The reinvention of Camden’s Ablett Village has sparked a sea change in public housing in Cramer Hill
The Ablett Village buildings opened in 1943 as a partnership between the federal government and the Camden Housing Authority.
For more than 50 years, Conrada Sanchez made her home in one of 23 evenly spaced two-story brick buildings off State Street in Camden.
The Ablett Village buildings, facing each other across narrow streets, opened in 1943 as a partnership between the federal government and the Camden Housing Authority for families of defense industry workers during World War II. The homes, most of which have been demolished over the last year, were named for a Camden soldier killed in France during World War I.
In October, Sanchez was among the first Ablett Village residents to move into new townhouses built there as part of one of Camden’s largest affordable housing projects in recent years. A second group will move in this month.
Sanchez, 69, came from Puerto Rico in 1974 and raised her three children in the old Ablett community. Although she valued her neighbors and enjoyed the apartment, she said, the new construction and appliances made the move worth it.
Many older Ablett Village residents relocated to the Harrison, a new age-restricted apartment building at North 24th Street and Pierce Avenue that opened in 2024. But Sanchez wanted to stay in the neighborhood she had long called home.
“I wanted to stay. I raised my kids here, so I’m just going to retire here,” she said through a translator. Sanchez, a retired home health aide, spends her days in church or in prayer at home, taking time to watch her Spanish-language soap operas on the big-screen TV dominating her living room.
About 400 units of new housing across Cramer Hill have been completed or are under construction in a massive $220 million program managed by the Camden-based Michaels Organization with the housing authority.
“It’s been tremendous,” Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen said. “You’re proud. Our residents are proud. You feel it in the community.”
There are some perks in the new townhomes: central air and appliances including a washer and dryer. Sanchez’s new home will also be easier for her to age in as it has a first-floor bathroom.
The housing authority is providing free moving for every Ablett Village resident relocating to one of the new properties.
Nick Cangelosi, regional vice president of development for the Michaels Organization, said a key to the design of the new Ablett Village is how the homes are situated.
The old buildings faced themselves on their own narrow streets. Much of the new Ablett Village has townhouses facing the streets, blending in with the rest of the community, Cangelosi said.
“You’re part of the neighborhood,” he said.
In addition to the two groups moving into the Ablett homes this fall, construction will start on the next Ablett Village phase in summer 2027 and those residences will be ready by late 2028, Cangelosi said.
For other Ablett Village residents, 38 homes are being built across State Street and will be ready for residents by the end of 2027. The development has yet to be named. A site on Harrison Avenue near the Salvation Army Kroc Center will also include 34 homes and will be completed by the end of 2027.
Among the first projects in the building program, about a half mile from Ablett Village, were townhouses finished in summer 2023 on Hayes Avenue across from Veterans Memorial Family School. They are fully occupied by many former Ablett Village residents.
Tracy Fleming-Powell, president of the Ablett Village Residents Council, said the residents she has talked to are “freaking crazily happy.” She has lived in Ablett Village since 1987 and was born in Camden.
Fleming-Powell, also a resident liaison with the housing authority, said replacing Ablett Village had been discussed for years and, at one point, plans did not include residents staying in the neighborhood. She was relieved when the current program kept all residents in Cramer Hill.
Although she has yet to move into her new townhouse, Fleming-Powell looks forward to the new appliances, including having a dishwasher for the first time.
“I’m going to hug my floor,” she said of the move. “I can’t wait.”
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