HomeDiagramsDatabaseMapsForum About
     

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Discussion Forums > City Discussions


Reply

 
Thread Tools Display Modes
     
     
  #1  
Old Posted Nov 15, 2020, 4:05 PM
M II A II R II K's Avatar
M II A II R II K M II A II R II K is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Toronto
Posts: 52,200
Philadelphia’s Affordable Housing Strategy Depends On Repairing Existing Homes

Philadelphia’s Affordable Housing Strategy Depends On Repairing Existing Homes


Nov 7, 2020

By Michaelle Bond

Read More: https://fusion.inquirer.com/real-est...-20201107.html

Quote:
.....

Philadelphia’s housing stock is old and can be expensive to maintain, challenges in a city with a 23% poverty rate, incomes that aren’t keeping pace with rising home prices, and now a pandemic-induced recession. Philadelphia and other cities across the country have been struggling to address a lack of housing that their residents can afford. Every home that becomes uninhabitable and abandoned or crumbles due to disrepair is one fewer home available to mitigate the affordable housing crisis.

- Two years ago, the city’s 10-year housing plan identified revitalizing existing housing stock as one of Philadelphia’s greatest challenges. But it’s also one of its biggest opportunities. City officials and housing advocates repeat a common sentiment: The most affordable house for residents is usually the one in which they already live because they don’t have to take on new debt or spend money relocating. So repairing existing homes is a key part of Philadelphia’s affordable housing strategy. — The city relies on nonprofits such as the Philadelphia Housing Development Corp., Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia, and the volunteer program Rebuilding Together Philadelphia, and community development corporations to help homeowners with repairs. The Rental Improvement Fund, a pilot program the city and the Impact Loan Fund started in May, provides loans to small landlords to make repairs to improve the quality and affordability of rental housing.

- Cities should consider housing to be essential infrastructure in the same way as roads and bridges and devote funding to it accordingly, said Gregory Heller, senior vice president of community investment at PHDC and executive director of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority. — Jill Roberts, director of the Healthy Rowhouse Project, said that many times, grant and loan programs are the only way homeowners can afford repairs to make their homes safe and healthy, an even greater concern during the pandemic. Roberts, who manages PHDC’s home repair loan program for the financial counseling nonprofit Clarifi, remembers one homeowner whose front door didn’t close properly. Others have sewage in their basements or can’t use stairs for lack of railings. The pandemic has been “a blessing and a curse,” she said. Residents are paying more attention to necessary repairs because they’re spending more time in their homes.

- Homeowners with credit scores above 580 and who meet other criteria can get loans up to $24,999 and pay 3% interest. The program includes financial counseling, home assessments, and guidance throughout the renovations. It assists people who earn a little too much money to qualify for grant programs but may not have savings or can’t afford the higher interest rates of typical loans. Many wouldn’t qualify for loans at all. In its first year, the program had a 53% loan approval rate, compared with a 25% approval rate in the private market, according to the Philadelphia Housing Development Corp. The program distributed more than $1.6 million in loans in its first year. — Through the Philadelphia Housing Development Corp.’s Basic System Repair Program, income-eligible homeowners can get repairs such as plumbing, electrical, structural, and roof work for free.

.....



__________________
ASDFGHJK
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #2  
Old Posted Nov 15, 2020, 6:06 PM
mhays mhays is offline
Never Dell
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Posts: 19,748
Must be nice, compared to other cities where there simply aren't enough homes!

Question...Philly seems to have tons of townhouses but are there enough apartments? Are a lot of townhouses subdivided? A townhouse seems like overkill for the economic bottom 1/3, particularly singles and couples.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #3  
Old Posted Nov 15, 2020, 8:42 PM
Reverberation's Avatar
Reverberation Reverberation is offline
disorient yourself?
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Diaspora
Posts: 4,453
Quote:
Originally Posted by mhays View Post
Must be nice, compared to other cities where there simply aren't enough homes!

Question...Philly seems to have tons of townhouses but are there enough apartments? Are a lot of townhouses subdivided? A townhouse seems like overkill for the economic bottom 1/3, particularly singles and couples.
I wish that cities could zone/allow those types of homes these days. They are compact, efficient, and fit in a 1.250 sf lot with the possibility of building out a basement or attic or adding a back sunroom to expand living space.

If cities want to solve affordability, there needs to be a cheaper way for developers to build units that people can not only own but live in comfortably. Condos and micro units aren’t good solutions for more than a few years as residents are forced to move once they get married and start to grow a family.
__________________
RT60
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #4  
Old Posted Nov 16, 2020, 4:07 AM
Steely Dan's Avatar
Steely Dan Steely Dan is offline
devout Pizzatarian
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Lincoln Square, Chicago
Posts: 29,634
Quote:
Originally Posted by Reverberation View Post
Condos..... aren’t good solutions for more than a few years as residents are forced to move once they get married and start to grow a family.
That totally depends on the condo.

My family of 4 lives quite comfortably in our 2,300 SF condo in a chicago 3-flat.

It's a lot like living in a SFH, except we have neighbors on the two floors above us.

But rowhouses are also an excellent way to get family-sized dwellings up to higher densities for more functional urbanism.
__________________
"Missing middle" housing can be a great middle ground for many middle class families.

Last edited by Steely Dan; Nov 16, 2020 at 1:35 PM.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #5  
Old Posted Nov 16, 2020, 2:43 PM
UrbanRevival UrbanRevival is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 421
Quote:
Originally Posted by mhays View Post
Must be nice, compared to other cities where there simply aren't enough homes!

Question...Philly seems to have tons of townhouses but are there enough apartments? Are a lot of townhouses subdivided? A townhouse seems like overkill for the economic bottom 1/3, particularly singles and couples.
Philly's rowhomes are actually incredibly diverse in terms of size. Many neighborhoods--particularly in parts of the city that have the most opportunity for rehabbing--have a plethora of homes in the 900-1,200 sf range, which is perfect for the lower-income individual or couple. That's what makes this strategy such a great fit for the city.

Moreover, individual dwellings are likely going to be in higher demand moving forward given the pandemic (i.e., lack of shared living spaces), so a rowhome arrangement is even more appealing for that reason to many folks.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #6  
Old Posted Nov 16, 2020, 4:26 PM
MonkeyRonin's Avatar
MonkeyRonin MonkeyRonin is offline
¥ ¥ ¥
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Vancouver
Posts: 9,872
Quote:
Originally Posted by Reverberation View Post
I wish that cities could zone/allow those types of homes these days. They are compact, efficient, and fit in a 1.250 sf lot with the possibility of building out a basement or attic or adding a back sunroom to expand living space.

If cities want to solve affordability, there needs to be a cheaper way for developers to build units that people can not only own but live in comfortably. Condos and micro units aren’t good solutions for more than a few years as residents are forced to move once they get married and start to grow a family.

The ability for one's home to grow with them as they age is a big strength of the sort of traditionally fine-grained, owner-occupied urbanity that has largely been lost in newer development.

The Philly-style rowhouse is a hugely resilient form of housing that can last a lifetime: as a young owner who doesn't need the space it can be subdivided and rented out for additional income, then combined back into a single unit once more space is needed, expanded up or out as the family grows, and then reverted back to being multi-unit rentals as the owners become empty nesters and want additional income during retirement.
__________________
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #7  
Old Posted Nov 26, 2020, 9:51 PM
M II A II R II K's Avatar
M II A II R II K M II A II R II K is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Toronto
Posts: 52,200
Bring back the rowhouse

https://bypass.theweek.com/articles-...-back-rowhouse

Quote:
.....

- Philadelphia is one of the few places where that is even remotely possible for non-rich people. In cities across the country, home prices are skyrocketing even while the rest of the economy is in dire shape. The reason, it seems, is high demand from people who have been saving money thanks to the pandemic, the CARES Act, and low interest rates, combined with very low supply in most markets. — There are many reasons why Philly is still relatively affordable (at least for the moment). But one of them is its turn to rowhouses in decades past, which gives it a large housing stock and moderately high density. Cities across the country, particularly lower-density ones like Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix, or the suburbs practically everywhere should bring this style of home back.

- The great thing about rowhouses that is, narrow, long, tall houses built connected to one another, sometimes called townhomes is that they have most of the stuff Americans say they want in a home in a dense, efficient format. Typically they are single-family homes between two and four stories (though they can be built or split into apartments easily enough), with a front and back yard. The yards are small, but big enough for most purposes you don't need a McMansion-style soccer field to have some friends over for drinks and burgers, or let the dog run around, or simply get some fresh air and sunshine. — Instead of construction crews working on separate detached projects one after the other, they can build an entire block all at once. Shared walls means smaller bills for heating and cooling.

- Perhaps most importantly, the high density they enable allows for walkable neighborhoods with lots of shops and workable public transit. South Philly, which is almost entirely rowhouses, has about 24,000 people per square mile which is not as dense as Brooklyn, but more than five times as dense as Phoenix and easily enough to support a subway line. — When the sun is shining the folks on my block like to sit on the porch, chat with each other, smoke some meat, keep an eye on the neighborhood kids playing on the sidewalk, and so on. It feels like a friendly, alive place much more than the silent suburban cul-de-sacs I have visited in my life. And besides, who really wants to mow a three-acre yard all summer? Occasional weeding is more than enough work for me.

- So how come rowhouses are so uncommon these days? They simply are not allowed on most city land, which has zoning rules mandating detached single-family homes. Now, while single-family zoning is being rolled back in some places, most rowhouses are already single-family. Instead they are banned due to rules about how much of the lot a house can take up, how structures must be detatched from each other, mandatory setback from the street, and parking requirements, (which have been recently changed in a few places like Minnesota). — Contrary to libertarian notions about land use rules, the point is not "deregulation" but changing regulations to be more pro-density. Oregon, for instance, recently abolished single-family zoning, but also has a strict urban growth boundary around its cities to prevent damaging sprawl.

- Now, that is not to say that rowhouses will solve all our housing problems. Much of Brooklyn and D.C. are already built out with rowhouses, for instance, and they are still extremely expensive because there is such great demand to live there. — Cities could directly build and own large social housing projects with a spread of units for low-income, medium-income, and market rate tenants, with the market rents used to cover operating costs rather than constant subsidies from tax revenues like traditional public housing. This would work especially well in very high-cost cities like New York and San Francisco, though it should be at least feasible in most places. — Cities ought to aim for roughly stable home values, if not lower ones in expensive cities. But that means that when there is big demand for homes, as there is today, supply must keep up. An easy and quick way to do that is to legalize denser forms of construction like the good old rowhouse.

.....
__________________
ASDFGHJK
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #8  
Old Posted Nov 26, 2020, 10:03 PM
benp's Avatar
benp benp is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Buffalo, NY
Posts: 627
Houston has built many detached homes in recent years that are almost like row house/townhouse construction - long, narrow, and tall:

https://goo.gl/maps/chAZUVJEq6LnHw2M6

Common on former sfh lots that have been subdivided, particularly in the Heights area.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #9  
Old Posted Nov 27, 2020, 3:44 AM
volguus zildrohar's Avatar
volguus zildrohar volguus zildrohar is offline
I Couldn't Tell Anyone
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: The City Of Philadelphia
Posts: 15,988
Philadelphia's problem is 100% political.

Affordability is not an issue here on the macro level. Compared to 'peer' cities Philadelphia is a tremendous bargain. Ours is an issue of income. The difference between what $2K a month will get you in Philadelphia versus NYC or DC is outright cartoonish. Taxation and the policies promulgated by bigwigs in City Hall are fiercely anti-growth and anti-urban. This is the case largely due to the puffed up boogeyman of gentrification which in this city is shorthand for any type of change or improvement made or endorsed by someone who hasn't lived here for more than 20 years. It is a very Philadelphia phenomenon.

Land banks and housing trusts only go so far here because short-sighted agencies can't see more than six feet in front of them which is sad because many property owners in this city would readily take advantage of existing programs meant to help them update/repair their properties if only the process was more straightforward and if information about it was more accessible.
__________________
je suis phillytrax sur FLICKR, y'all
Reply With Quote
     
     
End
 
 
Reply

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Discussion Forums > City Discussions
Forum Jump


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 8:53 PM.

     
SkyscraperPage.com - Archive - Privacy Statement - Top

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.