Malik Davis was the first person to buy a condo from Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia in the Coltrane Commons development in Strawberry Mansion.Malik Davis holds a special distinction: He is the first person ever to buy a condo from Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia.is known for building single-family homes for low- and moderate-income households.
It’s the culmination of years of research and planning by Habitat to try something new to tackle the shortage of homes that Philadelphians can afford. With condos, Habitat can fit more families onto the lots that it acquires mostly from agencies that distribute publicly owned land. And before accounting for subsidies based on homeowners’ incomes, Habitat’s condo units cost less than its single-family homes.offering condos.
It reached out to fellow affiliates in New York, Nashville, and Los Angeles, but Philadelphia’s affiliate worked most closely withA New Jersey Habitat for Humanity affiliate is building modular homes to move families in faster “Habitat really relies pretty heavily on acquiring property at nominal in order to increase affordability,” he said. “Land is really competitive and hard to come by.”
Eleven of the 21 homes in Habitat’s Coltrane Commons development are condos. To build those multifamily units in four duplexes and a triplex, Habitat partnered with an outside general contractor for the first time. Habitat’s experiment with condos also meant it would need to set up a condo association for the first time.,” said Davis, the first condo buyer. But attorneys at Ballard Spahr worked with Habitat pro bono to set up the documents and structure needed to create the condo association, and they taught homeowners what it means to live in a condo community.