Who should benefit from city housing programs? Council members question Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s plan

Philadelphia City Council members on Wednesday gave a largely warm reception to Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s proposed housing initiative while still pressing administration officials for additional details on the $2 billion plan that remain elusive just six weeks before lawmakers are expected to vote on it.

The daylong Council hearing on Parker’s Housing Opportunities Made Easy, or H.O.M.E., plan — an effort to follow through on a campaign promise to greatly expand affordable housing — came the same week the mayor disclosed how she wants to spend the $800 million in city bonds she hopes to issue as part of the initiative.

» READ MORE: Here’s how Mayor Parker plans to spend $800 million on housing

But Parker’s administration still has not provided lawmakers much of the legislation needed to authorize the plan, from zoning bills to the bond authorization. (The zoning bills are expected to go to Council next week, administration officials said, while the bond authorization may not be released for several more weeks.)

Parker’s team pitched the plan to build or preserve 30,000 units of housing over the next four years as an essential means to address the city’s affordability crisis, especially as President Donald Trump and his allies threaten to cut federal funding for housing and cities.

» READ MORE: How much could Philly lose if Trump cuts funding to cities? Here’s what you need to know.

“We cannot afford to wait, we cannot hedge our bets by going small, we cannot and must not be paralyzed by what is happening in Washington,” Tiffany W. Thurman, Parker’s chief of staff, told lawmakers. “Philadelphians of many socioeconomic brackets need access to housing, and they need it now.”

Parker wants Council to approve the H.O.M.E. initiative as part of city budget negotiations. If lawmakers follow their regular procedures, that means the plan must win preliminary approval in committee by June 5.

Council members aired a variety of concerns about the plan Wednesday, from worries about whether the plan provides enough aid to low-income Philadelphians to fears that neighborhood groups and local lawmakers would be marginalized by the administration’s efforts to streamline development approvals.

Construction groups have also expressed concerns that the policies included in the mayor’s plan would not do enough to spur new construction, while some Council members have questioned whether the plan’s price tag is too high, and whether its reliance on debt will be overly cumbersome for future city leaders.

» READ MORE: Mayor Cherelle Parker’s housing plan relies on $800 million in bonds. Here’s what you need to know about Philly’s city debt.

Here’s what to know about the high-profile hearing on Parker’s plan, and where Council is drawing battle lines heading into city budget negotiations.

One of the most frequent critiques of the mayor’s initiative is that many of her proposed policy changes would open city housing programs geared toward low-income Philadelphians to higher-income households.

“We want to support everybody, [but] we also believe that as representatives of government, our first priority is to represent those who don’t have a voice,” Council President Kenyatta Johnson said. “That’s really individuals who are impoverished, coming out of poverty, and maybe on the threshold of being middle-income as well.”

For example, the mayor’s proposed $50.7 million One Philly Mortgage program, a prong of the housing plan that aims to help first-time homeowners who might not qualify for a conventional loan, would have an income limit of 120% of area median income, or AMI (or more than $100,000 for a one-person household).

The most recent data show that a fifth of Philadelphians, or about 320,000 residents, live below the poverty line, defined as a household of four with an income of $32,150 or less.

The mayor also wants to increase the threshold for the popular Basic Systems Repair Program, or BSRP, which pays for structural, electrical, and other fixes for low-income homeowners and is currently restricted to those making up to 60% of AMI ($50,150 for a one-person household). The program has a waiting list of 7,000 households, and Parker wants to increase the maximum income to 100% of AMI ($83,600 for a household of one).

Parker has proposed allocating an additional $84 million to the BSRP. But Council members questioned whether that money would be enough to help the policy’s present constituency in addition to the higher-income families she wants to make eligible — especially if federal funds that support BSRP are cut.

Parker has long said her administration will not “pit the have-nots against the have-just-a-littles,” meaning she wants to create policies that benefit low- to moderate-income households and not just those in deep poverty.

Administration officials on Wednesday defended the H.O.M.E. plan’s income cutoffs by noting that many residents who need help earn slightly more than the income thresholds for the city’s existing programs, especially in areas like the Northeast or Parker’s former Council district based in the Northwest.

“We want to prioritize the 60% of AMI, because there’s obviously a need, but we also don’t want to cut out the many constituents … who make slightly more than the income eligibility requirement limit,” said Jessie Lawrence, the city’s director of planning and development.

From the day Parker first pitched Council on her housing plan last month, lawmakers have made clear they have no interest in giving up the immense influence they wield over land-use decisions in their districts — and they doubled down on that message at Wednesday’s hearing.

Councilmember Jeffery “Jay” Young Jr. questioned why the administration last month distributed literature on the plan that said it would, in part, seek to make changes in zoning policy that reduce ”community opposition.”

» READ MORE: Mayor Parker wants City Council members to give up a little power over land. They don’t love the idea.

Council members see themselves as the primary guardians of neighborhood interests, and they often use their considerable sway over decisions like zoning changes and sales of city-owned land — made possible by the Philadelphia tradition known as “councilmanic prerogative” — to delay or block projects that face community opposition.

“Why are we investing to educate the community to not be opposed to projects, vs. providing incentives for developers to develop in a more community-oriented way?” Young asked administration officials.

Johnson interjected to agree with Young’s concerns about developers ignoring neighbors’ concerns.

“Sometimes developers show up in our neighborhood with the perspective of ... ‘I know what’s best for you,’” said Johnson, whose 2nd District includes Southwest Philadelphia and the western half of South Philadelphia. “I’ve heard developers get up in the middle of Point Breeze and say, ‘You should be happy that we’re building.’”

John Mondlak, the first deputy director of planning and development, said the administration was committed to responding to community needs — but also to ensuring that more housing gets built, even if it means winning over neighbors who are initially skeptical.

“It is really to help folks understand that development isn’t necessarily bad. Development can be beneficial,” he said. “Part of this is trying to explain that, ‘Yes, we don’t want things that are out of scale for your community. Nobody wants that. That’s not good. But at the same time, there are benefits to having new neighbors.’”

In addition to changes aimed at streamlining the zoning process, Parker’s plan calls for Council members to preapprove lists of city-owned parcels in their districts that the administration could sell to developers to build housing. The mayor similarly wants Council to preapprove lists of vendors to do that work.

Parker undoubtedly hoped that plan would be a middle ground between Council fully ceding its powers over city land sales and the status quo, where sales often move slowly primarily because lawmakers have to be involved in every transaction.

Some Council members appear unconvinced that anything needs to change when it comes to how the city handles zoning decisions and real estate transactions.

“People shouldn’t have to have things in the neighborhood that they don’t want,” said Councilmember Cindy Bass, who represents the 8th District, which includes parts of Northwest and North Philadelphia. “And so I feel like this is sort of like rolling around on it, ... like saying, ‘We know what’s best for you.’”

Bass also raised questions about how the administration planned to ensure diversity in the construction workforce that would build the housing under Parker’s proposal, saying that previous administrations have “done a pretty horrible job. How are we going to really make sure that Black and brown people are really going to be building in the neighborhood?” Bass said.

She recalled seeing workers at a Vernon Park construction site who appeared to be “people who are not from their community, not from their ethnicity, from suburbs, from New Jersey, doing a public works project.”

Parker administration officials said they plan to, among other things, build on the Philadelphia Housing Development Corp.’s Minority Developer Program, which promotes the growth of Black- and brown-owned firms in the building industry.

Camille Duchaussee, Parker’s chief administrative officer, said the administration will also target its workforce development and outreach to diverse communities.

Duchaussee said the administration plans to use “all of the opportunities, all of the techniques, all of the systems that we can bring to bear” to ensure H.O.M.E.’s workforce is diverse.