Philly developers can build workforce housing, but they say eliminating delay in acquiring land is key

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While Philadelphia’s leaders celebrated a ribbon cutting for new affordable housing in Port Richmond on Friday, a city developer says changes are needed to get similar housing on the market quicker.

The 19 homes just off Allegheny Avenue are a part of the Turn the Key program, which launched two years ago with a goal of building 1,000 new properties around the city.

While 800 sites have been approved for the program, only 240 have been completed, with 400 more under construction. That’s a far cry from the more than 10,000 homes Mayor Cherelle Parker wants within the next three years under the housing blueprint she unveiled earlier this month.

Developer Lawrence McKnight lives in the city and called upon officials to streamline the land acquisition process, saying it takes too much time to get the land to build the new homes that can be purchased for less than renting.

“So almost two years to the exact date that we submitted our request for proposal, we actually began construction,” McKnight said. “Two years for acquisition and approvals and only six months to build these houses. That’s unacceptable.”

McKnight is a partner with Mo Rushdy of Riverwinds Group, which is working to build workforce housing units. He said depending on the mortgage interest rates, the Turn the Key properties can be very affordable for an average family making between $20 to $25 an hour.

“At 4%, a mortgage is $950 for these houses. At 5%, it’s $1,075. At 6%, it’s $1,200, which is nearly what the rates are today, around 6% for a brand-new three-bedroom, two-bath single family home,” he said.

The cost of rent for a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment in the neighborhood can cost $1,500 or more. Under the program, income-qualified city workers will have a competitive advantage to purchase the homes when they hit the market.

McKnight urged city officials to speed up the process so they can build on the city-owned land and provide desperately needed homes for people.

“I implore the city to work quickly to streamline the land disposition and permitting process and get the ‘F’ out of our way so we can start to help ease this housing crisis.” McKnight said.

The Philadelphia Land Bank acquires the properties that are given to developers to build the housing. Angel Rodriguez, Land Bank executive director, said a move by Parker to streamline the process, coupled with their priority status for sheriff’s sales, can speed things up.

“The Land Bank has actually penned and executed an agreement with the sheriff’s department so that we can return to the sheriff’s sales and start exercising our priority bid,” he said. “We’re all standing ready to actually do more Turn the Key projects and more affordable housing because we know we need it.”

Rushdy said he’s even been pitching to young people who want to become police officers the idea of buying the homes, giving them generational wealth while working to protect the city. He hopes that will help the city’s police department fill more than 1,000 vacancies on the force.

The effort to streamline development isn’t a done deal, however. City Council’s councilmanic prerogative gives district council members the final say on whether or not development goes forward in their district.

The mayor has discussed changing that policy as part of her housing address. Council President Kenyatta Johnson said council members are in the direct line of fire from constituents about construction in their neighborhoods. He wouldn’t commit to pushing the changes through the city’s legislative branch.