University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Departmental Papers (City and Regional Planning) Department of City and Regional Planning 3-1-2003 Closing the Gap: Housing (un)Affordability in Philadelphia Amy E. Hillier University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Dennis P. Culhane University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/cplan_papers Part of the Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons Hillier, Amy E. and Culhane, Dennis P., "Closing the Gap: Housing (un)Affordability in Philadelphia" (2003). Departmental Papers (City and Regional Planning). 1. https://repository.upenn.edu/cplan_papers/1 Report commissioned by Philadelphia Affordable Housing Coalition, 2003. Publisher URL: http://www.cml.upenn.edu/presentations/CLOSINGtheGAP3.pdf This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/cplan_papers/1 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Closing the Gap: Housing (un)Affordability in Philadelphia Disciplines Urban, Community and Regional Planning Comments Report commissioned by Philadelphia Affordable Housing Coalition, 2003. Publisher URL: http://www.cml.upenn.edu/presentations/CLOSINGtheGAP3.pdf This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/cplan_papers/1 closing the Housing (un)Affordability GAP in Philadelphia Amy Hillier & Dennis Culhane Cartographic Modeling Laboratory University of Pennsylvania March 2003 Commissioned by the Philadelphia Affordable Housing Coalition This report was commissioned by the Philadelphia Affordable Housing Coalition (PAHC) with funds from the William Penn Foundation, the Samuel S. Fels Fund, the Prudential Foundation and members of PAHC. The PAHC was formed in 2001 by organizations who see Philadelphia’s affordable housing crisis up close, every day, from the front lines. The main goal of the PAHC is to build power to increase the amount of housing resources our City spends on households living on less than $20,000 a year – the bottom one-third of our City. To achieve this goal, the PAHC engages in community organizing, advocacy, leadership development, research, education and strategic relationship building with elected officials. The PAHC has purposefully brought together a diversity of organizations. Current members and allies include: Liberty Resources, Women’s Community Revitalization Project, Kensington Welfare Rights Union, Disabled in Action, Tenants Action Group, Congreso de Latinos Unidos, Lutheran Settlement House, Raise of Hope, Friends Neighborhood Guild, Action AIDS, the Greater Philadelphia Federation of Settlements and The Lighthouse. The PAHC welcomes organizations who want more housing resources for low-income Philadelphians to join our struggle. This study was researched and written by the Cartographic Modeling Lab (CML) at the University of Pennsylvania. The CML is a joint venture of the School of Social Work and the Graduate School of Fine Arts. The CML uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS), web-based information systems, and administrative data to conduct academic research and urban and social policy analysis with a special focus on Philadelphia. For more information, visit cml.upenn.edu. closing the GAP Housing (un)Affordability in Philadelphia Amy Hillier & Dennis Culhane Cartographic Modeling Laboratory University of Pennsylvania March 2003 Table of Contents Summary of Findings…………...…………………………………………………..…..4 Affordable Housing…………………………………………………………………….. 6 Causes of Affordability Crisis…………………….……………...………...……….…. 6 Who is “Low Income”? ………………………………..……..………………………….. 8 Measuring Housing Affordability…………………………………………….……….. 10 Additional Indicators of Affordability Crisis………………………....…….…..….. 11 Quantifying the Housing Affordability Gap………………………...……….…..…..13 Accessible Housing…………………………………………………….………………..20 People with Disabilities………………………………..……………………….……….. 20 Standards for Accessibility and Visitability.……….…….……………….….…..…. 20 Measuring the Need for Accessible Housing.……..……………………………..…. 21 Quality Housing...…………………………………….…………………………………..24 Housing & Neighborhood Quality Standards...…………………..………....……….24 Measuring the Need for Quality Housing & Neighborhoods…………………….. 24 Low-income Housing Programs..……..………………………………………….. 27 Philadelphia’s Housing Programs …………….………….……………...…..…....….. 27 Public Housing….…………………………………………………………………....…….32 Other Housing Programs….……..………...…………………………………….......…. 35 Comparing the Response to the Need…………………...…………....………….….. 40 Outlook and Recommendations…………………………………………………..43 Recommendations….……………...……………….………………..…………….….…. 43 Outlook….……………...…………………………………………...………..……….....….44 List of Maps Map 1. Map of Households with Incomes under $20,000…………..…...….…… 16 Map 2. Median Household Income……………………………………..……….....…. 17 Map 3. Map of Low-income Rental Households w/Excessive Housing Costs... 18 Map 4. Map of Overcrowded Housing...…………………………………………..…. 19 Map 5. Map of People with Physical Disabilities.…….….……...…….………..…. 23 Map 6. Map of Housing Built before 1940…………………..…...…………….….....26 Map 7. Map of Subsidized Accessible Units…………...……….……………..….….38 Map 8. Map of PHA Properties….……………...…….…………………………......…. 39 Map 9. Map of Subsidized Rental Units……………………….…………….….....….40 Map 10. Map of Subsidized Homeowner Units….………..……………………....... 41 Map 11. Map of LIHTC and Section 8 Buildings..…...…..………………….……….42 Acknowledgements……………………..……………………………………………… 47 Appendices………………………………………………...……………….………………..48 A. Data sources used for this study….…………………………………....…........….48 B. Demographic and Housing Profiles of Council Districts……………………… 49 C. Demographic and Housing Profiles of Neighborhoods…………………….…. 51 D. Section 108 Housing & Economic Development Loans………...……….…….. 53 E. Map of Neighborhoods and City Council Districts….…………..….………..…. 54 F. Map of Zip Codes and City Council Districts….………….………………......…. 55 G. Map of Racial and Ethnic Composition….…………….………………….......…. 56 Endnotes…………………………………………………………………….……………..….57 3 Summary of Findings Low-income households struggle to phia than needed for rental house- afford housing in Philadelphia. Surveys, holds with incomes below $20,000. including the US Census and American Housing Survey, consistently confirm For people with physical disabilities, it what housing advocates, public officials, is especially difficult to find affordable and low-income residents already know: housing. housing costs too much relative to what low-income households receive from low- • Philadelphia has 354,409 people wage jobs and public assistance. ages 5 and older with disabilities, 151,250 of whom have physical dis- This study focuses on the poorest abilities. households in Philadelphia—those earn- ing under $20,000. In 2000, Philadelphia • Seventy percent of respondents to a had 206,251 households earning less survey conducted by Liberty Re- than $20,000 a year—a full 35 percent of sources, a nonprofit advocacy or- all households in the city. The following ganization for people with disabili- are our key findings. ties, indicated that they feel trapped in their own house at least occa- Housing affordability is primarily the sionally. Half would like modifica- result of inadequate income. tions for their housing and only a third reported having fully accessi- ble housing. • Philadelphia has lost tens of thou- sands of manufacturing jobs in the • The maximum Supplemental Secu- last few decades, only some of rity Income (SSI) payment in Penn- which have been replaced by lower- sylvania is not enough to cover the paying, less permanent service sec- fair market rent for a one-bedroom tor jobs. apartment, the allowable rent for a one-bedroom apartment subsidized • The value of earned income and through the Low Income Housing public assistance payments has not Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, or the kept pace with increasing housing median rent in Philadelphia. costs. Low-income households have problems The poorest households struggle the finding quality housing in quality most to pay for housing. neighborhoods. • There are 129,109 households in • Most Americans live in housing built Philadelphia with incomes under after World War II, but more than $20,000 paying 30 percent or more half of all housing units in Philadel- of their income on housing. phia were built before 1934. • 83 percent of renters and 64 per- • In 1999, 18,600 households in cent of homeowners in Philadelphia Philadelphia reported having severe with incomes under $20,000 pay 30 physical problems with their plumb- percent or more for housing. 70 ing, heating, kitchen, or hallways, percent of poor households that pay and 40,100 reported having moder- 30 percent or more for housing ac- ate problems. tually pay 50 percent or more for housing. • As of April 2002, Philadelphia had 64,500 residential properties with • There are at least 30,000 fewer af- open code violations. Approxi- fordable housing units in Philadel- 4 mately half of these properties are • Between 1997 and 1999, the num- owned by people who do not live on ber of units affordable to extremely site. low-income households (defined by • In 1999, more than 100,000 house- HUD as households with incomes holds in Philadelphia—15.3 percent below 30 percent of the area median of owners and 21.3 percent of rent- income), dropped by 750,000. ers—reported that crime is so • In 1999, there were 940,000 fewer bothersome in their neighborhood affordable housing units than that they would like to move. needed for extremely