{"id":50507,"date":"2025-12-02T23:20:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T23:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/50507\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T23:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T23:20:10","slug":"philly-lawmakers-advance-277m-budget-for-signature-housing-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/50507\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly lawmakers advance $277M budget for signature housing plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                    Testimony from proponents and opponents<\/p>\n<p>Rochelle Lashley, a member of the social justice group One Pennsylvania, urged lawmakers to include more funding for low-income renters and homeowners \u201cwho need it most.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a simple principle. We should start at the bottom before we go to the top. The struggle is real,\u201d said Lashley, who has lived in Southwest Philadelphia for more than 50 years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not only morally right, it\u2019s structurally sound policy,\u201d added Melissa Monts, another member of the group.<\/p>\n<p>Other speakers applauded the Parker administration for crafting a housing plan for all Philadelphians \u2014 not just those living at the bottom of the city\u2019s socioeconomic ladder.<\/p>\n<p>Since the start, the mayor has been adamant about the H.O.M.E. initiative serving everyone who needs help with housing \u2014 from low-income renters to moderate-income homeowners. And she vowed to <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/mayor-parker-housing-plan-approved-philadelphia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">never engage in policymaking<\/a> that pits \u201chave-nots against those who have just a little.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ryan Boyer, business manager for the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, said Tuesday that the city cannot afford to potentially alienate working-class and middle-income residents by implementing a housing plan that doesn\u2019t also seek to help that population.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a very, very important and serious issue,\u201d said Boyer, one of Parker\u2019s strongest political allies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we don\u2019t keep some of the middle class and working-class people in the city of Philadelphia, that creates craters in our tax base. So we have to, very carefully and delicately, make incentives for those people to stay that can leave, as well as take care of our most vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For now, it\u2019s unclear when the city will borrow the first chunk of funding for the initiative \u2014 or how much will be borrowed. But it is unlikely it will happen before the holidays.<\/p>\n<p>Finance Director Rob Dubow has said the plan would start with $400 million in funding, but budgeting for the initiative is now based on the calendar year instead of the fiscal year. That could potentially change the math.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Testimony from proponents and opponents Rochelle Lashley, a member of the social justice group One Pennsylvania, urged lawmakers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2313,69,71,70,19078,2312],"class_list":["post-50507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-affordable-housing","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-phillys-100th-mayor","tag-planphilly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50507","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=50507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}