October 11, 2024
Kate Frese/For PhillyVoice
Mayor Cherelle Parker made several new appointments Friday, including new leaders for projects to develop 30,000 units of affordable housing and a $100 million drug treatment center.
Mayor Cherelle Parker made several new appointments Friday, including naming leaders to two high-profile projects, following this week's announcement of Chief Deputy Mayor Aren Platt's resignation.
Associate Deputy Mayor Jessie Lawrence was named the new director for planning and development for the city and will head up Parker's campaign promise of producing 30,000 units of affordable housing. Isabel McDevitt, the co-founder of Work Works America, will be the new executive director of community wellness and recovery in the managing director's office. In that role, she'll undertake the $100 million drug recovery facility planned on State Road.
Octavia Howell, a manager at Pew Charitable Trusts, was appointed as the director of planning in the Department of Planning and Development, and John Mondlak, the interim director for planning and development, will be the chief of staff for Lawrence.
At a new conference announcing the new hires, Lawrence said that initial plans for the housing units had already begun, including discussions on funding and location.
"We are planning to roll something out this season, but at this point, it's being formed, it's being programmed, policies are being considered and we're just looking at where we can make those revisions at this point," Lawrence said. "At this point, we've already started and we plan to unveil something very, very soon."
Lawrence had been the deputy mayor for planning and strategic initiatives since Parker took office in January. He also previously served as the director of real estate for the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation.
During the event, Parker said she was particularly impressed by Lawrence's work on the proposed 76ers arena.
"It was recently, during our public meeting about the agreement that I had reached with the 76ers for a new arena along the Market East corridor in Center City, that Jesse's exemplary skills and abilities began to shine and the public got a chance to witness what I have been seeing behind closed doors since we started in this administration," Parker said.
McDevitt, meanwhile, will be the face of the project to replace cottages on city-owned property next to Philadelphia's jails with a new drug treatment facility. The Riverview Wellness Center will house and treat over 600 people with wound care, wellness gardens and multiple types of therapies.
"There is no one-size-fits-all solution to these complicated problems, and we need a continuum that meets people where they are and gives them the opportunity to stabilize and thrive, and this initiative will do just that," McDevitt said.
City Managing Director Adam Thiel said the plan is to help existing providers and partners scale up their work and connect different services. Once checked into the facility, people can stay for up to a year and gradually move through various levels of care and even receive job training.
"The mayor's vision is to provide one stop, one move, from short to medium/long-term treatment and housing to economic opportunity into one of those units of affordable housing that we're talking about with a job, maybe even being a community health worker to catalyze this system," Thiel said Friday.
Platt, the chief deputy mayor for planning and strategic initiatives, will officially leave his post Oct. 25. Parker said Platt will be transitioning to the private sector and that she will still be working with him, though she didn't say in what capacity.
Vanessa Garrett Harley, the deputy mayor for children and families, will become the chief deputy mayor for social impact and strategic initiatives.
