Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to catch Mr. Raina while we had the opportunity to do it, and I know we're in public comment and we want to move quickly so I will be brief, so I'm going to stack them real quick. You didn't mention it here, but I want to get on the record. I've seen different data points. So I want to be clear. Can you confirm for us the number of units of subsidized housing we're set to lose permanently over the next 10 years? Can you break that down by district? Will building more luxury housing help us solve the gap of 65,000 units in the under 30% AMI range? Why not? And if you were in charge of this $800 million bond measure what, given your housing expertise, would you do with it and why? We got to get the experts while they're in the house, Mr. President.
Fortunately, I've gotten this question in the White House itself where someone was like how are we going to solve our nation's housing affordability problems. I've thought a bit about this at the national and local level. So we'll just say on the subsidized housing stuff, I want to say to the point we have this really big challenge going forward, which is that the federal government made historic investments in urban areas in the '60s and '70s, particularly with deeply affordable rental subsidies that essentially were set to expire at a certain period of time. To Mark's point earlier, right, just because something is expiring doesn't mean it will expire, the owner will leave the program. But it often means an owner can leave these programs. And my own research shows owners in areas with high price appreciation, you see those owners exiting those programs left and right, right, across the country. This isn't Philadelphia specific, so it is a real threat, right. And the numbers are large. There's over 10,000 units over the next 10 years that essentially are in this kind of expiration bucket and potentially at risk. To give you a sense of that, that's at least a third more than we produce on any given year through all our kind of subsidized housing programs, right. So we're at a point where without action and kind of intent, we could be losing more affordable units than we're actually being able to produce. That's particularly important because things like the project-based Section 8 program, once you lose it, you don't have it anymore. It's gone, right. Once it's not renewed, you can't do anything about it. Those convert to vouchers, and those don't even increase the pool of vouchers to the Public Housing Authority. The Public Housing Authority just has to use their existing vouchers, essentially in a different form, to help those households. So that's a really important asset that's potentially lost. I want to just highlight, this is actually a week ago, we had a small roundtable highlighting a report we have coming out next week. The city has done an absolutely amazing job building a database where one of the people helping them kick the tires on that to ensure the data is correct. This is not an easy endeavor. I think Mark and his whole team for that huge work, because in many ways it's thankless because it's huge work to get the numbers out there and then everyone's like so what are we doing about it right now, right, which is an important next step, right, but all to say is this is really important work. But what you see is a really kind of staggering distribution of these units across 9 of the 10 Council Districts we found and in kind of unusual spots as well because of where these units were built historically. So there are 64 Section 8 properties set to expire over the next 10 years, with roughly 5300 units. The highest number of properties are in Councilmember Young's District with over 1000 units, followed closely by Councilmember Bass which is 7 properties -- 11 properties, yes. 8 The most units at risk are in 9 Councilmember Jones' District with 10 roughly over 1000 units and 10 11 properties. This is a new challenge for some districts as well. It looks like -- and sorry if I think I might be messing up numbers and names along the way. But Council District 10, there are currently 91 units of housing that are going through some kind of preservation program, including BSRP. But in the next 10 years, there are 5 properties with 904 units where Section 8 contracts will be up for renewal. And, Council President, the median number of units for the whole city actually sits in your district which is 537 units over 4 properties. These numbers are staggering. Again, to Mark's point not all these owners will exit these programs, but it really poses a whole new challenge about the need for preservation. Sorry, I think I answered one of your three questions.
You did. Thank you very much. And also, we have a Part 2 so you can be more than welcome to come back for Part 2 when we have additional time allotted as well if you want to still put on the record those particular follow-up questions and also any other information you think is pertinent to members. But I do think that you should provide the report to members of Council whose districts will be impacted regarding houses that will be going off.
Appreciate that. Fortunately, I had all the tabs open here so I could read the report as I'm in realtime here. So thank you. Appreciate that.
Reverend Holsten, please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.
My name is Reverend Gregory Holsten. I'm the Executive Director of Just Nation, a racial justice organization here in the city of Philadelphia, and I'm a member of the Coalition to Defend Democracy here in the city. Housing is an emergency and it's a crisis in this city. We've said it over over for the last four hours. But the reality is that I only heard once and that was from Councilmember O'Rourke the figure that the person just gave public comment said. We have 65,000 housing shortage unit, deeply affordable housing shortage unit in this city. 65,000 right now according to University of Pennsylvania, right now. We're not talking about units that are going to disappear. We're talking about units that aren't here and therefore people, some are living on couches, some are living in shelters. Some are paying 70% of their salaries for the place that they're in. This is the core of the crisis. I know I heard a lot about middle income and properties that need to be preserved. I agree with all of that. We need to do all of that. I do believe that's a both and, but the crisis starts where the crisis is and it is with the poorest people in this city. (Applause.)
I'm proud to say that I have one of my daughters who actually is an emergency doctor doing her residency at Temple University. And so, she's often faced when people come into the hospital with a crisis of several things happening in the body at the same time, and she has to make the choice each and every time what do I do first, what demands my attention now to save that person's life. The life of our city is like that right now. These 65,000 deeply affordable housing unit shortage is that crisis for our city. It affects everything else, from the gun violence in our community, from the lack of education going on in our schools, from the disasters are happening at our rec centers. All of it is coming back to income and coming back to housing. And so, we do not measure that first. Not saying we don't do the other things, but we don't measure it first and look at the crisis that way first. And that is probably the fundamental flaw with the Mayor's program because it doesn't do that. And I heard that for four hours, that it does not do that. So what does that mean? That means the program that has been put in place, the $800 million that we're championing as the most and biggest and the largest amount of money ever put into housing is simply inadequate to the challenge of the crisis. It is. It is inadequate. First of all, we don't even need to go into debt for the $800 million. We have a $1.2 billion surplus. We've had a surplus out of the last 8 years. We can fund the entire 800 9 million, $200 million a year out of 10 our own city budget now, and not 11 even go in debt. We can solve all 12 of this, this particular part of 13 those issues in our own city 14 budget. Then make the decision 15 that if we do go in debt, we go in 16 debt big time. 17 We go in debt to get the 18 problem solved. We go in debt to 19 say we're going to go after those 20 65,000 deeply affordable housing 21 units and we're going to build them over the next 10 years along with the 11,000 that we're going to lose, and we're going to spend the money to do it. It may take billion, it may take 7 billion, but I'd rather us go in debt and actually solve the problem than to go in debt and still five years from now we're looking around and the problem is still here. (Applause.)
So we can do this. And the only way you do that is not by market-driven stuff. It's got to be straight up public or social housing, maybe public-private partnership in some way. But we have to say that we're going to build it. We're going to make sure it stays affordable and we're going to build it because we are a city that believes in brotherly love and sisterly affection and we're going to take care of our people. Thank you so much. (Applause.)
Mr. Bey, would you please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Yes, sir. Thank you very much. My name is Dawud Bey and I want to state for the record that I'm not the typical Black guy that's just here to represent the city or whatever the case may be. I worked my ass off to get to where I'm at, bottom line.
Excuse me, sir. Just for the record, we do decorum professionally in this building --
Oh, I'm sorry. But anyway, I did want to make that statement though because I heard my name mentioned earlier --
I think my colleague is rubbing off on you, so got to make sure --
-- as if I was this typical Black guy. I mean, I'm here, you know, because I was a participant in the minority developer program and it was 11 Black and Brown members a part of 12 that cohort that we did, but I was 13 the first one to respond. 14 You know, I worked my 15 behind off. Been doing 16 construction and development for over 20, 30 years so my track record spoke for itself and that's what gave me the qualifications. So there ain't no hookups here when it comes to Dawud Bey. I went back to school, went back to Temple University and took up construction management classes. So I'm here based on my qualifications and my hard work. I just wanted to put that out there first. Can I get a round of applause, y'all? (Applause.)
Thank you. You know what I mean, for the people, right. All right. Okay. Good morning. Well, good afternoon. I had my speech ready for this morning, but good afternoon. I want to first thank Councilman President Kenyatta Johnson and Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier for giving me the opportunity to speak today and the rest of the Councilmembers here. My name is Dawud Bey, and I'm the founder and president of Fine Print Construction and Fine Print Companies as well as the founder of the Dawud Bey Training Academy, a certified workforce development program that trains returning citizens and young people to become the next generation of skilled tradesmen and women in our city. Today I come before you with a sense of urgency and purpose because I have seen firsthand what the H.O.M.E. Opportunity Made Easy program represents. Just recently, I stood beside a first-time homebuyer who purchased one of our homes through this initiative. I watched the pride in his eyes, the relief in his smile and the tears and joy, the tears of joy from his parents as he held the keys in his hand. That moment was powerful and it was proof that this mission mattered. Programs like H.O.M.E. don't just build houses, they build hope. They give working families a foundation. They help stabilize communities that have been overlooked. They create pathways to generational wealth and pride of ownership. But as we move forward, I urge City Council -- sorry. As we move forward, I urge City Council not only to continue to support this program but to look deeply at every component of it. Let's make sure every piece of this program, every contractor, every developer, every financial partner, every training pipeline is equipped with the system tools and capacity to succeed. We all share the same goal, to make Philadelphia a city where everyone, no matter their background, has a fair chance to own a home and build a future. But we must also recognize that this work requires more than just ambition. It requires structure, accountability and investment in the people that work on the ground. Let's make sure that as we move boldly with Mayor Parker's vision, we are also building the support systems that make it sustainable. Because when the systems work, when the builders are prepared, the workforce is trained. And when the finances is accessible, entire neighborhoods can be transformed. So I stand here today in full support of the H.O.M.E. program, and I pledge that Fine Print Construction and the Dawud Bey, Jr. Training Academy will continue to do our part to help build not just homes but a stronger, more equitable Philadelphia for generations to come. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Mr. Pitts, pleasure to have you here today. Please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.
My name is Shawmarr Pitts and I'm a lifelong South Philadelphia resident and I am the Co-managing Director of Philly Thrive, an environmental justice organization and I advocate for my community. And today, a long day, this was a long day, right. A lot of back and forth and testimony and stuff like that, right. But just the whole time while I'm here what it does is it just makes me remember all of the people in the community and how all of these things are relevant to my community. And my community being a poor community, it does something to my heart when I'm here, you know, in City Council. And we speak about these things because my community is hurting right now, when it comes to housing, it's really tough and it's really tough just all around the board in my community. And there's a lot of development in my community and I see a lot of opportunity going right by because we're left behind, because in this development it's not of our culture to just involve my community in that development. It's like we're shut out from that development. And so, just this past week, you know, the Councilman, the Council President was in my neighborhood doing a food giveaway, right, because of SNAP benefits being cut from people in my neighborhood, right. And we saw that line going all the way around the corner, all the way around the corner. And as we sit here today when we talk about the prioritizing of this H.O.M.E. initiative, these are the people that's going to be affected if we don't do it right. These are the people that's going to keep on suffering if we don't prioritize them right now, because we haven't prioritized them before when the other developments was going on and we speak about it and we speak about it and we speak about it. They keep getting pushed back. They keep getting pushed back. And so, right now we see it. It is obvious to all of us here that they're not going to be prioritized as the way it stands right now in this plan. Because in my community, guess what, there are also people who are on that other line that's cut out. They go to work every day. They make $45,000 a year and they can't afford to do the home improvements on their roofs and on their basement and the foundations is messed up because the developers is pounding the ground, pounding the ground and now their house it's a crack in their basement and they don't know where to turn and they call me. They gonna call me. Yo, come around here, I want to show you something, right. So now, it's like all of that's in play so we have to get it right. We just had one of the experts. I'm glad he was here, right, from University of Penn. And he got to come back because we need to talk some more. How we going to get this stuff right, because we got to get it right. We got to get it right so we can stop that suffering. We don't want our people to keep suffering. And if we don't, the housing crisis is no 5 joke, man. It's no joke. It's people living in the park around the corner from me. They live in the park and they from the neighborhood, grew up there and they don't want to leave. Yeah, my family moved to Upper Darby, they moved to Yeadon and then they moved -- but this is home that's not home to them and it messes with them mentally and now, they live in the park, they live in the park. We got to get it right. We got to get it right so we can't pass the resolution as it stands. We just can't do that. We got to fix it first, you know what I mean. We got to fix this resolution so that it prioritizes the people who are always marginalized, because I'm there with them every day. I'm there with them every day and they do enough suffering. They don't need to suffer anymore. And thank you for hearing me out and it's been a long day so I'm giving everybody's day back.
Thank you. And so, because we are at the hour of our time and we know there's other individuals who did come down to participate, however, we do have a hearing that we actually pushed back the Rules hearing, so we want to ask for other individuals who do want to come down and testify, to be patient with us. We will recess this public hearing and public meeting of the Committee of the Whole to reconsider Resolution No. 25 -- not reconsider, but consider Resolution No. 250955, we will stand in recess until November 17th at 10:00 a.m. in City Hall, Room 400. Thank you, members. (Committee of the Whole adjourned at 3:05 p.m.) - - - C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL