Why Housing Development?

Philadelphia faces an affordable housing crisis. According to Pew Charitable Trusts, 40% of Philadelphia households spent at least 30% of their income on housing costs in 2018, meaning they met the federal standard of being cost burdened.

That translates to four out of every ten Philadelphians living in housing that is not considered affordable. That’s a significant number, especially when coupled with the poverty rate in Philadelphia, which has been hovering around 25% for years.

To add to that, 69% percent of cost-burdened Philadelphia households have incomes below $30,000 per year. Affordable housing is significantly more difficult to find for low-income families, especially those who are not white: 50% of Hispanic households and 46% of Black households are cost-burdened, compared with 32% of white households.

Disparities are also apparent between owners and renters: 54% of renters are cost-burdened, compared with 28% of homeowners. That number will likely continue to rise, as the Philadelphia Inquirer reports From January 2021 to January 2022, rent prices increased by 11% in the Philadelphia metro area.

While there are housing support services in Philadelphia, those programs are understandably overwhelmed. Philadelphia’s waiting list for housing vouchers is so long that it was closed to new names for twelve years; of the 10,000 new applicants that will be accepted, 2,000 will receive vouchers immediately and the remaining 8,000 will wait 3-5 years.

In addition, the City of Philadelphia estimates that there are 14,500 affordable housing units with contracts expiring in the next two years; once those contracts expire, owners can opt-out of providing affordable housing and rent those units at market-rate, effectively evicting the families living there. This is why more non-profits like PHWC need to become housing developers; our units will always be affordable.

As a nonprofit developer, we work with and understand the needs of those at risk of or experiencing homelessness. As an agency that master leases hundreds of apartment units throughout Philadelphia, we know what tenants need to thrive.