By Jack Tomczuk

Mayor Cherelle Parker, as part of her affordable housing push, wants to facilitate the construction of factories in Philadelphia to pump out modular residences.

Modular homes are manufactured off-site, with sections assembled at the final destination. Her administration on Wednesday asked companies, developers and others to advise the municipal government on the logistics.

“Imagine if we had just five factories running 24 hours a day,” Parker said at a news conference.

Her administration has published a request for information, or RFI, in an attempt to solicit details about site parameters, operational requirements and the finances of such facilities, according to the document.

The RFI process is designed to guide a forthcoming request for proposals, or RFP, where the city will presumably offer a contract for firms interested in constructing a modular house factory. RFI submissions are due March 2.

Parker has been focused in recent months on her Housing Opportunities Made Easy, or H.O.M.E., initiative, which, combined with a similar effort from the Philadelphia Housing Authority, aims to create or preserve 50,000 units of affordable housing.

On Wednesday, she shouted out Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, and the RFI said Philadelphia is exploring adopting the Ohio city’s model. In July, Bibb’s administration announced that a municipal nonprofit had acquired a former General Electric plant for use as a modular housing manufacturing facility.

Parker gathered labor union leaders and community representatives for the Wednesday afternoon news conference at Courtland and Warnock streets, located in the Logan Triangle.

Though not specifically mentioned in the RFI, her administration considers the Triangle an “ideal site” for a factory, with around 35 acres of city-owned vacant land and easy access to Roosevelt Boulevard.

Nearly 1,000 families had to be relocated from the area in the 1980s following gas explosions, as row homes fell victim to sinking soil. Decades earlier, builders had dumped coal ash, cinder and other debris into a creek bed to develop the land.

“For 40 years, we’ve had a problem in Logan,” said Cecil Hankins, described by Parker as “the mayor of Logan.” “We’ve had people dumping in this area all the way from New Jersey – and not only trash, Sherita Glenn, our ward leader, would say, sometimes bodies.”

Previous attempts to redevelop the Triangle have failed, partially due to ongoing environmental concerns about soil contamination and expensive remediation.

“We know it’s needed,” Parker said, referring to the remediation. “The land has been studied. They know where you can build, what you can and what you can’t build.”

Keywords

Affordable Housing,

Modular Homes,

Cherelle Parker,

H.O.M.E. Initiative,

Philadelphia