household income qualifications<\/a>.<\/p>\nParker wants to boost income caps for several popular benefits. As an example, her H.O.M.E. initiative would raise the limit on household income for the Basic Systems Repair Program from 60% of area median income to 100%.<\/p>\n
AMI is calculated on a regional basis and is significantly higher than the average earnings of a Philadelphia household, due to wealthier families in the suburban counties. For a family of four, the AMI is around $120,000 a year.<\/p>\n
Eight City Council members signed a letter to Parker earlier this week asking for an amendment to prioritize those below the city\u2019s median income \u2013 about 60% AMI \u2013 with a particular emphasis on those under the 30% threshold.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ll be damned if we don’t do everything that we can to make sure that those most at risk are made secure through this very expensive effort,\u201d Councilmember Nicolas O\u2019Rourke said at a news conference shortly before Wednesday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re tired of begging for the basic needs, the things that we deserve,\u201d added Dianna Coleman, a Southwest Philadelphia community leader and member of One Pennsylvania. \u201cIt’s time to prioritize low-income people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s team projects that 41% of the H.O.M.E. initiative\u2019s beneficiaries will be at or below 30% AMI, with 93% under 80% AMI. Thurman and others stressed that they want programs to be open to police officers, teachers, city workers and others who have traditionally been unable to qualify for assistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cAMI, while it\u2019s important \u2014 it\u2019s very important \u2014 it is only one factor and it doesn\u2019t tell the full story of what people are really experiencing,\u201d Thurman said.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, chair of the housing committee, suggested a tiered approach prioritizing Philadelphia\u2019s poorest residents. Administration representatives said the city currently does not have the technical infrastructure to support such an application system.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also don\u2019t see, in my opinion, it being fiscally responsible to open up programs to the middle class without any prioritization of people\u00a0 who \u2013 but for the city\u2019s dollars \u2013 are going to be on the street,\u201d Gauthier said.<\/p>\n
Thurman and Parker\u2019s other housing officials seemed unwilling to budge. The mayor has long spoken of a need to avoid \u2018pitting the have-nots versus those who have just little.’<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you say, this is our approach, and there\u2019s no other way to address this issue, other than, this is our approach,\u201d Johnson said, trailing off before noting that several lawmakers agreed to cede power over city-owned lots to support Parker\u2019s plan to expedite development.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not all Council members were opposed to easing the income limits. Curtis Jones, of the 4th District, said nearly three-fourths of the residents he represents are not eligible under the current guidelines.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are people that are moving out of this city, packing their bags as we speak, because they can\u2019t (participate) in programs like this\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they\u2019re moving, they\u2019re doing alright,\u201d Johnson chimed in.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers also interrogated Parker administration leaders on a host of other topics, including the Land Bank, the mechanics of the Turn the Key program, and the use of Black and brown developers for affordable housing. They are scheduled to reconvene on the subject at 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 17, at City Hall.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tKeywords<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tH.O.M.E. initiative,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Affordable housing,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Mayor Cherelle Parker,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Income eligibility\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jack Tomczuk City Council put off a preliminary vote Wednesday on an initial budget for Mayor Cherelle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2313,20424,20425,19077,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-32443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-affordable-housing","tag-h-o-m-e-initiative","tag-income-eligibility","tag-mayor-cherelle-parker","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}