"Developers should have to build an affordable unit for every x units of market rate housing, and they should be side-by-side in the same development or building."

For a variety of reasons, putting low income housing in the heart of center city's most expensive real estate isn't practical.

One of the things the in-lieu fund does, is protect people in neighborhoods who risked being squeezed out from increasing property values as the area around them is redeveloped. This is from the bill:

"In spending or distributing monies from the in-lieu fund, preference shall be given to eligible households at risk of being displaced, as evidenced by the census tract in which the household resides experiencing an increase in property values at least three times the rate of change in the Consumer Price Index for the Philadelphia-Wilmington-Atlantic City Metropolitan Statistical Area over the same period of time, over the course of the three consecutive years prior to the disbursement of funds."

This is really an area of importance that should not be overlooked.

You can really have your cake and eat it too with the in-lieu fund. The money can be spent in such split so that you can help families keep their homes while providing new affordable housing units through rehabilitating vacant houses. The cost of rehabbing a vacant house is far far less than building a new home. You get so much more bang for your buck, and their are no shortage of vacant houses in this city.

True, I shouldn't have implied that affordable housing was cheap for families of very low incomes.

But what I was referring to was the big glut of vacant, cheap, marginally-liveable rowhouses being traded or held by real estate speculators in the city's worst neighborhoods. Philadelphia's "housing crisis" isn't exactly the same as say, San Francisco, or NYC. It's not simply an issue of supply and demand-- there is in some cases more supply than there is demand, given our history of population decline. I see the problem being that there's no incentive for people sitting on vacant properties to rehab them and sell/rent them to the people who badly need them.

I'd see a land value tax or some other policies to discourage speculation as better means to turning more of these vacant properties into the affordable housing units that they could be. The social conditions in places like Strawberry Mansion have driven people away, and building subsidized vinyl-sided tract housing on the vacant lots where the rowhouses once stood isn't addressing the underlying problems that caused the abandonment in the first place. I just don't want to see the in-lieu monies become simply a funding stream for more NTI-type activity.

FYI:

Apparently, the proposed in-lieu option was to quell developer opposition and to give CDCs money to build stuff. Sounds like terrible reasoning to me.

For what it's worth the in-lieu option seems (http://www.philahousingjustice.org/goals.htm) extremely low.

Choose to pay a fee rather than construct the affordable housing either on-site or off-site. Developers must pay $20,000 per multi-family unit in the project, and $5,000 per single family unit into an inclusionary housing fund.

I mean who in their right mind would build an affordable living space when you can get away with paying $5,000 or $20,000 instead. Those limits definitely need to be increased and perhaps the option should be scrapped all together.

--Mike
Weeds in the Sidewalk

my friend Jill is the point person for all this work at the WCRP. I belive she is on her way to upsate NY as I type, but I will try to get her to overcome her dislike of blogs, and give us some info on Tuesday.

I almost cried like three times. Particularly the women from SEIU Local 32BJ (I think commercial office cleaners), and especially Blanca Rivera, who spoke about being forced to sell her home after she had to stop work to care for her sick mother.

She made enough on the sale to free herself from debt, but the rising property values in her Frankford neighborhood (she bought the house on $400/month rent-to-own mortgage payments) meant that she couldn't afford to stay there and was pushed out to another much less safe and familiar neighborhood.

"We live here, we work here,
we want the right to stay here."

in case you missed the rally...as I almost did due to a minor auto accident.

Advocates Unveil Benchmark Inclusionary Housing Bill

Housing coalition gathers over 200 supporters for rally in Center City

PHILADELPHIA, September 6, 2007 – Today, in the shadow of the Residences at the Ritz Carlton, which cost up to $12,000,000 per condo, more than 200 people rallied at City Hall to demand that City Council enact an Inclusionary Housing bill that will help build more affordable housing in Philadelphia.

The benchmark bill, written by the Philadelphia Campaign for Housing Justice (PCHJ), requires market-rate developers either to include affordable housing in their construction or pay for off-site affordable housing. It is an alternative to a similarly named bill introduced by Councilman Darrell Clarke last year and is designed to address the affordable housing crisis experienced by the lowest income households in the city.

Carol Hemmingway, Board President of ACORN, moderated the event and pointed out that the goal of Inclusionary Housing is captured by the PCHJ slogan, “Everyone Should Have a Place in Philadelphia.”

Nora Lichtash, Executive Director of the Women’s Community Revitalization Project, welcomed the 30 organizations including the housing advocates, labor unions, faith-based groups, disability activists, and community groups that comprise the Philadelphia Campaign for Housing Justice. She explained that “twenty percent of the residents of Philadelphia cannot afford their housing” and that PCHJ has crafted legislation that “meets the needs of the half of the city with incomes of 36,000 or less. Our legislation provides a benchmark by which any other Inclusionary Housing bill should be evaluated.”

Brad Lander, a national expert on inclusionary housing who directs the Pratt Center for Community Development in New York City, told the crowd that inclusionary housing legislation has been enacted in over 300 cities nationwide. He also described the careful research he conducted – including interviews with more than a dozen of Philadelphia’s developers and an analysis of the city’s housing prices and production costs – that demonstrated that “inclusionary housing is feasible in Philadelphia.” Lander’s research shaped PCHJ’s Inclusionary Housing bill.

Lander was followed by three Philadelphia residents who have personal experience with Philadelphia’s affordable housing crisis. All testified to how difficult it is for low-income Philadelphians to remain in the communities in which they have long lived.

Staci Moore, who has lived in Northern Liberties since 1993, talked about how “development in the community and the ridiculous housing costs and taxes left me homeless.” With an income of $20,000, she and her son have remained in Northern Liberties only with the help of a Section 8 housing voucher because “affordable housing has disappeared. I have no problem with development, but it must be balanced development that provides housing for everyone.”

Blanca Rivera, a member of SEIU Local 32BJ, told the audience how she struggled to keep her own home in Frankford. “A few years ago my mother got sick and I took her in to care for her. This was very difficult for me financially. My mom needed full time care. I lived on her SSI check. I eventually become unable to pay my mortgage. I got foreclosure notices. I applied for welfare, but only got $204 a month. I was forced to sell my house right after my mother passed away, just about two years ago. In 11 years the value of my house in Frankford went up dramatically. I was able to pay off my debts and walk away with a significant amount of money. However, I could no longer afford a house in my own neighborhood, Frankford. I was only able to afford to buy a much smaller place in another neighborhood.”

Ernestine Weeks lived in South Philadelphia for many years near the Whitman Park Playground. “It was a real nice mixed residential neighborhood where I was known and had good neighbors,” she said. But development forced her to move to another, “noisy, commercial” neighborhood where she doesn’t know people and there are “few seniors like myself.”

Following Ms. Weeks, Bill Green, Democratic nominee for City Council At-Large, talked about the importance of affordable housing for the city.

Jeff Hornstein, district organizing coordinator of SEIU Local 32 BJ closed the program. “The campaign for Inclusionary Housing is another example of labor unions and community organizations coming together on behalf of everyone in the city,” he said. “Housing prices have gone up so fast in the city that even union members and their families need help finding affordable housing. People with low incomes have an especially hard time.”

At the end of the rally representatives of the coalition delivered 5,500 petition signatures in support of their legislation to City Council President Anna Verna.

The Philadelphia Campaign for Housing Justice’s membership includes the following groups: ACORN, Action Alliance of Senior Citizens, Circle of Hope, Congreso de Latinos Unidos, Disability Rights Network, Disabled In Action, AFSCME District 1199C, AFSCME DC 47, Jewish Labor Committee, Jobs with Justice, Kensington Welfare Rights Union, Liberty Resources, Neighborhood Networks, New Jerusalem Laura, Northwest Interfaith Advocates, One Philadelphia, Penn PIRG, Philadelphia Affordable Housing Coalition, Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO, Philadelphia Senior Center, Philadelphia Unemployment Project, Prevention Point of Philadelphia, Project H.O.M.E., Raise of Hope, SEIU Healthcare PA, SEIU 32BJ, Tenant Union Representative Network, United Communities Southeast Philadelphia, and Women’s Community Revitalization Project.

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