In addition to the union jobs, the authority is also laying off administrative employees, as well as property management and support positions at its central office.
The cutbacks are partially a response to PHA shuttering and renovating hundreds of units across three of its traditional public housing sites — Fairhill Apartments, Bartram Village and Westpark Apartments. With fewer units in use, fewer maintenance and repair workers are needed.
PHA will continue to employ about 360 members of the building trades, including maintenance mechanics, maintenance aides and laborers.
The layoffs come as the authority works toward remaking its entire portfolio under an ambitious initiative launched last year. Under its “Opening Doors” plan, PHA will preserve, redevelop, build or acquire roughly 20,000 units over eight years — an estimated $6.3 billion investment amid a deepening affordable housing crisis.
The initiative, which PHA says will generate 4,900 jobs, gets underway at a time of great uncertainty for housing authorities across the country, including the Philadelphia Housing Authority.
The Trump administration, for example, has cut staff, canceled contracts and frozen funding in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. PHA receives 93% of its funding from HUD.
Jeremiah said Wednesday the layoffs are partly a response to expected cuts at the federal level.
“In every case, whether it’s the president, the House or Senate versions, all of the budgets, all three, call for reduction in funding,” he said. “There isn’t any way for us to just wait for that to happen given the already high cost.”
Ryan Boyer, business manager for the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, said in a statement the layoffs were caused by the “Republican Party’s ‘big ugly bill.’”
“PHA knows it has to pivot to meet this challenge, and we at the Building Trades understand. The Trades will still do PHA work, just in a different configuration,” said Boyer.
He added that the maintenance work his members performed “was never meant to be permanent.”
“We were brought in to augment the already great craftsmanship being performed by the PHA workforce,” he said. “That unionized workforce is still in place and will see PHA through these turbulent economic times.”