Philly’s mayor insists housing plan will help lowest income residents. Some City Council members aren’t convinced

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City Council’s progressive bloc sparred with members of the Parker administration at Wednesday’s public hearing on Mayor Cherelle Parker’s $2 billion housing plan.

As lawmakers pushed to prioritize Philadelphia’s lowest-income residents, officials insisted the plan — dubbed the Housing Opportunities Made Easy, or H.O.M.E., initiative — would help that population as part of its comprehensive strategy to create and preserve 30,000 units of housing.

“Historically, the numbers have shown that we meet those numbers regardless,” said Angela Brooks, the city’s chief housing and urban development officer.

“And at the end of the day, we wanna have some flexibility as the need shifts and changes. It’s really that simple. It’s not some nefarious thing that seems to be implied.”

For now, the budget proposal calls for nearly $195 million in spending during the initiative’s first year. Those dollars would go towards 26 programs, including efforts to create and preserve affordable housing, provide rental assistance and low-interest mortgage loans, and help tenants facing eviction.

Each program has its own income guidelines. Taken as a whole, they roughly serve households earning between 30% and 120% of the area median income, or AMI, a data point that includes places outside of Philadelphia. For a family of four, that translates to between $35,800 and $143,280 a year.

The administration told lawmakers Wednesday that about two-thirds of the plan’s preservation and production programs will benefit residents earning up to 50% of AMI, and that more than a third of that funding will benefit residents earning up to 30% AMI.

None of that is codified in the budget proposal currently sitting before lawmakers, and the administration rejected multiple calls to change that. That has raised concerns about how much the mayor’s initiative will actually help vulnerable tenants and homeowners when it reaches implementation.

“If the intention is to serve those families, what’s the problem with codifying it into law?” said Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke. “Projections are not actually protections.”

Since the start, the administration has been adamant about the H.O.M.E. initiative serving everyone who needs a roof over their head — from low-income renters to moderate-income homeowners.

Administration officials reiterated that stance during their testimony Wednesday, emphasizing that working-class residents are also in need of city help. That includes rental assistance programs as well as efforts to mint new homebuyers.

“We have our workforce in mind … we’re thinking about the teachers, the therapists, the police officers, as well as folks like my grandfather who was in that deeply affordable that would benefit from this as well,” said Tiffany Thurman, Parker’s chief of staff. “We refuse to be pulled into a trap where we’re having an argument that really is mute to what we’re talking about today.”

The administration added that the city lacks the necessary infrastructure to prioritize certain incomes within each program part of the mayor’s housing plan.

Prioritizing vulnerable Philly residents

Thurman’s sentiment echoes Parker’s response to a letter sent to her Monday by a group of lawmakers regarding the initiative’s first budget. The document, created in partnership with housing practitioners in the city, urges the administration to focus on the city’s most vulnerable and cost-burdened renters and homeowners, saying that it’s the “right thing to do, and the fiscally responsible thing too.”

It also advocates for more funding for home preservation and rental assistance, building deeply affordable housing, and clearing program waitlists before income guidelines are expanded under the initiative.

“This isn’t about locking anyone out of resources or pitting low-income households against moderate-income households. It’s about recognizing that if we do not help families who are one rent increase or unexpected maintenance cost away from homelessness stay in their homes today, taxpayers will foot an even higher bill when they end up living on the street tomorrow,” the group wrote.

The letter was signed by Councilmembers Jamie Gauthier, Rue Landau, Isaiah Thomas, Kendra Brooks, O’Rourke, Mark Squilla, Jeffery Young and Quetcy Lozada.

The spending plan must be approved before the city can borrow the first chunk of funding for the initiative, which is backed by $800 million in bonds.

Finance Director Rob Dubow said Wednesday that if the resolution passes after next week, the bond issuance will “likely slide into January at the earliest.”

For now, Council’s last regular meeting before the holiday break is Dec. 11.

Council will reconvene Monday for a second day of discussion, meaning the measure could receive preliminary approval then and receive a final vote on Thursday. That could come after council members adopt any proposed amendments to the legislation.

The administration, for example, wants to increase the budget total to around $240 million to include dollars for Turn the Key, a popular workforce housing program designed to create new homeowners in neighborhoods across the city.

Parker does not need to sign the resolution for it to take effect.

On Wednesday, Rev. Gregory Holston, executive director of the Philadelphia-based racial justice organization Just Nation, urged lawmakers to pass a budget commensurate with the need expressed by the city’s affordable housing crisis, even if that means the city goes into debt.

“It may take $5 billion. It may take $7 billion,” said Gregory Holston, who leads the Housing Initiative at Penn. “But I’d rather us go in debt and actually solve the problem than to go into debt and five years from now we’re looking around and the problem is still here,”

WHYY’s Tom MacDonald contributed to this report.