involved the City of Philadelphia Office of Policy and Strategic Initiatives, the Office of the Governor of Pennsylvania, and civic groups that had participated in resilience planning after events such as the 2011 Philadelphia sewage consent decree debates and post-industrial recovery efforts tied to redevelopment projects around University City and Philadelphia Navy Yard. Initial pilots focused on legacy-industrial neighborhoods affected by deindustrialization, vacancy, and displacement, referencing prior redevelopment frameworks like the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative and aligning with federal programs administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and state agencies including Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.
Core programs have included vacant-land reutilization, owner-occupancy promotion, small business technical assistance, and community safety partnerships. Specific initiatives have drawn on models from Project HOME, Women’s Community Revitalization Project, and Rebuilding Together Philadelphia to scale housing rehabilitation, while storefront and microenterprise support has partnered with University of Pennsylvania Netter Center-affiliated entrepreneurship efforts and Kiva US lending programs. Public-space activation has collaborated with cultural institutions such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Barnes Foundation, and neighborhood arts groups linked to Mural Arts Philadelphia. Health and social services linkages have coordinated with Public Health Management Corporation, City of Philadelphia Department of Public Health, and community health centers like Family Practice and Counseling Network.
Neighborhoods Now convenes a rotating cohort of neighborhoods including Kensington, Germantown, North Philadelphia, South Philadelphia, Chester, Camden, Norristown, and parts of Bucks County, Pennsylvania boroughs. Partners encompass municipal actors such as the Philadelphia City Council, county commissioners, regional foundations like the Knight Foundation, intermediary funders such as Enterprise Community Partners, and local community development corporations including West Philadelphia Financial Services Institution and neighborhood CDCs patterned after Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation.
Reported outcomes include reductions in residential vacancy rates in targeted blocks, increases in home repair grants disbursed, and the stabilization of small commercial corridors with increased occupancy. Quantitative measures tracked mirror indicators used by agencies like the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and local planning metrics published by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. In some neighborhoods, partnerships helped secure investments from corporate anchors and universities—examples include proximity-driven development connected to Drexel University and Temple University expansions—yielding mixed results on affordability, business diversification, and public-space improvements.
Funding for Neighborhoods Now combines philanthropic grants, municipal allocations, state appropriations, and federal program dollars from agencies such as U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Governance is typically collaborative: steering committees include representatives from the Mayor's Office of Philadelphia, county executives, foundation program officers from entities like William Penn Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts, and boards of local CDCs. Implementation employs project management approaches influenced by city-administered initiatives such as Philadelphia 2035 planning efforts and performance frameworks used by intermediary organizations like LISC.
Critics, including tenant advocacy groups and housing justice organizations such as Tenant Union Representative Network (TURN) and advocates aligned with Philadelphia Coalition for Affordable Communities, argue that place-based investment can accelerate gentrification and displacement, citing examples linked to campus-adjacent redevelopment near University City and transit-oriented projects around 30th Street Station. Other controversies involve transparency of foundation-led priorities versus community control, debates over eminent-domain use tied to redevelopment in corridors like Feltonville and Point Breeze, and disputes over metrics favored by funders versus grassroots indicators highlighted by groups like Community Legal Services of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network (PIIN).