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Posted on Wed, Mar. 17, 2004 Housing advocates
plan rally before Street budget speech: By Anthony S. Twyman Affordable-housing advocates will hold a City Hall rally Thursday morning before Mayor Street makes his budget address, asking the city to pump more government money into constructing housing that is affordable for low-income residents. Although the mayor is expected to announce budget cuts and the possible sale of assets to close an anticipated $227 million deficit, the advocates want the city to create a $20 million housing trust fund, to ensure that new housing built with government money is accessible to the disabled, and to temporarily stop the taking of residents' homes under the mayor's anti-blight program. Half of the trust-fund money would be earmarked for the construction of affordable housing for people who earn less than $20,000 a year; the other half would help provide short-term housing assistance for people making more than $20,000 a year. "We're looking for more money for affordable housing in spite of the [budget] climate," said Philip Lord, the executive director of the Tenants Action Group, part of a broader coalition known as the Philadelphia Affordable Housing Coalition that is organizing the rally. To create the trust fund, the advocates want the city to take about $11 million from the money slated for the demolition of abandoned and dangerous buildings under Mayor Street's anti-blight Neighborhood Transformation Initiative. On Thursday morning, Mayor Street will give City Council his proposal for the city operating budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Council then will spend the next few months reviewing the proposal and can suggest changes. It must approve a final budget no later than 30 days before the end of the current fiscal year. City officials say they are committed to providing more affordable housing, but are reluctant to take money out of demolition funds and believe there are other options, such as foundation grants, that can be explored. "The need is always more than the resources," said Cynthia Bayete, a spokeswoman for the anti-blight initiative, which uses $275 million in bond proceeds to demolish vacant buildings in the hope that private and community developers will build new housing and businesses. "We're looking at different avenues, and we're looking at the bonds to see what we can do with them," Bayete said. Roughly half of the anti-blight bond money is slated to pay for demolition. But Bayete said that the bulk of that money must be used for demolition because that is what the administration told the bond market. Affordable-housing advocates suggest that other ways of raising funds could include using money raised by having the state raise the fees it charges people to record mortgages. They also suggest the city use some of the money it takes in from the real estate transfer taxes and from state housing redevelopment assistance. Nancy Salandra, a member of Disabled in Action, which is a Philadelphia Affordable Housing Coalition member, said the coalition also wants the city to adopt an ordinance that City Councilwoman Jannie L. Blackwell is expected to introduce tomorrow that would require any newly constructed housing that is built with government funds be made accessible for the disabled. Salandra said the proposal would not require that an entire house be accessible, but only that the first floor include at least one entrance without steps plus hallways and bathroom doors wide enough for wheelchairs. "It's really about changing the culture in the city of Philadelphia, having places that don't have steps," Salandra said. She said Philadelphia has the largest disabled population in the nation and the second-largest elderly population. Cheri Honkala, head of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, which is a coalition member, said her group will be at the rally, but a municipal court judge has ordered her and several other members of her group to be off City Hall grounds by 5:30 p.m. or face arrest. The judge's order, which was issued yesterday was in response to a protest Honkala and her group staged outside the mayor's office in December on behalf of six homeless, battered women.
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