Mayor John Street once promised to find a way to “choke Section 8 into submission,” and prevent it from killing Philadelphia neighborhoods.
Four years later, the Philadelphia Housing Authority has a plan to help Street keep that promise.
The weapon is a new federal program that will give PHA executive director Carl R. Greene the flexibility to retool the rent voucher program for needy families.
As one of 30 housing authorities approved for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s new Moving to Work program, PHA also gets to keep about $35 million a year in unused Section 8 money that previously was returned to HUD. Greene can use the money to make improvements in public housing.
The rent vouchers help about 14,000 low-income families pay rent to private landlords. PHA has 4,200 more vouchers waiting to be claimed.
Changes PHA proposes for Section 8 include:
– Encouraging families to use their subsidy to buy a home, instead of renting. HUD allows the voucher to be applied to mortgage payments for up to 15 years.
– Placing a seven-year limit on eligibility for those who use the vouchers for rent. Now, renters can renew their vouchers yearly as long as they meet income guidelines.
– Creating a new two-year voucher for those who lose their jobs and need help in paying their mortgage or rent.
Greene said PHA will build or buy new scattered sites to replace the worst of its aging stock, most of which is concentrated in the city’s poorest neighborhoods.
The new sites will be located in more economically stable areas, Greene said.
Many of the new units won’t be owned or managed by PHA. Greene wants to do more ventures like the one in Spring Garden where he turned 30 PHA scattered sites between 18th and 20th streets, Spring Garden Street and Mt. Vernon Street, over to the Community Builders and Spring Garden Neighbors Association. The nonprofit development team is completing a gut-rehab of the townhouses, creating apartments for the same families who rented them from PHA.
PHA’s plan, which must still be approved by HUD, is designed to work in tandem with Street’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, the citywide anti-blight effort.
“The city is now entering the business of neighborhood revitalization,” Greene said. “This plan is designed to help us work together and restore value to our communities.”
