The Incredible Shrinking Housing Plan?
By the time Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker presented details of her Housing Opportunities Made Easy (H.O.M.E.) plan to City Council earlier this year, it seemed very much like a watered down version of what was originally promised.
Largely, that’s because the Parker administration dramatically shrunk its targets for how much new housing it would build. No longer discussing tens of thousands of new units, Parker now seeks to build — and got Council’s approval for — just 5,700 units of affordable housing citywide, plus another 7,500 dwellings for middle-income earners (families making up to $129,000 in household income). The initiative will instead repair far more existing homes than building anew.
“To build and preserve 30,000 units of housing” is the mayor’s new, more ethereal, rallying cry.