Mayor Parker’s HOME Initiative Could Be Too Modest, Philly Council Members Say

Philadelphia City Council members leveled some pointed critiques at Mayor Cherelle Parker’s sweeping HOME Initiative at a daylong budget hearing Wednesday — even though most of them are fully on board with new city funding for affordable housing programs.

“Day in and day out, we have individuals coming to our office to seek some type of housing assistance,” Council President Kenyatta Johnson said as lawmakers expressed concerns about the scale of the plan and the role private developers will play in it.

With low-income residents facing an affordability crisis, Parker has proposed borrowing $800M for an array of housing initiatives ranging from rent assistance to for-sale home construction. The initiative will get another $200M in state, local and federal funds.

Of that sum, $161M will go to affordable housing preservation. Another $84M is earmarked for the Basic Systems Repair program, which helps homeowners fix up their properties.

There’s also $112M set aside for the Turn the Key program, which dispenses city-owned land to developers for affordable housing construction, and $79.5M to build more subsidized units.

“I don’t feel like we’re currently all the way there,” Council Member Jamie Gauthier said of the mayor’s proposal. “It feels diffuse, with dozens of different programs listed without a throughline.”

Gauthier characterized the plan as modest in comparison to former Mayor Jim Kenney’s housing initiative, which brought more than 10,000 units per year to the city between 2019 and 2024.

Kenney benefitted from a wave of multifamily construction that commenced when developers raced to beat the expiration of a tax abatement program in 2021. Federal funding is also less predictable as the Trump administration works to curb government spending.

“We’re in different times,” Philadelphia Director of Planning and Development Jessie Lawrence said.

The HOME initiative is only supposed to be one piece of the affordable housing puzzle, members of Parker's team said.

“Public investment always inspires private investment,” City Chief of Staff Tiffany Thurman said.

That philosophy may be what led the Parker administration to consider implementing a 100% tax abatement for developments in struggling neighborhoods.

“It’s going to have to be a discussion, but the idea would be that we do bring it back to 100% in certain parts of the city and not all of the city,” said Philadelphia Deputy Director for Development Services John Mondlak.

Officials are set to meet with the city's attorneys next week to determine if the proposal is legal. It could violate Pennsylvania's uniformity clause, which requires all properties to be taxed at the same rate.

A similar 10-year policy was implemented in 2000. It was rolled back after critics argued some impacted neighborhoods no longer needed development incentives.

The Turn the Key program also overlaps with the private sector. But the Philadelphia Land Bank, the organization responsible for dispensing vacant city-owned lots, has only sold off about 1,000 since it was formed in 2013.

There are about 30,000 vacant parcels across the city, 6,000 of which are city-owned.

Council members have called for more Land Bank funding in recent weeks, and the city is looking to create a strategic plan detailing ways the agency can be better activated, Lawrence said.

Several council members also expressed concerns about the way some real estate professionals operate in Philly’s working-class neighborhoods.

“I am concerned about predatory investing,” said Council Member Nina Ahmad. “Investors are acquiring available single-family homes, which exacerbates the affordability crisis.” 

Some real estate firms buy up a large number of properties in a small area to control the market, Mondlak said. Those buyers often get these homes for less than they are actually worth.

“Folks that don’t understand the resale value of their property or don’t have folks to talk to about it will take the first offer they get,” Mondlak said.

“What we all want is for these companies to stop buying, but it’s not so easy to prevent someone from buying,” he added. “The key is to try to figure out what they’re doing early.”

Artificial intelligence has been a useful tool as city workers try to keep tabs on those transactions. Mondlak said aggressive enforcement from the Department of Licensing & Inspections could keep these property owners on their toes and lead to quality-of-life improvements for residents.

Council members said they broadly support city spending to boost affordable housing, but some worry about Parker’s proposal to borrow $800M.

“It’s a big number that we have to look at because, after all, the taxpayers have to pay for this,” Council Member Mike Driscoll said at a hearing earlier this month, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Council Member Isaiah Thomas asked the administration if it’s a good idea to borrow now given how high interest rates have climbed.

“The fiscal health of the city is pretty good,” he said. “I just think that it can become a little risky to earmark future spending.”