In the current voluntary program that went into law in September 2018, developers are allowed to build taller, denser buildings in exchange for affordable units in the projects or paying into the city’s Housing Trust Fund.
The idea was to incentivize developers to make additional units, but the overwhelming majority of developers opting for it aren’t making them. Of all developments built last year, 33 developers took advantage of the bonus, but only three developers built 17 affordable units altogether. The other 30 made payments totaling $3.6 million to the city fund.
Constituents and housing activists have long criticized developers who pay the fee instead of building on-site units. Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson excluded the entire zip code of 19146 from the voluntary incentive earlier this year in an attempt to make developers build units if they wanted the bonus. Johnson is also a cosponsor of the new mixed-income overlay bill.
With summer recess looming, neither of these bills will be up for a vote until the fall.
The bill from last month that puts limits on the in-lieu payments to the Housing Trust Fund and increased payment fees was supposed to go up for final passage Thursday, but Quiñones-Sánchez said it will be held because she wants to continue work on both bills over the summer.
“We want to tie in the mandatory conversation with these amendments so if there’s a place where we can land better to make sure that both of these bills are synergetic, we can do that,” she said.
Over the summer, Gauthier will be hosting “Summer of Engagement” events to discuss housing affordability and development pressures in West and Southwest Philadelphia. It will feature focus groups, canvassing, and pop-up events.
Quiñones-Sánchez will continue to hold joint registered community organization meetings in the seventh district. Both council members will also continue to work with the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations and the Building Industry Association to discuss goals and standards compliance.
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