Philadelphia’s housing supply is aging. Roughly 40% of the city’s homes predate 1940, according to the city. Another 25% were built between 1940 and 1959. Many are in serious need of repair.
On top of that, the city has a supply shortage, and renters are feeling the crunch. More than half of the city’s renters are cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on housing.
Last year, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker announced a plan to address the crisis, spending $2 billion to build, restore and preserve 30,000 housing units. The goal of Parker’s Housing Opportunities Made Easy initiative is to preserve 16,500 existing housing units and create 13,500 new ones.
The City Council last month signed off on $800 million in bonds for the program, which the city also plans to finance with federal funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The city will also incorporate $1 billion in public land contributions to housing.
It’s also partnering with philanthropic organizations and unions to ensure that “solutions address real community needs rather than top-down mandates,” Chief Housing and Urban Development Officer Angela Brooks wrote in a December National League of Cities blog.
Brooks called HOME the “most ambitious housing plan in modern Philadelphia history.”
In keeping with Philadelphia’s effort to promote data-driven, evidence-based municipal decisions through its Philly Stat 360 department, launched two years ago, the city relied on a housing gap analysis to shape its plan and determine which areas are in most critical need of housing.
Like many cities facing similar housing shortages, Philadelphia is also targeting its zoning and building codes and processes to locate additional paths to spur development. Over a period of seven months, the city said it was able to reduce its zoning appeals decision timeline from a high of 78 days to a low of 12 — an 85% reduction.
“That is what data-driven leadership looks like: smarter processes, faster decisions and better outcomes for neighborhoods across the city,” Parker said of the milestone at a Monday press conference.
Philadelphia this month was recognized with a Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities Gold Certification for its data capabilities. The city credited the achievement in part to its work on the HOME initiative.
The first-year budget for the initiative approved by the City Council last month allocated $277 million for the plan, which incorporates multiple programs for housing and renters under its umbrella.
The budget “represents what’s possible when lawmakers, housing experts, and community advocates come together with urgency and purpose,” City Councilmembers Jamie Gauthier and Rue Landau said in a joint statement.
