Richard Allen Homes

Richard Allen Homes is the North Philadelphia public-housing development used in Can transforming neighborhoods help kids escape poverty? to make [[HOPEVIProgram|HOPE VI]] tangible. Weissina Williams grew up nearby and describes the older environment as unsafe, depressing, badly maintained, and socially isolated.

In the episode, the rebuilt version of the development stands for the program’s design theory. Instead of inward-facing towers and courtyards, the new housing included street-facing homes, front yards, open space, and residents from different income levels, connecting the site to Mixed-Income Housing and Neighborhood Opportunity Revitalization.

Key Claims

• The old development is presented as physically and socially closed off from the surrounding city.
• The rebuilt environment is used as an example of design intended to reduce isolation.
• Williams’s son grew up in the new setting and had more contact with children outside public housing.

Connections

• Weissina Williams - resident whose story centers the development.
• Cambridge Plaza - nearby tower demolition that opens the episode.
• HOPE VI Program - program that changed the development.
• Cross-Class Social Capital - mechanism the rebuilt setting is used to illustrate.