Homeowner Spotlight: Geraldine Brown
"I’ve been volunteering for almost 30 years. Volunteering is like a steppingstone for careers, for opportunities, for the quest of your choice of how you want your career to go. Touching hands with different people, getting more information, and growing."
- Geraldine Brown
Dunlap Homeowner & Community Activist
Geraldine Brown bought her home on March 12, 1982. She needed the space—she had four children and the house had four bedrooms. She started her nursing career at Philadelphia General—was left in the lurch when it was forcibly closed by then Mayor Frank Rizzo and its Black nurses left to fend for themselves—and would retire from the profession many years later from Temple Hospital in 2009. But both before and after retirement, Geraldine has always been a fierce advocate for home ownership as an investment in one’s community. She’s been a community leader since she first moved into her Dunlap neighborhood in West Philadelphia, including being a Block Captain for 29 years.
Geraldine took over as the President and Director of the Dunlap’s neighborhood organization, Dunlap Community Citizens Concerned. In addition to her Block Captain services, Geraldine sat on the Police Advisory Board for her (and surrounding) districts. “You need a bridge between the community and the police, or it is taken out of your hands,” she explains. Retirement has brought only increased community activity. She volunteers for ACHIEVEability, an organization that helps single and homeless parents navigate higher education and—Geraldine’s specialty—affordable housing. In all her work, she continues to advocate for home ownership and its relation to personal stability and community investment.
Geraldine’s home was once the house of Jeanette Macdonald, a movie star of the 1930s and 40s (musicals particularly), and on occasion gets film buffs coming to see it. Her children no longer live in her house, however, and in the past few years she had been feeling it was too big to take care of. The house was in need of serious repairs, especially plumbing, electric, and a need for a new roof. She began inquiring into moving into a senior center. But Geraldine had lived in her house for nearly 40 years, and she found that senior living facilities had too many rules and “I didn’t like the idea of being told how to live.”
RTP’s contractors have come in, installed a new roof, updated the electricity and plumbing, mortar work and other repairs. “It has been really rewarding to try and make my home better.” With her home stabilized, she is able to feel secure in what she advocates the most for. Home ownership is a form of commitment in the community. “Community is here to support you if you are willing to have it.”
