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Condemning the Trump Administration and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for ending the Restore-Rebuild Program, one of the strongest tools available to Public Housing Authorities nationwide for expanding and preserving deeply affordable housing.
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WHEREAS, Rising rents, increased housing instability, and a nationwide shortage of deeply affordable housing continue to deepen Philadelphia’s affordable housing crisis. These challenges disproportionately impact low-income households, seniors, people with disabilities, and working-class communities; and
WHEREAS, Public Housing Authorities across the country have struggled for decades with chronic federal underfunding, aging housing stock, and growing demand for affordable housing opportunities; and
WHEREAS, The Restore-Rebuild Program, formerly known as Faircloth to RAD, is a federal program administered by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) that allowed Public Housing Authorities to create new deeply affordable housing units while accessing long-term Section 8 rental assistance and leveraging private financing tools for rehabilitation, redevelopment, preservation, and new construction, thereby allowing affordable housing projects to secure permanent debt financing and other critical capital investments; and
WHEREAS, The combination of long-term rental assistance and access to private financing made Restore-Rebuild one of the few scalable affordable housing development tools available to Public Housing Authorities, enabling agencies to leverage federal assistance to attract substantial private capital for the construction, acquisition, and preservation of deeply affordable housing; and
WHEREAS, The loss of the Restore-Rebuild Program comes at a time when affordable housing providers face rapidly rising construction costs, increasing insurance premiums, and mounting operational expenses, making access to stable operating subsidies and affordable financing more essential than ever; and
WHEREAS, In May 2026, HUD announced that it is winding down and effectively ending the Restore-Rebuild Program, severely restricting Public Housing Authorities’ ability to create and preserve deeply affordable housing units nationwide; and
WHEREAS, The termination of the Restore-Rebuild Program represents a significant loss of federal housing capacity at a time when housing insecurity and homelessness continue to rise in cities across the country, including Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS, The Philadelphia Housing Authority (“PHA”) has utilized the Restore-Rebuild framework as a critical component of its “Opening Doors” Initiative, an ambitious effort aimed at expanding affordable housing opportunities, preserving existing housing stock, and increasing access to housing for low-income Philadelphians; and
WHEREAS, The termination of the Restore-Rebuild Program severely undermines PHA’s ability to expand affordable housing inventory, limits access to long-term operating subsidies necessary for financially sustainable housing development, and severely undermines the long-term scalability of initiatives like Opening Doors; and
WHEREAS, Because the Restore-Rebuild Program provided one of the few reliable operating subsidy sources available to support housing for extremely low-income households, its termination threatens not only Public Housing Authority-led developments but also affordable housing projects undertaken by nonprofit and private developers utilizing Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (“LIHTCs”) and other financing tools, reducing the ability of such developments to include genuinely affordable units for the residents most in need; and
WHEREAS, Philadelphia already faces a severe shortage of deeply affordable housing, with thousands of residents experiencing housing instability, cost burden, displacement pressures, and homelessness; and
WHEREAS, The federal government’s retreat from affordable housing investment creates an even stronger imperative for local governments to utilize every available resource to expand and preserve low-income housing opportunities; and
WHEREAS, The City of Philadelphia must respond to the loss of federal housing tools by strengthening local investments in deeply affordable housing production, preservation, acquisition, rehabilitation, partnerships with PHA, and tenant protections; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby condemn the Trump Administration and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for ending the Restore-Rebuild Program, one of the strongest tools available to Public Housing Authorities nationwide for expanding and preserving deeply affordable housing.
RESOLVED FURTHER, That we call upon the federal government to restore and expand federal affordable housing programs that allow Public Housing Authorities to create and preserve deeply affordable housing units and to remove the Faircloth Limit entirely.
RESOLVED FURTHER, That we call upon the Administration of the City of Philadelphia to treat the loss of the Restore-Rebuild Program as an urgent call to strengthen local commitments to deeply affordable housing production and preservation using all available City resources, funding tools, land disposition authority, and partnerships with PHA.
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