• Housing Counseling
• Community Organizing
• Neighborhood Advisory Committee (NAC)
• Neighborhood Beautification Program

Southwest CDC provides housing counseling services targeted to very low, low and moderate income residents of Philadelphia to help resolve problems in the area of:

• Rental counseling
• Mortgage counseling
• Pre-purchase
• Home inspection
• Post-purchase
• Mortgage Default and Delinquency
  • Homeowners' Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (HEMAP)
  • Housing Retention Program
  • Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Initiative
• Housing Consumer Education

• Credit History
• Home maintenance
• Money management
• Predatory lending
• Taxes
• Sheriff sale assistance

Organizing the community around citizen participation for neighborhood beautification, voting and knowledge of available programs is key to strengthening the neighborhood of Southwest Philadelphia. Southwest CDC has a community organizer who works on behalf of the neighborhood on these issues and more.

Southwest CDC has a contract with Philadelphia's Office of Housing and Community Development (OHDC) to organize a Neighborhood Advisory Committee to provide neighborhood residents the opportunity for citizen participation in monitoring federal funds called Community Development Block Grants (CDBG). The purpose of Southwest CDC's NAC is to monitor the program activities of their OHCD contract. Contract requirements include:

• Creating and distributing a newsletter on a quarterly basis.
• Holding community meetings called Service Area Briefing on a quarterly basis.
• Maintain a listing of neighborhood Block Captains.
• Maintain a listing of neighborhood organization and their services.
• Maintain a listing of housing conditions in the Service area.
• Act as a liaison between the neighborhood residents and the City services.
• Promote City-wide housing programs such as Basic Systems Repair Program.

The NAC carries out specific activities in a designated service area, which incorporates Census Tracts 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, and 74. The physical boundaries are 49th Street west to 65th Street and Baltimore Avenue south to the Schuylkill River.

Neighborhood Beautification was established to mobilize residents in the beautification of Southwest to improve the appearance, including vacant lots. The goals are to make resources and information available to people and assist them in their continuing effort to beautify the neighborhood. Beautification projects are accomplished and unsightly, trash-filled lots become positive fixtures. Neighborhood Beautification offers: A tool-lending bank, free gardening and vegetable seeds, and painting supplies. The Garden Club educates residents on various gardening information, assists in individual beautification projects, and provides information on graffiti removal.