Great Expectations

We'll only get inclusionary housing passed (where a percent of new housing built is reserved for lower income or seniors/disabled) if the housing industry crafts the bill.

That's how NYC got their % affordable legislation passed.

Philly has to have a centrist, bipartisan approach to move forward instead of a pure socialist view. The government can't afford Philly's social contract.

But the market is not heartless. But it can't be a bill written by, forgive me, the fellow from OHCD with the dirty crocheted rasta beret that contains 6 feet of dreads like a multi-colored sausage. It can't be the welfare mom turned activist from the housing group that wants cradle to grave subsidy.

It has to be the chamber of commerce and the builders who can agree to a certain percent of loss of profit in exchange for needed considerations.

For example, if the city conveys a lot to a builder who uses a percent of condos as affordable for say, 15 years, that allows the builder to have clear limits and incentives.

There were a lot of buildings that had 15 year affordable housing clauses, and they recently expired, such as the Scottish Rite House.

A good plan would be to have a time limit if a rental property, a range of percent affordable for rents or price realizing that it is realistically going to be in the single digits, in exchange for land held by the city or the RDA. The RDA has to be prohibited for holding a property for more than 4 years, period, no exceptions.

Any property conveyed by the RDA, whether the take back time limit of say 4 years was explicitly written or not in the redev agreement, has to be taken back for nonperformance, and that property used to incentivize the private market builder who agrees to inclusionary housing.

That way the private market builds it, sells, markets, maintains, no fed grants or nonprofit loans, or pay to play nonprofit low income housing builders have to build all the affordable housing stock in the city.

The city doesn't have to do all this when the private market will do it for a carrot.

The city can't BE the market. The city just has to get out of the way of the market and make incentives for what it needs.

No wage tax zones -- don't need to reduce all wage taxes, just in areas where business has more risk, and more costs.

No BPT zones -- can be on a struggling traditionally commercial corridor for existing and new business.

Property tax rebates are a good idea for new permitted construction. People are crying because they did renovation without permits, so they can't qualify, let's not forget. It's not the downtrodden that are so up in arms on prop tax rebates that brought life back to town.

Nutter and Council have to remind residents who complain (and this takes intelligence to do) that they are having property tax increases that those taxes will not be wasted due to new campaign finance and ethics reform, and that their property taxes will still be below Chester Co.'s Delco's, NJ, etc.

A property tax comparison calculator will offset much of this criticism. People can punch in to see how their property tax bill is STILL less than half of their adjacent county and further out neighbors.

Pols have to remind people that schools are bad because of the too-cheap property taxes. I'd rather invest in kids than insure that my neighbors have an asset for their kids to fight over and let go to wrack and ruin.

Instead of trying to assure that everyone have property in perpetuity, why not make illegal the $1 non arms length transfer (from relative to relative)?

It's widely abused by people posing as relatives who are just buyers. It keeps the property taxes in perpetual 1970s status.

This is so abused that it has screwed up market valuation in Philly to a meaningless assessment so much so the whole system needs the full market value overhaul.

If the city just required property taxes to be lightly but frequently updated, the tax base would be sufficient for our school system.

That's what people have to get through their heads, these lifers.

Lots of lifer owners are in zip codes where more than half of ALL owners OWE years and years of property taxes, and that was when taxes were CHEAP.

When is the city and the well meaning journalist going to stop costing school kids in order to avoid a few nasty grams from people who can pay but don't?

True exchange at community meeting on property taxes and FMV by myself and a nonsenior long term resident:

Oldtimer: I can't afford to live here and pay full market value caused by these new people coming in.

Newbie me: But didn't you renovate your house just like I did?

Oldtimer: What if I did? I can't get an abatement.

Newbie me: But your house has the same value as mine, but pays less in assessed property taxes because it's assessed so long ago from not having recent permits.

Oldtimer: You got a partial abatement (of property taxes) on my back.

Newbie me: But you could partially abate your renovations also. And even if you don't your property tax assessment is so out of date that your taxes are lower than mine with my partial abatement. So apply for abatement on your renovations.

Oldtimer: The city won't let me.

Newbie me: Because you didn't pull permits? Well, just note that any further renovation you can abate so long as you get permits for it.

Oldtimer: Hmph!

This long term resident outfoxed himself by scooting the system. No one on my block doesn't live in a renovated house. Everyone lives in a house with some renovation.

But only some of us have tax abatements, because either us or the builder pulled permits.

These guys get cheap property taxes by avoiding assessment triggering permits. The city almost never fines them and there's no way to get the BRT to reassess right now. See the Fumo mansion for an example of how reassessment on real market value is something the city won't do.

Don't get so suckered in by the sob story on "increasing property taxes."

There's tons of folks who are going to get corrections because the full market value will take into consideration the renovations they did years ago that were never figured into their taxes all along every year.

It's thanks to Street, who would rather borrow and beg, apparently, than have a self-sustaining local tax base that kids can use to be self-sustaining citizens.

We can't afford to pretend that the city can have double-digit property tax nonpayment.

Owners in most of the city live in zip codes where the tax debt to the city is years and years old, and where the debt is double digit, if not close to HALF of all owners.

While people feel (emphasize feel) that this solves homelessness, it really just prevents the economy from building enough houses to drive prices down.

Look at the rate of debt to the city:

http://www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/delinqbyzip/index_html?skey=pcent&rkey=pcent

What zip code can have so much debt for so long if it wasn't in Philly?

What county or city does this?

If people can't pay property taxes, why is renting out of the question? In SWCC, most of the landlords are great neighbors, with great tenants.

Why not rely on the law to create good tenants without trying to sell the myth that low income owners that can't afford the taxes can also somehow afford upkeep, maintenance, and basic fire safety items?

If you really want to help people, help them face that living in a 140 year old row house is not their only ownership option.

And the price-sticking policy of never collecting property taxes is causing the city to have limited resources.

We have 52 zipcodes in Philly. Only 8 of them have only a single digit percentage of owners who owe the city property taxes.

Senior owners can get a property tax freeze. What has the neighborhood up in arms is that grandmom can't pass on that tax freeze to the heirs.

The heirs have to live in 2007, not 1987.

Newcomers are not "gentry." We're just people who didn't freeze in place while we counted on inheriting a house and never having to pay rent or a mortgage.

Philly residents have to accept that city costs are in 2007 dollars, and property taxes have to be in 2007 dollars in all but the most exceptional, vetting, checked circumstances.

People can commute from less expensive ares to work here. Trying to have the city government build affordable housing is not a primary role of local government.

Don't we have to first concentrate on murders, schools, and clean streets? Those ARE the first concerns of local government.

Why are all the assisted living and active living places in the suburbs? The city should be using precious dollars on this need, in partnership with private providers.

Instead, the city sits on PAID and RDA property for decades, doing nothing with it, and allowing it to kill equity all around the property it holds that pays no taxes.

Also, PHA -- what gives with their scattered site housing? It's wrecked almost everywhere you turn, and brings down values while paying nothing for its own footprint.

That seems like a more pressing issue than so-called gentrification, which is just normal renovation in most places. For some reason here it's anathama?

Jeremy Nowak of the Reinvestment Fund, a great guy, is also victim to the idea that "gentrification" is just killing neighborhoods.

Meanwhile, the RF is getting taken by hoodlum builders who get RF loans they default on.

Isn't that part of the problem with the Royal Theater? Didn't the RF co-sign a loan that it the nonprofit builder defaulted on, so the RF has to foreclose on the property?

These are the shenanigans that kill value and further development of the community.

What gives with these people complaining about there finally being development, yet all these MLK lots are still dormant, untouched by Kenny Gamble the magnificent? What about all that other stuff west of Broad that was taken under eminent domain, only to be held in limbo as vacant lots while the rest of the community is coming up on its own?

Is gentrification a problem, or is the problem that there are too many city controlled or city held properties that have no timeline for completion or any means for the affected neighbors to get compensation for loss of their own equity, or no way to get the city to build by or to sell by a fixed date?

That goes for PHA, the RDA, PCID, PAID, and the whole alphabet soup of authorities from the great depression set up to work contribute to the tax base, not to decimate it.

Even if collecting property taxes that are a certain time or amount overdue results in their sale from foreclosure to landlords, that's not going to mean that the house will never get to the ownership market again.

We bought our house from a landlord and renovated it. If the house was still not paying taxes because the city is slow, then it would certainly be squatted in.

Let's look at the alternative to maintenance and renovation -- squalor.

With 60,000 vacant properties resulting from decades of job and population loss and related disinvestment, Philadelphia leads the country in abandoned properties. More recently, the local real estate market has strengthened significantly with an increasing number of neighborhoods changing fast. In fact, citywide property values have doubled over the past six years.

While property value appreciation is an indication of a strong real estate market and can help Philadelphia’s large number of low-income homeowners build wealth (which historically they have not been able to do), it also impacts their ability to pay increasing tax and insurance bills and to remain in improving communities. Moreover, tens of thousands of families still do not have quality affordable homes. The demand for affordable homes is increasing, the waiting list for home repairs expanding, and the number of people without homes is rising as well.

Appropriate investment—which addresses community and resident needs, spurs community revitalization, leverages resources, and improves neighborhood quality of life—will also make neighborhoods more attractive to a broader socioeconomic range of existing and potential residents that can choose where they live. To ensure economically diverse communities can be established and sustained over time, it is imperative that Philadelphia develop and implement a range of strategies.

The Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations (PACDC) has set the stage by creating the “Campaign for Vibrant and Safe Neighborhoods”, a three-fold agenda containing recommendations in the following areas:

1) Preserve and Increase Livable Homes: Expand public and private investment in the construction, rehab and repair of homes to create a range of housing options for all residents that promote diverse, healthy and safe neighborhoods.

2) Strengthen Neighborhood Economies: Invest in and improve commercial corridors and small businesses, and promote sustainable development.

3) Cut the Red Tape: Change public processes and procedures to make residential and commercial development and improvements easier and more efficient.

The Campaign is supported by a broad-based citywide coalition of over 40 non-partisan community, housing, land use, advocacy, and economic development organizations working to educate public officials about key housing and community development issues facing the city. To learn more about the Campaign, visit the PACDC web site at www.pacdc.org

In addition, the creation of the Philadelphia Housing Trust Fund two years ago has expanded local resources to address our growing housing needs, allowing a range of needs to be addressed while spurring sustainable neighborhood revitalization. For more information, you can download the report the PACDC has just released on the accomplishments of the Trust Fund at www.pacdc.org.