City of Philadelphia - File #: 140577

• File #: 140577
• Version: 0
• Type: Resolution
• Status: ADOPTED
• File created: 6/12/2014
• In control: Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and The Homeless
• Title: Authorizing City Council's Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and the Homeless to hold hearings concerning increasing resources to expand the production and preservation of affordable housing in the City of Philadelphia.
• Sponsors: Councilmember Blackwell, Councilmember Johnson, Councilmember Jones, Councilmember Goode, Councilmember Greenlee, Councilmember Quiñones Sánchez, Councilmember Bass, Councilmember Tasco, Councilmember Kenney, Councilmember Squilla, Councilmember Henon, Councilmember Oh, Councilmember O'Brien, Council President Clarke, Councilmember Reynolds Brown, Councilmember O'Neill
• Indexes: AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result	Tally
6/1/2015	0	Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and The Homeless	HEARING NOTICES SENT
6/1/2015	0	Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and The Homeless	HEARING HELD
6/1/2015	0	Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and The Homeless	RECESSED
5/11/2015	0	Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and The Homeless	HEARING NOTICES SENT
5/11/2015	0	Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and The Homeless	Cancellation of Scheduled Public Hearing
4/27/2015	0	Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and The Homeless	HEARING NOTICES SENT
4/27/2015	0	Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and The Homeless	HEARING HELD
4/27/2015	0	Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and The Homeless	RECESSED
4/6/2015	0	Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and The Homeless	HEARING NOTICES SENT
4/6/2015	0	Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and The Homeless	RECESSED
6/12/2014	0	CITY COUNCIL	Introduced and Ordered Placed on This Week's Final Passage Calendar	Pass
6/12/2014	0	CITY COUNCIL	ADOPTED & REFERRED

Title
Authorizing City Council's Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and the Homeless to hold hearings concerning increasing resources to expand the production and preservation of affordable housing in the City of Philadelphia.

Body
WHEREAS, The Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has established a benchmark to determine housing affordability which states that a household should spend no more than 30% of household income for housing costs; and

WHEREAS, HUD defines households that spend more than 30%, but less than 50% of household income for housing costs to be moderately burdened and households that spend more than 50% as severely burdened; and

WHEREAS, The Office of Housing and Community Development in its report on the impediments to fair housing choice documents the fact that over 116,000 Philadelphia renter households are moderately burdened and over 70,000 Philadelphia renter households are severely burdened; and

WHEREAS, The Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) has closed its waiting list for affordable public housing units as the list exceeds 110,000 applicants giving evidence of the severe shortage of affordable rental housing; and

WHEREAS, In the United States, the 2014 two-bedroom Housing Wage is $18.92. This national average is more than two-and-a-half times the federal minimum wage and 52% higher than it was in 2000. In Philadelphia the 2014 two-bedroom Housing Wage is $21.83 which is three times the federal minimum wage; and

WHEREAS, The primary source of revenue the City has relied upon to carry out its affordable housing programs, the Federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, has steadily declined to the point that adjusted for inflation, the City received this year nearly $40,000,000 less than it did ten years ago; and

WHEREAS, The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has eliminated the Housing and Redevelopment Assistance Program thereby decreasing affordable housing resources by $...