North Philadelphia is getting a rare kind of construction boom, one centered on ownership instead of luxury rentals. Pope Leo Village, a faith-inspired housing push tied to Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia, is set to bring 26 affordable homes to the Sharswood and Brewerytown neighborhoods. The plan calls for 21 brand new houses on a long-vacant lot at 19th Street and Montgomery Avenue, plus five full gut rehabs on the 1400 block of North Hollywood Street.
According to Villanova University, the whole thing started with an anonymous donor who was moved by the election of Pope Leo XIV and wanted to spark a wave of youth volunteering around the country. That donor seeded the Pope Leo Village campaign and has already helped secure commitments from 20 Habitat affiliates that together plan to build more than 235 homes nationwide. Villanova says university representatives will be on hand when Habitat Philadelphia kicks off the local build at an April 18 launch event.
Where the homes will be built
The local footprint is tight and intentional. Most of the action will happen on the empty parcel at 19th Street and Montgomery Avenue, where 21 new homes are slated to rise. Just a few blocks away, five existing properties on the 1400 block of North Hollywood Street are lined up for gut rehabs. Corinne O’Connell, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia, told WHYY that the donor “called me and said, ‘I want to do something in the space of getting young people to volunteer,’” and that the Philadelphia Housing Authority helped by transferring scattered-site properties over to Habitat to make the project possible.
Who will pitch in
Organizers are not shy about asking for bodies on the build sites. Campus groups, churches and neighborhood organizations are all being tapped to fill out volunteer rosters, and the campaign is pitching Pope Leo Village as an interfaith, multigenerational effort that welcomes schools, congregations and service clubs alike. The nuts-and-bolts details, along with registration and group sign-up options, are posted on Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia’s online volunteer hub, where Pope Leo Village appears as a current project in the city (Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia).
How the program works
These homes are not giveaways and the path to ownership is structured and pretty demanding. Households must earn no more than 80% of the area median income, which comes out to about $95,500 for a family of four in Philadelphia, and they have to complete homeowner education workshops and counseling. Buyers are also required to chip in on closing costs and put in 125 hours of sweat equity on Habitat projects, according to WHYY. Villanova University notes that Habitat Philadelphia is leaning on a long track record in the city, with the group reporting that it has already built or sold hundreds of energy-efficient homes and assisted many additional households through repair work, experience that will undergird the Pope Leo Village build.
Why it matters
Pope Leo Village is not just a one-off local effort, it is part of a coordinated, donor-backed push in multiple cities. Affiliates from Portland to Detroit have launched their own Pope Leo Village projects, tying the big-picture goal of more affordable housing to a very specific challenge of getting faith communities and younger volunteers out on construction sites. In Portland, the campaign page for the Twenty Fifth Terrace build spells out both its regional targets and its role in the broader Pope Leo Village network, explicitly connecting what is happening in North Philly to a growing, national movement of people showing up with hard hats and hammers (Habitat Portland Region).
