Doug Shimell

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.

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.

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.

Hapco Philadelphia is wondering how the city could top a list for most affordable housing when we’ve been watching low-to-moderate-income housing vanish in recent years.

But that’s what the AARP supposedly found in their recent “Livability Index.”