Mayor Cherelle Parker unveils housing plan amid Trump’s federal funding cuts and Council skepticism

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker on Monday delivered a special address to City Council to unveil her long-awaited $2 billion plan to build or preserve 30,000 units of housing with a mix of new initiatives and expansions of many existing programs that would be backed by $800 million in city bonds.

“I truly believe at this time, there is no more important issue — single issue — facing our great city of Philadelphia than the issue of access to housing,” Parker said in a special session of Council, a rare convening of lawmakers outside of their regular Thursday meetings meant to emphasize the significance of the occasion.

Parker has coined her plan Housing Opportunities Made Easy, or H.O.M.E. The origins of the initiative lie in Parker’s campaign promise during the 2023 mayoral election that her “plan to grow Philadelphia’s economy” would include “building 30,000 affordable units of housing.”

The mayor faces two major obstacles in accomplishing her vision. The first — President Donald Trump’s threats to cut aid to cities and dismantle the federal housing agency — is a consequence of national politics. The other — Council members’ vise-grip on land use policy within their districts — is a reality of hyperlocal politics in Philadelphia.

» READ MORE: Cherelle Parker promised 30,000 units of ‘affordable housing’ as a candidate. She’s watered down that goal as mayor.

And while Parker’s plan is undeniably ambitious given the political and economic obstacles that have plagued efforts to grow the housing stock in Philadelphia and across the country, it is less ambitious than it was when she was pitching it on the campaign trail. The mayor started watering down her promise shortly after she took office by saying she planned to count all housing, not just affordable units, when measuring the city’s progress of reaching the 30,000 goal, and by counting efforts to preserve homes, not just building new ones.

On Monday, she announced that her plan would include 13,500 newly constructed homes and 16,500 preserved units. The administration hopes that over two-thirds of the funds go to programs benefiting households with yearly incomes under $52,000.

The $2 billion plan includes $800 million in city bonds, with the first $400 million being sold this fall, as well as an estimated $1 billion worth of city-owned land that could be redeveloped for housing. The remaining $200 million includes other government sources, including state and federal programs.

Parker is also encouraging the philanthropic community and organized labor to back the plan financially. Labor leader Ryan Boyer, a key Parker ally who heads the politically powerful Building and Construction Trades Council, previously floated the possibility of the city’s construction unions using investments from their pension plans to support Parker’s efforts.

In addition to major investments in subsidized housing programs, Parker’s plan aims to make it easier to build market-rate housing by streamlining government processes and lowering barriers to construction. She has proposed repealing the city’s 1% tax on construction, speeding up the flow of vacant and underused city-owned land to developers, and tweaking regulations that slow down new projects.

She also proposed expansions of homeownership programs that she championed dating back to her time on Council. These include Turn The Key, which subsidizes the construction of units for affordable homeownership on city-owned land, and Restore, Repair, Renew that gets homeowners low-interest loans for home repair.

“I want to acknowledge that we already have some of the best housing programs in the country,” Parker said. “We don’t give ourselves enough credit.”

Additionally, the mayor highlighted programs for renters that she wants to continue and expand. These include the shallow rent program that provides subsidies to low-income renters in danger of eviction. She praised the city’s right-to-counsel policy, which guarantees renters free legal representation in eviction court, and the widely lauded Eviction Diversion Program that helped landlords and tenants reach accommodations that keep people in their homes.

Parker also promised a raft of new policies, including a pilot for a rent subsidy program for middle-income families. A few weeks ago, the mayor said she would make teachers and other public sector workers “an offer that they can’t refuse” to keep them in the city, a reference to this program that seeks to pair such professionals with some of the city’s available market-rate apartments.

This “new version of a shallow rent program … will help middle-income families — essential workers, teachers, nurses — move into already built developments that are currently sitting empty in neighborhoods where rental properties were overbuilt,” Parker said.

Another prominent feature of the mayor’s plan is an effort to reform the city’s Land Bank, which is supposed to streamline the sale of city-owned parcels but has long been a byword for dysfunction and Council interference.

» READ MORE: Philly Land Bank brokers deal with Sheriff’s Office to resume land purchases

Parker says that changes are in the works, including a deal announced Saturday with the sheriff’s office that will allow the Land Bank to start acquiring properties again. The agency’s website will also be simplified to make land acquisition easier, a basic tweak that stakeholders have demanded for years.

She also is seeking to simplify the process for moving land into and out of the Land Bank. Currently, Council has to introduce legislation to initiate land transfers, which slows the process down and, critics say, allows for favoritism and political interference. (National land bank experts are adamant that requiring politicians to sign off on every land transaction is not a best practice.)

While the plan listed the numerous programs Parker wants to create or expand, it did not include specific dollar amounts for each. The administration has not yet transmitted legislation to Council related to the housing plan or the city bond issuance planned for the fall, and Parker did not say when that will happen.

After the legislation is introduced, Council President Kenyatta Johnson will refer it to a committee, where lawmakers will hold hearings to gather testimony from stakeholders and consider potential amendments.

Parker said that the housing plan bills will move in concert with city budget legislation, which must be approved by the end of the current fiscal year on June 30. Council’s last scheduled session before going on summer break is June 12, and if lawmakers follow their regular rules, they would have to vote on the budget and housing legislation before their June 5 meeting.

Mayors traditionally address Council once a year for their budget address, which Parker delivered earlier this month when she announced her $6.7 billion proposal for the next city budget. In recent years, mayors have also appeared in Council to testify on public education funding and policy to emphasize the importance of that issue.

Parker’s speech was attended by some notable VIPs: Marcia Fudge, who served as the U.S. Housing and Urban Development secretary under former President Joe Biden, and Osei Tutu II, the king of the Ashanti people of Ghana, who happened to be visiting the region this week and was invited as a special guest.

All Council members attended aside from Brian O’Neill, a Northeast Philadelphia Republican, and Curtis Jones Jr., a Democrat who represents parts of West and Northwest Philadelphia.

Parker originally hoped to unveil the housing plan last fall. But the rollout was delayed for months amid staff changes, including the unexpected October resignation of Chief Deputy Mayor Aren Platt, who had been in charge of the administration’s planning and development efforts including the housing plan.

Parker has since tapped Jessie Lawrence, who was Platt’s deputy, to be the director of planning and development and said his team has “been working furiously around the clock” on the policy rollout. The mayor said Monday that chief of staff Tiffany W. Thurman is leading the H.O.M.E. initiative, with newly appointed chief housing officer Angela Brooks reporting to her.

For decades, individual Council members have had near-unilateral control over city land use decisions in their districts thanks to the tradition known as councilmanic prerogative, under which all Council members default to the wishes of the lawmaker whose district includes the property in question when it comes to zoning, sales of city-owned land or other issues.

Council members contend the arrangement works because they know their districts best. Critics say it hinders development, creates an incoherent patchwork of zoning rules, and leads to political favoritism.

In her address, Parker called prerogative “the elephant in the room” and proposed preapproving properties for rapid sale and potential redevelopment without needing district Council member sign-off, as well as a list of pre-approved developers to streamline building on those parcels.

“I am proposing that the Land Bank work in partnership with City Council to pre-authorize the sale, donation, or transfer of all municipally-owned real estate for the purpose of constructing new housing under this new program,” she said.

While that may sound like a simple reform, it’s a political third rail in City Hall, and limits on prerogative are not likely to be received well by all lawmakers.

» READ MORE: Councilmanic prerogative in Philadelphia: What you need to know

Councilmember Mike Driscoll, whose 6th District includes much of the River Wards, praised Parker’s desire to boost affordable housing but noted that “a lot of ideas were floated” by Parker that had not yet been run by Council.

Asked if he thought the pre-approved lists of parcels and developers were a good idea, Driscoll said: ”I guess if you’re mayor, perhaps. If you’re a district councilman, I would say no.”

Johnson also applauded Parker’s proposal while indicating he’s not interested in Council having a diminished role in land use decisions.

“I believe that we can work in partnership with the mayor and, most importantly, make sure that the community has a voice in this process,” Johnson told reporters. “That’s key. District Council members have a right to make sure that they’re advocating on behalf of the individuals who put them in office.”

Since the Great Depression, when government first became heavily involved in housing, it has been Washington, D.C., that has traditionally led policy initiatives and provided the bulk of the funding. The Philadelphia Housing Authority, for instance, is an independent government entity separate from the city that gets 93% of its funding from the feds.

The Trump administration, however, has begun slashing staffing and funding for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. PHA CEO Kelvin A. Jeremiah said Monday that federal cuts have not yet affected his agency but that he expects there will be an impact.

The cuts at HUD have impacted grant funding for the enforcement of fair housing laws and for the establishment of affordable housing projects, the Associated Press reported. In late February, the Trump administration proposed cutting half of federal employees at HUD.

It’s unclear the specific amount of federal funding Philadelphia would use for Parker’s housing proposal, but the mayor said state and federal funds are part of the “nearly $1 billion in funding [that] will be provided by the public sector.”

Parker said Monday the city will use funding from a $163 million grant, which the Biden administration’s HUD gave to the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, for a home repair program, “a rental repair rehabilitation and construction program,” and a “hazard mitigation program” aimed at addressing vulnerabilities for any future disasters.

Jeremiah said the city was fortunate that Parker was willing to step into the void that federal funding cuts may cause.

“Like every city in this country, when the federal government fails us, the city and state steps up,” he said, “and you see that happening here in the city with the mayor’s plan.”