A modular home factory in Philly?<\/p>\n
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<\/a> \u2014 potentially a handful of them \u2014 to the city.\n<\/p>\n 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.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d Parker said from a portable stage in Logan.\n<\/p>\n Now, six months later, Parker has $10 million to put toward that goal.\n <\/p>\n The funding will help with site preparation, utilities and infrastructure improvements that \u201csupport the development of underutilized assets that could be candidates for this type of facility,\u201d according to a spokesperson for the Department of Planning and Development.\n<\/p>\n The mayor has floated the idea of bringing factories to locations where \u201cpersistently\u201d vacant schools now stand, as well as to the infamous Logan Triangle<\/a> in North Philadelphia.\n<\/p>\n 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\u2019s been vacant ever since.\n<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear when the city might release an RFP.\n<\/p>\n Unfulfilled staffing requests<\/p>\n The Fair Housing Commission has a long history of being understaffed.\n<\/p>\n Lawmakers sought to remedy that problem by requesting funding for three additional investigators. They also backed the mayor\u2019s proposal to bring on a deputy director.\n<\/p>\n Proponents argued the commission needed to increase capacity to handle a growing caseload<\/a>. 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.\n<\/p>\n If approved, the commission\u2019s budget would have jumped more than 50% to roughly $1.2 million.\n<\/p>\n In the end, only the deputy director position made it into the budget.\n<\/p>\n