A modular home factory in Philly?

On a frigid January day, Parker huddled outdoors with residents and union leaders in North Philadelphia to announce that her administration was working to bring a modular home factory — potentially a handful of them — to the city.

A day earlier, the city had begun soliciting information from industry experts with the goal of releasing a request for proposals, or RFP, at a later date.

“We are all moving in a unified way to attempt to do what has never been done in the city of Philadelphia before. And that is to create a manufacturing hub for housing,” Parker said from a portable stage in Logan.

Now, six months later, Parker has $10 million to put toward that goal.

The funding will help with site preparation, utilities and infrastructure improvements that “support the development of underutilized assets that could be candidates for this type of facility,” according to a spokesperson for the Department of Planning and Development.

The mayor has floated the idea of bringing factories to locations where “persistently” vacant schools now stand, as well as to the infamous Logan Triangle in North Philadelphia.

Nearly 1,000 homes once stood at the site, a 35-acre parcel near Roosevelt Boulevard. The city demolished them after the discovery that they were hopelessly sinking into the unstable soil beneath them. It’s been vacant ever since.

It’s unclear when the city might release an RFP.

Unfulfilled staffing requests

The Fair Housing Commission has a long history of being understaffed.

Lawmakers sought to remedy that problem by requesting funding for three additional investigators. They also backed the mayor’s proposal to bring on a deputy director.

Proponents argued the commission needed to increase capacity to handle a growing caseload. The agency is projected to process more than 700 cases next fiscal year, in part because of newly passed renter protections. Officials handled more than 600 during the current fiscal year.

If approved, the commission’s budget would have jumped more than 50% to roughly $1.2 million.

In the end, only the deputy director position made it into the budget.

The result is considered to be a casualty of Council’s decision to oppose most of the tax proposals Parker sought in her spending plan. That included a controversial $1-per-ride tax on ride-hailing companies the administration had hoped would generate recurring revenue for the Philadelphia School District, which is facing a budget deficit.

Parker also wanted to tax Airbnb and other short-term rental companies, as well as retail delivery services like Door Dash. Those dollars were to have gone toward homelessness prevention services and filling potholes.

“There was no chance at all because of the deal that was reached,” said Jordan Levy, spokesperson for Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke, who pushed for the additional staffing.

It’s unclear why the Sheriff’s Office didn’t get the additional staffers it was seeking. A spokesperson declined to comment.

Sheriff Rochelle Bilal wanted to more than double the size of her office’s eviction unit, a budget request aimed at clearing a sizable backlog of cases and keeping pace with new ones.

The office currently has eight to 12 detectives assigned to perform eviction operations each day, including lockouts. To meet the demand, Bilal hoped to hire another 14 detectives as part of a broader push to increase headcount across the office.

Landlords supported the request, saying it is taking too long to get tenants evicted, costing them rent while putting their businesses at risk.