September 2, 2007
Philadelphia Is in a Housing Boom - So why are so many people afraid?
By Monica Yant Kinney, Philadelphia Inquirer
At a tiny kitchen table in her Northern Liberties rental home, Staci Moore frets over the future.She has lived there since 1993. Unless her fortunes change, she won't grow old in 19123.
She'd move farther north, past Girard, except developers beat her to it. Lofts in Ludlow are renting for $1,800 a month. Another hip zip emerging, leaving folks like her in the dust.
"People say they move into these neighborhoods for the diversity, but they're oblivious to the fact that their moving in forces diversity out," says Moore, 39, an African American single mother of one who works for the state.
"It seems that what all of us really want is balance," she reasons. Vibrant neighborhoods where folks from many backgrounds live side by side enjoying The Next Great American City.
As we dream, Moore and I remember this is a free market currently obsessed with luxury housing.
This being Philadelphia, finding a way to do right by the have-nots will take a fight.
For the poor - and more This week, hundreds of people will rally at City Hall on behalf of inclusionary housing.
That's shorthand for laws requiring developers to include affordable housing in their plans or pay into a fund so it can be built nearby.
In exchange, developers would get to build more units for less money and red tape.
In case you hadn't noticed, Philly is in the midst of the biggest housing boom since the Depression. About 6,000 luxury units have gone up since 1998 from Fairmount to Fishtown. The average condo price last year was $450,000, way more than the average Philadelphian can pay.
"How do we improve the quality of life for everyone in this city?" asks Nora Lichtash of the Women's Community Revitalization Project and the Philadelphia Campaign for Housing Justice. "We don't do it by pushing poor folks into one neighborhood."
What is poor anymore?
Technically, it's the quarter of all city residents earning less than $20,000 a year.
But nearly half of all Philadelphians - 240,000 households - live on less than $36,000. We're talking bus drivers, bank tellers and social workers who can't afford a decent place to live, either.
More than 300 municipalities around the country have passed inclusionary housing laws. Philadelphia's battle has been brewing for a year since City Councilman Darrell Clarke introduced a bill that would benefit people earning as much as $104,000 and that neglected to give developers incentives.
"I had people on both sides of the issue upset with me," says Clarke, who's tweaking the numbers in search of a happier medium.
Bart Blatstein isn't convinced one can be found.
"The burden of providing affordable housing," says the man who's remaking Northern Liberties with 1,500 new luxury units, "should be borne by government, not the developer."
A room with a view Once homeless, Moore works for Pennsylvania's energy assistance program. In her spare time, she sells Warm Spirit lotions and potions. And she cochairs the board of directors of the Women's Community Revitalization Project, which is based in Northern Liberties, with Lisa Nutter, wife of the city's presumptive next mayor.
Moore earns less than $21,000 at her job. Her Section 8 housing voucher will expire in two years.
And if she's struggling to buy her 17-year-old son sneakers and school supplies while paying down old debt, how will she ever save enough to go it alone in the neighborhood they call home?
"My phone was just cut off," she confides.
Moore pays $114 of her $650 monthly rent knowing the house next door goes for $1,250.
"I really like Staci," landlord Kevin McGillicuddy tells me. "But I lose money having her as a tenant."
Ideally, she'd buy her place, but McGillicuddy says it could fetch $250,000. For now, she works and waits, educating neighbors about inclusionary housing and hoping a law is passed by the time she's ready to become a homeowner.
"Right now, I can't afford to pick up and move," Moore admits, "here or anywhere."
Contact Monica Yant Kinney at myant@phillynews.com or 215-854-4670. Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/yantkinney
The Philadelphia Campaign for Housing Justice rally is scheduled for noon Thursday at Dilworth Plaza.
