New Residential Property Values Are Cash Cow For City, Punitive For Rental Owners
When Philadelphia released its property value assessments for 2023, they jumped by almost a third.
Hapco Philadelphia members make up the majority of rental owners of low-to-moderate-income rental housing, and they’ll suffer most.
HP rental owners are already reeling from months of unpaid rent during the pandemic eviction moratorium, and skyrocketing assessments will only serve to drive more rental property owners out of the affordable housing market.
The board of Hapco Philadelphia has always contended that City Council should stop looking to property value assessments as a profit center for City Hall. It should always be revenue-neutral.
And City Council must include rental property owners in any financial relief programs to offset massive jumps in property tax bills.
City Councilmembers: Stop Creating Blight On Land Needed For Affordable Housing
For years, we’ve railed against the gate-keeping power known as “councilmanic prerogative.”
Hapco Philadelphia has watched district city councilmembers refuse to release vacant, city-owned parcels that are prime locations to build low-to-moderate-income rental housing. And the result is a dramatic decline in affordable housing in Philadelphia.
And those vacant parcels and the dilapidated buildings on many of them add to the growing inventory of city-owned blight.
Philly Finally Using City-Owned Land to Build Affordable Housing
Hapco Philadelphia has been pushing the city to use its vacant land to help spur construction of low-to-moderate-income housing.
Along with the Building Industry Association of Philadelphia, HP is happy to see City Council announce it will use cheap city parcels on which to build 1,000 new homes with subsidized mortgages.
Anti-Blight Bill Aimed At Increasing Affordable Housing Passes PA House
The House bill would allow land banks, like the one in Philadelphia, to partner with private sector developers to create local solutions for the lack of low-to-moderate-income housing.
Hapco Philadelphia has long advocated that district councilmembers put more vacant, city-owned lots they control into the city’s land bank, to attract developers to build affordable housing.
Hapco Philadelphia’s lobbyist in Harrisburg says the bill now moves to the Pennsylvania Senate.