1,500 Affordable Housing Units Proposed for Philadelphia

Philadelphia City Council President Darrell Clarke recently revealed plans to build 1,500 new affordable housing units in the city’s gentrifying areas, according to an article written by Jared Brey.

The so-called “1,500 New Affordable Housing Units Initiative” would create 1,000 new affordable rental units and 500 units available for ownership.

The plan is specifically targeted to assist population in gentrifying neighborhoods: “the city wants to preserve housing availability for residents of mixed incomes in areas where property values are rising, while providing new affordable housing for some of the many thousands who are on the Philadelphia Housing Authority waiting list.”

Brey also provides the details of how the city would generate the new units: “The city would transfer vacant properties that it already owns to private and nonprofit developers at very low fees. It would attach a ‘restrictive deed covenant’ to those properties, which would require that the developer sell them at a price that’s affordable to individuals and families earning between 80 percent and 120 percent of Area Median Income.”