Wednesday marked the ninth day Drexel University students have been sitting in protest in solidarity with residents of the University City Townhomes, rallying against corporate greed and displacement across the city.
The protest is being led by Drexel Community for Justice (DCJ), a group of student and community organizers committed to preserving affordable housing at UC Townhomes, located at 40th and Market streets. The decision by Altman Management Company not to renew its annual contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at the UC Townhomes is the latest battle in a long war for affordable housing in West Philadelphia.
“Drexel University loves to tout its civic engagement in the West Philly community. If Drexel is serious about civic engagement, then show us by meeting these demands. We have community support, we have student solidarity, we have faculty solidarity,”said Chel Martin, a fourth year Drexel student and organizer with DCJ. “Move faster. Listen to our demands and meet them.”
DCJ has attempted to meet with Drexel University President John Fry to discuss their demands that Drexel pay $10 million to preserve the UC Townhomes as 100-percent affordable low-income housing, and that Brett Altman and David Adelman be removed from Drexel’s Real Estate Advisory Council.
Altman is the corporate landlord of the Townhomes, and Adelman is a corporate developer and co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers.
“We’ve garnered a lot of student and faculty solidarity since we started,” Martin said. “Our second day, we had professors teaching classes in the atrium where we were occupying and still are occupying.”
The sit-in started on Feb. 21 because that was the date the affordable housing contract at the UC Townhomes was set to expire.
“The UC Townhomes located at 40th and Market are one of the last affordable housing sites in Philadelphia, and they’re one of the last remaining buildings of the Black Bottom,” said Martin.
The Black Bottom is a historically Black community that was established by formerly enslaved Africans who settled here.
“But the 1940s came around, 1960s and urban renewal hit the scene. Universities like Drexel University, University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian, U Sciences all used eminent domain to take land from Black communities that were deemed blighted,” said Martin. “These universities essentially got the right of way to bulldoze houses of Black community members. Houses were displaced.”
Last Friday, student organizers with DCJ, residents of the UC Townhomes, Students for the Preservation of Chinatown (SPOC), and the Save Chinatown Coalition and Fossil Free Penn (FFP) held a joint press conference to update the public on the state of their sit-in and to highlight demands.
“We are growing in knowledge, we are growing in power, we are growing in numbers. We have hundreds sitting and we have thousands watching,” said Lucina Doren, a fourth year Drexel student and organizer. “We are not only occupying space. We are learning, we are teaching, and we are practicing community care.”
Debbie Wei—a parent, organizer and resident of Chinatown—shared her experiences of organizing and continuously fighting the constant development of residential and community spaces.
“I’m here to say that my generation has failed you, but now we have to stand with you because this is a global fight and you bring us hope in a time of unbridled corporate greed,” said Wei. “You remind us of what matters—humanity, human dignity, our planet that we share. Chinatown stands with you! Today we are angry and tomorrow we continue this fight.”
Students are not only sitting in solidarity with residents of UC Townhomes and the Save the UC Townhomes Coalition, but also with campaigns against corporate greed across the city, including the campaign to stop construction of a new 76ers arena in Chinatown.
On Wednesday, DCJ was slated to meet with Drexel University President John Fry to discuss their demands.
“Our first day we asked to meet with Fry, and coincidentally he happened to be out of state. Throughout the whole week we had been speaking with Senior Vice Provost Lucy Kerman, who is giving us the runaround. But today, we’ll be having our first meeting with the president and Lucy Kerman,” Martin said on Wednesday morning.
Martin adds that she believes the sit-in will occur indefinitely until demands are met and is not expecting a direct solution to emerge after their meeting.
“Drexel has put out emails and continues to try to distance itself from this issue, from preserving the townhome,” she said.
