The Philadelphia City Council on Thursday approved a $277 million budget for a new housing plan Mayor Cherelle Parker pitched nine months ago.
Parker's Housing Opportunities Made Easy — or H.O.M.E — program plans to offer matching grants for preserving 16,500 homes. The program also aims to produce 13,500 new housing units. The mayor called H.O.M.E the largest single investment in housing in the city's history.
"You can't be put on a path to self-sufficiency to go anywhere without housing," Parker said Thursday during an interview with the local NPR affiliate.
Of the $277 million approved, $43.5 million will be allocated toward building affordable homes for low-income professionals, including sanitation workers, police officers, firefighters, social workers, and teachers, the Parker administration stated. Another $40 million in grant money will go toward homeowners who need to make critical electrical, heating, plumbing or structural repairs to their properties. Philadelphia is a city where rowhouses built 50 years ago or older dominate the housing stock, so funding for repairs is particularly useful, Parker and other city officials said.
Another $25 million will power low-interest mortgages or down payments of no more than 3% for residents looking to buy their first home. The city also plans to allocate $8.5 million for grants to help homeowners with disabilities modify their homes for improved mobility.
All told, H.O.M.E is a four-year $2 billion plan. It's being funded partially by an $800 million public bond. Another part of the funding comes from increased revenue the city took in by raising its realty transfer tax in July from 3.27% to 3.57%. The increase means anyone who sells residential real estate in the city must pay an additional fee of 3.57% of the home's sale price. The median sale price in Philadelphia in November was $389,900, according to exclusive data from Homes.com.
City Council members approved Parker's plan after a lengthy discussion last week about possible amendments. An amended plan eventually passed the council's Committee of the Whole. Still, the new version focuses on ensuring that homeless people and those at risk of losing their homes secure long-term housing first, City Council members said.
In a statement, Councilmember Rue Landau said housing is at the core of Philadelphia's affordability crisis, but the H.O.M.E plan is an investment for "our most in-need residents."
"Most importantly, seniors, public school teachers, sanitation workers, and other working and low-income families will have the help they need to stay in their homes and off the street," Council Member Jamie Gauthier said in a statement.
Philly's faces a housing crunch
The H.O.M.E budget lands just as the city of Brotherly Love finds itself in a housing crunch. Rising home prices and slow-paced new-home construction have led to a sharp decline in Philadelphia homeownership, according to a 2024 analysis from the Pew Trusts. The city's homeownership rate fell from 59% in 2000 to 53% in 2021, and that's "largely because the city added rental units, while the number of owner-occupied homes remained essentially unchanged," Pew researchers said.
Home prices have increased in every Philadelphia neighborhood between 2000 and 2021, but household incomes did not keep pace, the Pew report concluded.
Local housing advocacy groups applauded the H.O.M.E budget's passing and said they like how the first year focuses on low-income residents.
"Philadelphia’s in a housing emergency," Seth Anderson‑Oberman, executive director of Reclaim Philadelphia, said in a statement. "We’re working toward housing that lifts all boats, but it must start with those who need it most."