Mayor Parker launches Philly initiative to create and preserve 30,000 housing units

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Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker has signed an executive order aimed at spurring residential development, the first tangible piece of a broader effort to increase the city’s housing supply amid an ongoing crisis.

Under the order, the administration will convene an advisory group to “review existing processes and policies and provide recommendations for reform.” Those recommendations will help shape Parker’s housing plan, a roadmap that will be rooted in her promise to create and preserve 30,000 units of housing during her first term.

Parker wants to make it easier for real estate developers to build new housing, incentivize housing revitalization projects, prevent housing instability, and improve access to mortgage loans, among other goals.

The advisory group will be comprised of internal and external stakeholders, including affordable housing providers, private and nonprofit real estate developers, and real estate industry groups.

The list includes Philadelphia Housing Authority, the Building Association Industry of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, an umbrella organization representing more than 50 local unions.

The group will present its recommendations in 30 days.

“I will tell you something amazing that I’ve learned as mayor, when you put everyone who has a nickel in the quarter of a process at the table and tell them to give you a solution, they find a way to get it done,” Parker said during a news conference on Wednesday.

Parker on Wednesday also tapped Angela Brooks to oversee the plan, dubbed the Philadelphia Housing Opportunities Made Easy (H.O.M.E.) initiative. The effort is an iteration of a plan the mayor pushed while on the campaign trail.

Brooks previously directed the Illinois office of the Corporation for Supportive Housing, a national organization devoted to affordable housing. She will serve as the administration’s chief housing and urban development officer.

“This housing crisis is gonna be a challenge. But challenges are easily accomplished when we work together,” said Brooks, who starts next month.

Wednesday’s announcement comes as the city continues to experience an affordable housing crisis marked by historically high rents and a limited supply of low-cost units for people with low incomes. And thousands of residents are cost-burdened, meaning more than a third of their income is used to pay for housing.

For now, it is unclear exactly how much affordable housing will be created or preserved as part of Parker’s initiative. Under the plan, the administration will count homes and rentals regardless of price point or how they are funded. They can be housing units built by private real estate developers, subsidized units operated by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, homes repaired with the help of state or city funding, as well as so-called “naturally occurring” affordable housing.

PHA, the city’s largest landlord, is poised to play a major role in the plan. President Kelvin Jeremiah said Wednesday the authority is committed to preserving more than 20,000 units across the city. Jeremiah said PHA also intends to support the city’s housing goals with $4.8 billion over the next eight years.

“I would recommend, respectfully, that you come up with about $2 billion of that to match,” he said.

Parker reiterated on Wednesday that she will soon announce a “significant financial investment” aimed at producing and preserving housing units in the city. The mayor also said she will be sending legislation to City Council as part of the H.O.M.E initiative.

Lawmakers are weighing a legislative package designed to cut the time it takes for affordable housing developers to bring their projects to market.

In late January, City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier introduced a bill that would require the Department of Licenses and Inspections to expedite the review process for zoning permit applications for these developments. The request is currently offered “to the extent capacity permits” and takes 10 days if approved. The legislation would remove the contingency and cut the turnaround time in half.

Other parts of the package seek to make operational changes to the Zoning Board of Adjustment, an independent board empowered to make legally binding decisions about what proposed developments get built.

Gauthier, for example, wants affordable housing projects to get hearing dates sooner — without an increase to the application price. It can currently take nine months for the ZBA to grant a variance to a developer, which gives permission to deviate from the city’s zoning code.

Gauthier on Wednesday applauded the mayor’s initiative, saying it’s critical for Philadelphia to make housing a top priority.

“It behooves everyone to make sure that at the end of the day, everybody in this city has a safe place to lay their heads because that is what will allow them to thrive in every other area of their life,” said Gauthier.

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