PHA eliminating 200 jobs, including 126 layoffs

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Kelvin Jeremiah

Kelvin Jeremiah

The Philadelphia Housing Authority is trimming its staff significantly to save $17 million a year.  

PHA Executive Director Kelvin Jeremiah says between people taking early retirement, layoffs, and not filling vacant positions, about 200 people or 14 percent of the housing authority’s staff is gone.  He blames declining federal funding.

“For far too long the agency was augmenting the structural deficit by using funds that would have otherwise have gone to development projects rehab and maintenance for example.”

Jeremiah says without cutting back staff, it could jeopardize projects, including the $500 million neighborhood overhaul that’s begun in the Sharswood neighborhood.

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“We will be able to do the work we need to maintain our properties to achieve the expansion we are looking for in terms of housing production and we will be to respond to our resident needs with this reductions.  I think the size that we are now is the right size for PHA.”

PHA’s police force is not being cut.

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