The Philadelphia Housing Authority has purchased another four apartment buildings, adding to a growing list of properties the city acquired from private owners over the last year.
PHA has sought to expand the city's inventory of affordable homes by purchasing privately-owned buildings — often below market value — instead of constructing new units. Its Opening Doors initiative is viewed as a major piece of Mayor Cherelle Parker's $2 billion plan to create or preserve 30,000 housing units in the coming years.
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"As I've said before, addressing the affordable housing crisis requires PHA to take bold and innovative actions," Kelvin Jeremiah, the housing authority's CEO, said in a statement Wednesday. "The new acquisitions further that objective."
PHA recently acquired 95 units at the four properties below:
•The Wister Court Apartments in the Belfield neighborhood of North Philly. The buildings at 545 and 549 Wister St., near La Salle University, have 49 units that range from 2 bedrooms to 6 bedrooms. The purchase price was $13.1 million.
• The Grove Apartments in Grays Ferry. The building at 1312-16 Grove St. includes five units that are 2- and 3-bedroom apartments. PHA bought the property for $1.2 million.
•The Harmony apartments in Grays Ferry. The buildings at 1328, 1336, 1342 and 1350 S. Harmony St. include 19 units with a mix of 2- and 3-bedroom apartments. The purchase price was $4.8 million.
•Three properties along South 47th Street, near Woodland Avenue, and an apartment building at 4619 Woodland Ave. in the city's Southwest Schuylkill neighborhood. The properties have a combined 22 units that range from studios to 6-bedroom apartments. The purchase price was $7.65 million.
Jeremiah said the properties were chosen to offer a wide range of public housing options for individuals and families.
In March, Jeremiah said PHA is taking an aggressive approach to acquire about 2,000 units in neighborhoods throughout the city. The four newly acquired properties bring PHA's total to 1,410 units. Past acquisitions include the Dane apartment tower in West Philly's Wynnfield neighborhood, two former student housing properties in University City, the Somerset Station apartments in Port Richmond and the Greene Manor Apartments in Mount Airy.
At the properties it acquires, PHA plans to have a mix of about 60% affordable units and 40% market rate units.
In most cases, building owners have initiated conversations with PHA about selling their properties, Jeremiah said. Many have looked for ways to offload mortgage obligations in an economic climate with high interest rates and lingering inflation. PHA has targeted Class A residential properties that have high vacancy rates, including several that are only 40-60% occupied.
The shift to buying properties is a departure from PHA's decades-long track record of constructing new homes, which have cost about $550,000 per unit for more recent projects. At the properties acquired through the Opening Doors initiative, prices have ranged between $130,000 and $260,000 per unit. The vast majority of PHA's funding comes from the federal government, Jerermiah said, and paying less for high-quality homes that are move-in ready has the added benefit of getting people off the agency's waitlist.
The strategy also gives PHA flexibility to scatter affordable units across neighborhoods where many Philadelphia residents have lacked options. Creating more mixed-income neighborhoods is part of Parker's broader housing agenda.
Parker praised PHA's plan Wednesday as a "perfect accompaniment" to her H.O.M.E. initiative, which will invest in a variety of approaches to bolster the city's home supply. Among other plans, the Parker administration will make more city-owned vacant land available to developers — with fewer hurdles — and boost funds to extend contracts at apartment buildings where residents receive Low Income Housing Tax Credits.
