‘Cautiously optimistic’

To date, PHA has spent more than $330 million acquiring more than 1,700 units of private-sector housing. That includes the 360 units it plans to restore at Brith Sholom House in Wynnefield Heights, 381 units at Greene Manor Apartments in Mount Airy and the 153 units that belonged to Germantown Settlement before it went bankrupt.

Combined with other projects, the authority is nearly halfway through its goal of preserving, redeveloping, building or acquiring more than 20,000 units, according to an online dashboard.

It will be up to Congress to decide whether PHA, and other housing authorities, will have the opportunity to add units to their portfolios past next year’s proposed deadline.

For now, Jeremiah is hopeful that he will. An appropriations bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, which contains funding for transportation, housing and urban development, currently does not contain language setting new Faircloth limits.

It’s unclear if the Senate version will follow suit. And it could be months before the measure is sent to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.

The federal government’s new fiscal year starts Oct. 1.

“I am cautiously optimistic,” Jeremiah said. “I think it does require all of us who are interested in the issue of housing affordability, and affordability more broadly, to advocate that we do not reduce the opportunities to expand affordable housing.”

If the cap is imposed, Jeremiah said PHA may be able to use nonfederal funding sources to develop more affordable units on its own, a move that would effectively make the authority a private landlord.

PHA currently receives 93% of its funding from HUD, which has recently translated to around $600 million a year. Jeremiah said that money would be off-limits, but the remaining 7% could technically be used to help subsidize units that are rented with tenant-based housing vouchers. At a mixed-income property, the agency could use revenue generated from market-rate units to help subsidize the affordable units.

Neither the city nor the state contributes operating or capital funding to PHA.

“There are still tools that might be available to us. It’s concerning, though, because we rely on the federal government to help subsidize PHA’s work,” Jeremiah said.