Port Richmond for Transforming Nativity School into Senior Living

Nativity B.V.M. school, located at the corners of Belgrade and Madison Streets in Port Richmond has been closed since 2008. In 2009, Catholic Health Care Services was allotted $11 million dollars for a proposed senior housing center.

Since that time, the abandoned school building has been broken into and vandalized 7 times. A few residents are standing in the way of affordable apartment living for seniors who are very attached to our community. This senior living complex would be in a convenient location that would provide the elderly of the neighborhood with a cost effective and practical way of life close to where they worked, raised their families, worship, socialize, shop, and live.

Many residents fear what will become of this building if a change does not occur soon. For one thing, the $11 million dollars might be taken away. Another thing is that in recent months, warehouse fires in Kensington have made people increasingly aware that building left unkept often fall prey to squatting/fires.

Lastly, it is making the neighborhood, which has done so much to keep Port Richmond, a hard working, positive place to live and raise families, appear unappealing and uncaring.