Thank you for being here. I know you're still getting up to speed, but we also know that you have a really long history with the Land Bank and that you know a lot about this topic. So please summarize your testimony. I'm going to ask that both of you take three minutes to summarize so that we can get to questions and discussion.
Roger that. Good afternoon, Chairperson Gauthier and Lozada and members of the Joint Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and The Homeless and Public Property and Public Works. My name is Jessie Lawrence and I currently serve as the new Director of Planning and Development for the City of Philadelphia. I'm here today to testify on Resolution No. 240288. Before I get into my testimony, I want to thank and acknowledge everyone and thank the Parker Administration, thank City Council, thank the Joint Committees for their regard and their attention toward housing needs, stabilizing communities and efforts to review and improve the systems that provide such. Prior to holding my current position, I served as the Parker Administration's Associate Deputy Mayor for Planning and Strategic Initiatives. And prior to that, the Director of Real Estate for the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation. My testimony comes from my hands-on experience as one who has worked directly with the current Administration as well as a former staffer working in the queue of the Philadelphia Land Bank. As you know, the Park Administration envisions a Philadelphia that is safer, cleaner and greener with economic opportunity for all. Housing has been, remains and always will be essential to that economic opportunity and generational wealth- building. One of the many but crucial goals of the Administration is a forthcoming housing plan that aims to increase access to housing for both renters and homeowners, ensuring vibrant and equitable communities all while helping build intergenerational wealth. Working- and middle-class neighborhoods are an important piece of that population of this city and our communities will thrive best where affordable housing opportunities can be accessed. In pledging to enable increased housing production and preservation that will support homeowners and renters at all income levels, the Administration is charged with the Department of Planning and Development with the responsibility of leading four housing initiatives. These include the creation of one front door, creating a clear definition of affordable luxury, developing a Housing Appraisal Task Force and, more importantly, here the comprehensive review of the Land Bank to enable a much swifter return of vacant and tax delinquent properties to productive use. To date this review has been formalized through many meetings, conversations and discussions between several public and private stakeholders that are part of the disposition process. The ensuing announcement of new Land Bank Board members soon after that review started was a major step taken by the Administration as part of the Land Bank's top-to-bottom review. Given the interdepartmental cooperation needed for the Land Bank to thrive, the Administration is committed to taking steps deemed necessary for the Land Bank's success. The Department of Planning and Development remains at the center of leading this effort. But fundamentally, the review and streamlining process must remain a collaborative partnership amongst the Administration, City Council, the nonprofit sector and the developer community. This approach will be most vital to any uniform strategic plan that this process yields. I truly thank you for the opportunity to testify on Resolution No. 240288, and I'm happy to help answer any questions that you may have.
Thank you so much for your testimony. Good afternoon, Angel.
Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Thank you. My name is Angel Rodriguez. I am the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Land Bank. Good morning, Chairpersons Gauthier and Lozada and members of the Joint Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and Homeless and Public Property and Public Works. I'm here to testify on Resolution No. 240288. The Land Bank and the Administration recognize and acknowledge the impact of having an effective and high-performing Land Bank. The Administration in its first days launched a formal review of the Land Bank to identify and develop policies and processes that will expedite the return of vacant and tax-delinquent properties to productive use. To date preliminary meetings have been had with CDCs, minority developers, community garden advocates, related agencies such as L&I, Zoning Board, Water Department and Planning and Development. From these preliminary meetings, the Administration has appointed and Council announcing new appointments to the Land Bank Board. Also, new legislation Bill No. 4 240187 was introduced in City Council on behalf of the Administration related to the Land Bank's priority bid. Currently the Land Bank and the Sheriff's Department are working out operational issues for the Land Bank to return to exercise its priority bid at sheriff's sales. Also, the Land Bank has developed a curriculum for CDC boot camp. And we held our first boot camp for CDCs in July of '24. The Administration is also working on formal changes to the Land Bank disposition policy. The Department of Planning and Development will be reissuing requests for qualifications for drafting a uniform strategic plan and hosting public hearings. The Land Bank has enhanced its existing efforts to engage more minority developers to the Minority Developer Program partnering with Urban Developers association and Black Squirrel, Philly Rise and the Collective. To date 235 units of affordable housing have received Land Bank Board and City Council approval with an additional 126 units moving through the approval process. That is a total of 364 units of affordable housing being developed under the Parker Administration by certified MBE and WBE firms. Year over year the Land Bank has made progress disposing of parcels for development of affordable housing despite experiencing operational challenges through the four years of the global COVID-19 pandemic. From 2017 to 2024, the Land Bank has approved the development of 826 units of housing. 748 are for affordable housing. 268 units were 50 percent of AMI and below. 309 for 80 percent, and 171 at or below 120 percent of AMI. In 2023 and '24 the Land Bank undertook working on the Turn the Key program. To date we have approved the development of 901 affordable housing units across seven Council Districts as part of the Turn the Key program. 460 units or 64 percent of housing units are either complete or under construction. Currently we've sold 123 units. We have 29 homes under agreement and 52 are sold to City of Philadelphia employees. Just to give a better idea of what we're talking about, Turn the Key homes before grants and buy-downs, they're typically sold for 280. At the closing table homebuyers are looking at $183,000 with an interest rate of about 6.6 percent. The typical mortgage is about 1361 --
Sure. Just to give a better understanding, a typical homebuyer's annual income of $45,000, 59 percent of Area Median Income and they all receive at least six hours of housing counseling. Thank you.
Thank you so much for your testimony. I want to start with a few questions for Jessie. Since Planning and Development is a City umbrella agency for the Land Bank, it is referenced in the code multiple times as the department that is required to create both strategic plans and performance reports on its behalf. These documents with set goals evaluate success and provide a level of transparency into Land Bank operations that frankly hasn't been there since it was created. In practice DPD has produced neither a strategic plan nor the annual performance reports. Will you commit today to hiring a strategic planning consultant and submitting your first performance report to Council by the end of the year?
That is the absolute intent of this Administration to commission a strategic planning process and our target is to provide a report by the end of the year. (Applause.)
All right. That's really good. Thank you for that. I know that Mayor Parker has cared about the effective administration of sheriff's sale since her time on City Council. It seems like there are two things holding the Land Bank back on this front currently. One is the multi- agency MOU that requires the Land Bank to pay up to the OPA-assessed value for any property it wants to acquire. The other is compelling the Sheriff's Office to allow the Land Bank to exercise its new priority bid process, which was approved by Council in June and still hasn't been put to use yet. To your knowledge, has Mayor Parker considered getting involved in either of these negotiations to change the Land Bank from a worst practice to a best practice when it comes to acquiring new properties?
So what we've learned in even initiating that process is that there are some intricacies that the Land Bank is much more familiar with. There is a series of processes that historically have been in place for in-person sales but might not necessarily be conducive to the new method of going about these. But I will defer to my colleague to my left to speak to the status of those discussions at this point.
I think my question for you was given the length of these discussions, to your knowledge is the Mayor considering getting involved to negotiate on either of these items so that we can move things faster and acquire the properties that we need?
I can't confirm the Mayor's position on that at this moment.
Certainly. To date because of the new legislation that allows the Land Bank to exercise its priority bid with new standards for notification, that issue has been taken off the table. Currently right now what we're looking at is the agreement that the Sheriff's Department has with bid for assets. There are a series of fees and schedules that are attached to that. Our issue is to, you know, have it streamlined so that the Land Bank is exercising it as an agent on the City's behalf to acquire properties. Right now what we're doing is -- and just as a footnote, City Law is involved with this and so is the Revenue Department in these negotiations. So at this point we're fine-tuning what that agreement is and how the Land Bank would utilize that new platform to start acquiring properties. In the interim we have been working with all the servicers, the City Linebarger and GRB to put all properties on hold that have been identified for acquisition, so we're trying to push that out so that we don't lose those properties.
Can you expound on what has been taken off the table? I'm sorry. I didn't understand that.
Well, there's one issue of the priority bid, does the Land Bank have a priority bid based on the Supreme Court decision. So with working with the City Law Department we've come up with a solution. That bill 24 was introduced and passed, so therefore in that Supreme Court decision it was about notice. So at this point under the new legislation that was passed, additional notice is made to property owners of the property going to sheriff's sale but also that the Land Bank has determined to exercise its priority bid affording them an opportunity to notice the Land Bank and then have that pulled from that priority bid.
In your estimation what is the timeline in which we will be able to use our priority bid again at sheriff's sales to acquire properties?
Thank you. I would say if we are not able to figure this out by the end of the year on a policy that we've had since June, we should consider bringing in a third party to see what the problem is. Back to Jessie. You, yourself, have seen the inside of the Land Bank up close and personal for many years. What are a couple of things that you would change and what would you start with first?
Well, I think that today was helpful in seeing that folks do understand how collaborative and how much of an interdependency there is amongst the agencies. What I have seen and what I still can see is that there is a need to look at how we do communicate steps to different constituencies.
I understand that what I've certainly been a part of and still do understand to be the key factors that the Land Bank operates within a certain series or bound of policies and regulations, and that might not always match how people receive information nor how people expect to do business with the Land Bank. But this conversation is particularly important because it highlights what the reception is on the outside, whether it's the nonprofit community, development community, constituents that are just looking for side yards. I think one of the things that the Administration is taking the lead on in its top-to-bottom review in addition to repositioning the Board, we are looking at what that front page of the Land Bank looks like, understanding that the website it is important, how people understand what is available and what is not is important. So I think that we're clear on the fact that the Land Bank itself needs to live in something separately online than it does under PHDC's page, and that is a process that we have begun to start collaboratively with not just the IT folks here in the City of Philadelphia but to the Land Bank staff themselves.
Thank you so much. Vice-Chair -- I mean, Co-Chair Lozada.
I want to move my attention a little bit to the garden space conversation only because we heard earlier or you heard earlier that my family experienced some challenges. And, Angel, you and I have had conversations about this garden space and my frustrations around it. We heard earlier that people have been applying for green spaces that they've been taking care of for many, many years. And we've seen that the most that we can dispose of land related to gardens is maybe three, four a year. Can you tell me what is the hold up? Why can't we move green spaces that we know people have been taking care of for many, many years often times investing money out of their own pockets to make sure that their neighborhoods, that their communities, that their blocks are safer? Why can't we dispose of that land much faster and how, what do we need to do to be able to change whatever is holding that up in the process?
So I think what I'll do is lead off with quoting Minority Leader Brooks. We can't lump in green space and open space. There's the side yard issue and then there's the garden issue. And underneath all of that is the legislation that was changed in 2020. So you have gardens on a larger scale where you have nonprofits such as NGT looking for contiguous gardens or large garden spaces and then you have individuals who are looking for gardens or open space that's across the street, right, and they're individuals, they're not nonprofits. In the legislation it states that a nonprofit is only qualified to get a garden. That's --
I'm talking about garden space for a resident, not a nonprofit. I want to talk about a resident --
-- that has applied for a garden space, because I came in 2008. I still have people back from when I was Chief of Staff who applied for a garden space, had an urban gardening agreement, now don't have an agreement. We're in VPRC. Now, we're not in VPRC. Didn't know that they were in VPRC, didn't know that they had to reapply. And now, they reapplied and still don't have land. So I'm trying to figure out what is the hold-up in the process.
Break down the techni -- don't give it to me in technical terms. I want to know the why.
The issue is the legislation states if you try to acquire a garden, you have to be a nonprofit. Individuals are not nonprofits. So you have to be a nonprofit to apply for a garden. We no longer do individual garden agreements because of the insurance issues. We are not self-insured like the City and there are limited number of insurance brokers. Over the past four years, the number of brokers that were or I should say insurance companies that will deal with a Land Bank or PRA that have or -- well, the City is self-insured -- there are limited numbers of insurance companies that will insure us year-over-year because we have vacant surplus property at such a level so they're looking at it from a risk management position. They will not -- we would not be allowed to do individual garden agreements, right. That was the tool that VPRC utilized and that was initially prior to a change in our insurance coverage, so that option was gone. So side yards, which is another way for people to acquire open space, requires adjacency. It means that a homeowner has to own and occupy that property and that parcel has to be adjacent to their house either on the side or the rear. So if you're not adjacent, then you don't qualify. So that's a matter of the legislation and the Code. So if you live across the street, you don't qualify to get it. You can become a nonprofit, but that's a high bar for an individual as what you're talking about. So the way it's written there's no space for that person to acquire that property.
So why is it taking so long for -- what was the young woman, the lady who testified here that manages a bunch of different garden spaces for residents. Why has it taken them so long, they're a nonprofit, they're trying to help folks manage their space and they're still in the same bottleneck that everybody else is in?
So several years ago NGT was attempting to acquire three large gardens. There was an issue where in the previous Administration two things happened. 2020 legislation changed, right. It was conditional language. It was a declaration restrictive covenant or you could put a 30-year mortgage on it. There was an executive order -- oh, really. I've never heard that before. Okay. Can everybody hear me now? (Yes.)
Previous Administration issued an executive order which required us to be able to revest the properties. In talking to -- and let me just put a a fundamental piece. The Land Bank, because of the pandemic we have not acquired any new land through the sheriff's sale, right. So the vast majority of how we acquire our land is through deed transfers. So executive orders directed to the Department of Public Property and all other landholding agencies was issued. It stated that we had to do other safeguards to be able to revest the property should there be a default. In talking to the multiple legal departments, it was determined that a mortgage had to be attached, and that's where we're at. So then the mortgage came up and then there was an issue where the garden group was advocating that they did not want the mortgage and that's where the negotiations have been happening. Recently at I believe the last PRA Board meeting those properties have finally gone through. And Land Bank has followed suit. We have uniform documentation now across the board so we hope to be moving those out, new agreements. But part of the issue in the chain of title is that those terms have to be through the chain of title. So each agency has to -- whoever the disposing agency is has to comply with that and make sure that we meet those pieces. So really what I'm doing is negotiating between three fundamentally different departments to make sure that we all have the same documentation.
Thank you. I have a question for Jessie and then a few more for you, Angel. Jessie, your testimony references a housing plan that is forthcoming from the Administration. When can we expect to see that and what role does the Land Bank play in achieving those goals?
So right now we're expecting something early next year at this point to roll out. The Land Bank is crucial to that because the Land Bank represents -- well, I mean its existence represents the public ownership of land here in Philadelphia. The inventory itself that is publicly owned isn't the end-all be-all for where units will be built in that plan. But it's crucial to -- the Land Bank's crucial to that particular effort because it will -- the betterment of the Land Bank is crucial to that because that process of getting land out of publicly- owned inventory into the private sector is crucial to fulfill that 30,000 unit effort. So for the sake of, you know, we're trying to target multiple different affordability bans, low-income, middle-income working, workforce housing and even some transitional housing, supportive housing. We're looking at all opportunities, affordable homeownership, rental preservation. Again, the Land Bank being the conduit for publicly-owned land coming out of the public inventory, it needs to be better for that to be happening at a very expedient effort.
Thank you. This is for Angel. The PHDC website says that the Land Bank's mission is to return vacant and underutilized publicly-owned property to productive use and thereby to assist in revitalizing neighborhoods, creating socially and economically diverse communities and strengthening the City's tax base. Can you speak to the concrete ways that you're delivering on this mission? And how do you measure your success in the absence of a strategic plan?
Good question. I think in some ways we are fulfilling that mission. In some ways we are not. I think with the fundamental legislative changes that were in 2020 it's pretty much stipulated what we have to consider to dispose of land, so we end up being 50 percent compliance-oriented and then 50 percent we are advocating for disposition of land. So there are multiple hands in this and then negotiating trying to transfer properties into the Land Bank for disposition. So first, we have to get the person qualified and then move it through the approval process.
What metrics do you use to determine the success of the Land Bank and if you're delivering on the mission?
What we've relied on is extrapolating from the previous strategic plan. I will be the first to state that we do need a new plan.
There were housing categories and categories such as side yards, open space business expansion, housing, housing in different levels, 30 percent to 60 percent of AMI, 60 to 80 percent of AMI, 100 to 120 percent of AMI.
Thank you. The Parker Administration has been very clear that their goal for government is one that Philadelphians can see, touch and feel in terms of customer service. We've heard a lot of testimony today that speaks to the agency's struggles to offer responsive customer service, particularly related to long delays and response times. What does your data say about the average length of time it takes for a nonprofit or community- based application to get from the application submission to Board review?
It depends on the type of application we get from a nonprofit. If it is for low-income housing tax credit projects, the review is one such as -- we understand what you're trying to build, we understand where you're trying to build it, do we own the property, can we issue a reservation letter, but it is not one where we're going to transfer title, in which case there is no -- it's more of a project review. It's a conversation with the Council office and then as long as we're all on the same page, a reservation letter is released, that's relatively fast in which case obviously we're following a clock and a timeline set by the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency or Division of Housing Community Development for fundraising or the Federal Home Loan Bank system as how nonprofits receive their money. So we will issue those reservation letters. That's not really a full- throated disposition. I will tell you that typically that happens within two to three months of getting an application and then it's more conversations with that respective Council District office.
So are you saying that the average time for a nonprofit or community- based application is two to three months from application submission to Board review?
For a low-income housing tax credit project. If the application -- and I think this is something that was mentioned in the previous disposition where we're looking for deeper affordability where they're not using tax credits, but the nonprofit is -- I mean, let me just put this out there. There's a fundamental problem for nonprofits to compete with commercial financing or the timing of certain properties or developments if you're talking about homeownership projects, endfill homeownership projects. There are not a lot of options for nonprofits to bridge that gap on the equity side. So you need equity and then you need debt financing. So typically because the Land Bank does not provide subsidy most of those applications are reviewed fairly quickly, but they are unfortunately rejected because there are not a lot of options for nonprofits to fill that gap.
What do you think about some of the testimony that you've heard today about how long it's taking people's applications to move through the process?
I think in some cases I agree with others. I think there are a little bit more details that are not offered in their testimony.
Well, I think there are certain issues where there was one about acquiring a property. Again, there's a legislative piece about adjacency as I mentioned before. It's required that you have to own and occupy your property so you have to consolidate lots. So if you acquired on the VPRC process, which I will say we don't have it anymore because there was such a low threshold of compliance and oversight. I think we should all pay attention to the article that just was published on Monday about somebody who received VPRC properties where they flipped that property. Now, it's a little bit more difficult. The disposition policy requires adjacency so you also have to be owner-occupied, so you have to consolidate that lot and then you would be considered to do that. That again is a high threshold. It's a lot of effort for a single family homeowner to do. So some of those things are a little bit of details. I think also that we get confused with PRA's process. So PRA is subject to urban renewal law and it's a lot more involved to get properties out. But again, under the last Administration there was one, you know, the marketing was this one front door, so everything lands at the Land Bank.
I just want to follow up on a question that the Councilmember just asked. We've heard today about a lot of the challenges that people, developers and community residents, gardeners all experience when dealing with the Land Bank and trying to get disposition of land and you've done this for many years. If you were to be able to share or would you be able to share three very quick recommendations that you believe would change the process and make it more effective, more transparent and fairer to be able to get this land into the hands of folks that have been taking care of it or that have applied for it, what would those three things be very quickly?
Well, I mean I think that one of the first things we need to look at is this disposition policy. I want to be very clear again that the Land Bank does business within a certain box of allowances. In my time at the Land Bank I spent a lot of time explaining to people how that was a legislated process. I couldn't redo the order of operations that the disposition policy spelled out --
I couldn't redo the legislative process that's associated with creating the disposition policy. The disposition policy is legislated. So there's just a bound that we just could not change. And I don't think that -- I think we heard it earlier that there's an opportunity to look at that policy, how we can make that more conducive to current market trends at this point. It was created in a time pre-COVID. You know, it was enacted, brought into law pre-COVID, but it was conceived of in years before that. So I think that we live in a different world right now. I think we recognized that in earlier comments. And I think it is an opportunity to look at that. With that said, as we're looking at the housing policies I think that we also need to look at ways that -- when it comes to the interdependency amongst departments there are certain steps that are spelled out. How we look at interagency transfers, that's another thing that I think is a key component to how expedient land comes out of the inventory. And then again, I spoke on it earlier I think our website needs to be updated. I really think that the Land Bank needs to be able to market itself as something that lives -- the entity itself lives separately from PHDC even though it's staffed by PHDC. The order of operations that create the Land Bank are different from PRA. It's not the same process, so folks come in with an understanding of something being one way or properties being available to a certain extent. I think that we need to be very upfront and very clear about what's in our inventory, what's available and what process is subject to and who exactly or where exactly the Land Bank falls into that process.
I think one of the most frustrating responses I get, and I get this often from talking to Angel and some of the staff there, is that it's always about the legislative -- it's always about the ordinance. It's the ordinance. You guys fix the ordinance and you're going to make this process better. When what we really should be talking about is our customer service to community residents. There needs to be a better process -- (Applause.)
There needs to be better communication. There needs to be a more transparent process. There needs to be better communication, better follow-up and, quite frankly, more support in order to be able to keep some of this land in the hands of or put this land in the hands of people that are going to create real affordable projects, number one, or be able to maintain some of these garden spaces that they've been taking care of. People just want a more fair process. People want the same process that you give to others who are closer to folks in Land Bank than they are, right. And so, let's start thinking about that.
There is a real problem here with how we communicate with everyday residents who are just trying to figure out how to protect the land that's beside them in order to keep their neighborhood safe when you compare it to others who have better access than the (inaudible) Eddies from the block and a private developer, right. And so, I think that people are just looking for a solution or a commitment from Land Bank on a more fair transparent process and in writing and just follow-up. That's all people are asking for.
Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. It's my first time in this capacity talking to you --
Right, exactly. Thank you, Jessie. I appreciate your willingness to hear our constructive feedback to hear the constructive feedback from folks who have been engaging with the Land Bank or attempting to engage with the Land Bank and to hear it in a way that there might be recommendations for a positive change. I oversaw two City agencies for 12 years and a transition plan report was not glowing when I got there. And so, there was a lot of change that had to be made and it's hard, but it's really important to hear the feedback because these are the real folks that we're working with on the ground. So appreciate that very much. I wanted to talk about a couple of things. I'm the Chair of the Tech Committee. And so, I've really been hearing everybody's suggestion of creating an online system similar to eCLIPSE similar to 311, something that would help track the process and wanting to know what your thoughts are on that?
Well, I mean I'll be brief. I think that we're embarking on that process and that conversation, like what I said earlier, it's an all-inclusive conversation. We know what we want to do, what we want to accomplish. We know that we need to be better on delivering information as far as steps in the process and also the availability of assets. But that conversation is, I promise you it'll be a comprehensive conversation. It will utilize the City's IT Department which has already began to think about or look at precedence from across the country about how other folks actually market out the Land Bank. But that process will be informed by all the things that we kind of have saw that worked and have not worked. This particular session is a crucial component to that conversation understanding that whatever we do and however we refine anything it needs to be all inclusive of any kind of stakeholder input. But we are going to utilize a very talented IT team that we have here to make sure that we deliver something that is reflective of our ability to do business in a way that's efficient.
Okay. And just to be clear about what you do now so, Angel, a question: Do you utilize a case management system internally now?
For home sales we do. We have several databases. And I think to your point that you were asking about on the technical side there's the front-facing user experience, so how does that work. I know that since the Land Bank was started the conversation was about how do you realtime track your application. So with a lot of people, and I'm assuming you do understand this, if you have multiple databases are they talking to one another.
Who are the users of those databases. We have one major database that several City agencies utilize, can we move that, change that database. Then we have a customer service database that deals with home buyers and developers. We also have one that was created internally for sheriff's sales, so where is this all going to reside. And then the conversation with OIT is where does it reside, behind what firewall.
And how will people do that and also how will we be also compliant with the open data requests that happen. So those are all issues that come in there. Right now I have four databases.
Okay. That's a lot, four databases. But I just want to ask a very specific question then. When I went to my City agencies, a very antiquated database and it took me nine years to get something newer, but what we could see even from the old one or the new one was the last action taken by staff. Are you able to see that in a way? And that's a question, but I also want to leave a comment with you, that one thing you might want to do is your own internal review. I heard a lot today about people saying they've been waiting for years, they never had any communication, they don't know the status of their application. You could see the touchpoints of are the staff calling people and saying it's been three months here's where you are, it's been six months here's where you are. Anything like that you could kind of do your own internal audit first to see where you're seeing maybe some changes that can be made now even before you get to the larger database.
Definitely. We know we have not done that internal audit so if that's the question.
Do you know if you keep that information? When was the last time -- when I had a staff person who called a complainant or respondent, they noted it. Do you track it?
Unfortunately it's not in the database, but we do track it, yes.
I would say that would be Step 1 because I think that's really helpful. And then the last thing I wanted to say for now is that I heard that you want to make the land disposition policies and processes good for all levels of income. You talked about low income, moderate income, working, however you want to categorize the income levels going forward. I would suggest that what I've learned through my career and my time here on Council already is that the large companies that do create affordable housing, meaning "affordable," the higher level affordable housing, they are likely going to do it anyway. They're making a profit on it. We're glad they're filling that lane. Somebody has to do that. I am so happy that they're doing that. But what the City has the possibility of doing is filling the void that nobody else is touching the lowest-income housing, making sure it's accessible housing for people with disabilities, making sure that we focus our Housing Trust Fund money, our Land Bank money. All the things to our lowest-income folks and taking care of them because I think the rest of it's going to be taken care of and everyone will be happy --
We wholeheartedly agree with you. Part of our, you know, as we're preparing a comprehensive housing plan, part of that involves us looking at where the barriers are and that type of thing. So we are looking at and assessing why it's so hard to produce those types of applications and not just to the Land Bank, but to the state level and federal level to be able to apply for those funding components. But I hear you loud and clear, welcome the feedback and would definitely consider it or am considering it going forward.
I wonder if some of the issues that we've been hearing about are a question of not enough staff. How many clerks, project managers and attorneys does the Land Bank have on staff and how does this compare to how many staff were processing vacant land applications pre-2020? I'm trying to see if the reason that things might not be moving so fast is because we cut a lot of staffing. Also, could you talk about the last time you've done a comprehensive review of how many staff we have and how many staff we need?
So I'll start with the last question first. We have been level funded since the creation of the Land Bank and the same staffing complement, so we have begun the new budget process and we are looking for that. If you're asking me what we need in terms of this upcoming budget, I need more attorneys, I need paralegals. Also, I need more money for property management, also external legal services and an updated website which is going to cost money. I think those are the big issues that we have. I've had the same number of clerks. All of these are bargain positions. And so, I have five clerks. I have five project managers. They're carrying about 30 projects per person. And I think my biggest concern really is on the legal side because our legal team is stretched and we end up doing a lot of work. Real estate disposition is a legal process and without that contract and without that deed transfer, everything gets held up. So I can issue a contract, but if I don't own the property yet I can't take you to settlement.
Real quick, are these in addition -- do you have vacancies right now or you need additional staff?
I have one vacancy for a project manager, one vacancy for a real estate director and that's really -- the new positions would be an additional attorney and paralegal.
Did you all come to Council to ask for more staffing resources in the last budget process? I don't remember having that conversation.
No, we did not. Part of the issue, and you have to understand the last four years from the pandemic, there's the allocation towards the Land Bank, right, and also what the volume is. So I fully agree. You know, I understand what the Councilwoman said about Turn the Key. Turn the Key ramped up in 2023 where you saw that spike. We started in 2022, so the staffing hasn't really, you know, there hasn't really been a need. And also through the pandemic there hasn't really been a need, and that's evidenced by the numbers in terms of everybody was dealing with operational issues on that set. Typically, and also I think prior to getting the surge of federal dollars, there was no 13 conversation about increasing the budget primarily. And just to clarify this, I want to be very clear, we typically get $3 million for operating funds. That's staff, health benefits and all that and legal fees and all that, and then we get 3.5 million in terms of acquisition, and that's to operate in the sheriff's sale. So if you've already been allocated 6.5 but you know you're not going to have a sheriff's sale, you just reallocate. So there hasn't been really a need to ask for more money on the operational side.
If those staffing needs are not in your testimony, can you get that information to Council?
We're in the process of putting together our new budget for 2026.
Thank you. Two last questions from me and then we'll see if there are any -- then we can move on to public comment. These questions are for Angel: Your written testimony says that the Administration is working on formal changes to the Land Bank's disposition policy. What are the changes being discussed and how will it be updating the policy document?
Well, I can't provide any specifics right now. But what I've gathered here is that there is a clear kind of -- there is a threshold review that has kind of been uniformly applied and it just might not be able to be met at certain levels. And I think that, one, looking at what a qualified application is for certain things is probably where we should start, but that is the extent that we've even thought about that. But it's a matter of just -- a lot of people when they apply for things my understanding is that they go for what makes sense and what makes sense isn't always compliant with the disposition policy. So it's trying to find where those disconnects present themselves. I do understand again funding, the need to represent the access to that is something else. Maybe there are ways we can think about how we look at that, but there are things that we've thought about on the front end. It would be more refined as we go forward though in our thinking.
What's your timeline and how will you involve various stakeholders in that process?
So I think that again this is all kind of in tandem and parallel with whatever housing plan we produce and we're looking at again how we can do overall policy reforms. So if that means that we need to figure out how to be able to -- where there might be possible ways to position folks to be able to qualify in ways that they have not been able to qualify in the past, that's an opportunity. But that's over the next few months or so as we work on policy reform and things when it comes to the forthcoming housing plan.
Thank you. My last question is for you, Angel, as the Executive Director of the Land Bank. With all that we've heard at the hearing today, what do you think is the answer to these problems and what do you think has to happen with the Land Bank for us to be able to do the variety of things that we need to do, not just Turn the Key, but more deeply affordable housing, garden dispositions, all the things that we need to have successful and thriving neighborhoods? How do we do multiple things instead of just one?
I think more importantly having a clear communication plan that is the Land Bank's communication plan and targeted education and communication about the process as it stands today. I think the other issue, I think we already have that formula to improve things. I think if you're talking about affordable housing, and we started that with the CDC boot camp. But when we started addressing how do we increase the number of MBE or Black and Brown developers in the city, we understood what those choke points were, where the weak spots were and we strategically went after that try to get all those negative spots taken care of. I think we need to do that when we approach looking at a deeper level of affordable housing. It's a different type of development, requires a different type of pro forma, different type of subsidy whereas what we're doing with Turn the Key requires no subsidy. It's all about leverage. We're discounting land and we're bringing in money from private capital markets so it's a leverage thing. We're just really maximizing the one asset we have at the Land Bank because we don't have money to give out. On the other hand if we're trying to do deeper affordability, that's a different piece depending on what different models and what you're looking at. So those are the two things I would focus on, right now is just really what's our marketing plan and getting out there and doing more communication and education, and then staffing and tracking.
Thank you to both of you for your time and your testimony. We look forward to continuing to work with you both on these issues. We look forward to a strategic plan by the end of the year and having our priority bid back in place by then as well, and just thank you. Is there anyone else here to testify on the resolution? (Applause.)
Angel, real quick before you leave, I saw you had a community event at the bottom of your testimony. Can you announce that?
So this Saturday we are having a housing fair. And this will be from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. at Deliverance Evangelistic Church at 2001 West Lehigh Avenue. We have about 1300 people already committed to showing up. So as you heard testimony today, a lot of people don't believe they can buy a house. Yes, you can. We invite you to come out and see what services we offer. It's not just about Turn the Key. But PHDC does have a litany of projects and programs that can assist people staying in their homes and also improving their quality of life in their home such as BSRP, Adaptive Modification, Restore, Repair, Renew and those types of programs. So if you really want to, you know, there's a lot of services in the City and we are more than happy to share with you this Saturday.
Councilmembers, our first five speakers for public comment are Erika Rosario, Mandy Katz, Andy Sweizer, Elizabeth Waring and Adam Hill, please step up to the podium. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
Good afternoon. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your comment.
Good afternoon, Councilmembers of the Housing Committee. Thank you for allowing me to testify on Resolution 10 240288 on the performance of the Land Bank. My name is Erika Rosario, partner of Rosario States, a minority development company that has dealt with the Land Bank over the last year. First, I would like to commend the Land Bank for its commitment to making vacant and abandoned properties available for redevelopment. My company has successfully navigated the acquisition process which has allowed us to invest in and revitalize neighborhoods. This has not only improved the aesthetic appeal of the areas we work and live in but also has created jobs and provide affordable housing for residents. My experience with the Land Bank has been mostly successful. I had (inaudible) as my project manager for PHDC who reviews some of the applications. Unfortunately, I was declined twice. But of course with their help I was able to get through that process of understanding how to fill that application. Since the beginning of the process as a minority developer we have been supported tremendously and have had the opportunity to be mentored through some of the process. If you drive around the city where these homes have been developed, you will see the change of our neighborhoods, less illegal dumping, cleaner streets. As a minority developer who lives in the community, we know what our community wants and we should be the ones continuing to build them. As a minority-owned business, I appreciate the Land Bank's effort to promote diversity and development and changing the current policies will decrease the opportunities to better our communities. Keeping the current policies by having additional resources and program specifically tailored for minority developers could further help the playing field and ensure the diverse voices are included in our neighborhoods. In conclusion, I hope you continue giving minority developers the opportunity to build homes for our own community. I, Erika Rosario, a minority woman, a Hispanic woman and developer will continue pushing for our community to have more affordable housing. Let's decrease gentrification in our neighborhoods. As a woman who lives in West Kensington, I'm tired of seeing drugs on the floor. I'm tired of my own properties being dumped on. I'm tired of calling 311 and I feel like we should all be working together to build these homes versus having random drugs on the floor, trash and then random cars parked on these empty lots. Let's build homes for our community and our people. And that's that. (Applause.)
Thank you so much for your comment. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your comment.
Good afternoon, Council. My name is Elizabeth Waring and I'm the steward for the Holly Street Neighbors Community Garden in West Philadelphia. So the process with acquisition, started back in 2016 and it is now 2024 and we are in the same position. And even though it's a complicated four lots that comprise this garden, I don't understand why it's taking so long. Councilwoman Blackwell at Winnie Harris', who started a garden, demise said that the parcels would always be a community garden which hasn't happened. It has been vandalized by one developer who wanted it. That has been resold. It has been vandalized by a contractor working next door to the property. We do a very good job, the gardeners, some neighbors, a lot of volunteers, in maintaining the garden. We refuse to accept that it's not going to be a community garden. Okay.
If you could just wrap up your comment in the next 30 seconds please.
We're in desperate need of water supply. Okay. And there was a water bill 8 that came for one of those lots from the Water Department of course by way of the Land Bank. However, there's no water on that. It's just an empty parcel. So we need water. Hopefully yesterday was the last time for us filling up two barrels. It's nearing the end of the season and we just hope the process is done soon. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Elizabeth. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your comment.
Good afternoon. My name is Mandy Katz on behalf of the Viola Street Community Garden, which was started by my neighbors over 50 years ago in East Parkside which was subjected to deep disinvestment by the City. The neighbors worked together to create a garden in the abandoned lots that were spreading like wildfire. For decades without any support from the City they took care of the land and each other and turned what would have been a source of blight into something that stabilized and fortified their community. They brought fresh produce into a zone of food apartheid, making a difference in countless lives through the years. I moved to the block in 2012 drawn by this legacy of gardening. Around 2014 the gardeners were shocked to see notices on our fence from the Public Interest Law Center that our lots were threatened. The upswing of interest by big private developers in transforming East Parkside had reached our garden and we were very afraid we would lose our beloved garden. We reached out to the Neighborhood Garden Trust in 2014 and have been working with them for the past 10 years trying to stabilize the land. They have done much to support us and have worked very hard to procure the lots, but there have been many obstacles along the way. Beginning in 2020 when Councilperson Gauthier took office she finally approved NGT's efforts to acquire those lots, so our lots from 4200 to 4204 Viola Street were then approved by City Council and are currently owned by the Department of Public Properties, but they still haven't gone into the Land Bank to go to settlement and are inexplicably caught in what remains an impossibly clunky and mysterious process. So the lots, though approved by City Council for NGT for years, remained threatened as far as we know. Once we knew that NGT would work to obtain our original lots we knew we had to act quickly to acquire the lots directly to the south of the garden as well. With the intense development pressure if someone were to build up on those lots, we knew it would end our garden blocking out the sun and our access to trucked-in compost and other materials. NGT has moved swiftly to acquire those lots as well. One of the lots, 4203 Leidy has a US Bank lien, and we are tremendously grateful to the City for purchasing back the liens, and need to stress the urgency for the Land Bank to act quickly to acquire these US Bank lien properties as soon as possible before they to get snatched up by a developer displacing our way of life. Thank you so much. (Applause.)
Thank you. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your comment.
Thank you. My name is Adam Hill and I'm the Director of Community Gardens in Horticulture at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. I've been working in urban ag in Philly for the last 15 years, and I definitely echo everything all the gardeners have said today. But I also want to talk a little bit about our Green Center in Strawberry Mansion, which we've been working actively since 2013 with the community to develop as well as the community garden there. And this is a really unique space that offers a lot of space for community gardens to come together and gather and grow food together but also provides resources for growers across the city. So we have the Green (inaudible) Center. There is a greenhouse and it grows over 990,000 seedlings for 180 different community gardens and farms across the city who share countless pounds of produce with their neighbors and also emergency food providers. And this space has become a core part of the neighborhood there and the community where over 40 families garden in the 52 raised by the community garden there, and they also work together, have events, you know, develop deeper social connections and more. Since 2013 we've invested about $350,000 in the infrastructure in the space, but we've been operating there without a lease for many years now. And it's really a hard situation where we're trying to invest more in the community. We want to do more. We want to expand the greenhouse space, but we can't get permits or anything without legal access to that area. And so, this land is also not -- it's a little different situation because it is not in the Land Bank. It's owned by a mix of Public Property and the Redevelopment Authority, but we've been working with NGT since 2018 to try to secure ownership of the site or at least get an extended lease, which we had previously. I --
You can just wrap up your testimony in the next seconds please.
Okay. But we really have struggled to make headway and we don't even know who to talk to at the City, and that's I think the big crux of the issue here. (Inaudible) is a pretty big organization. We have a lot of connections, a lot of resources, a lot of experience and we can't figure out how to navigate this process, so how do you expect these other smaller gardens and individuals to navigate this as well. Thanks.
My office would be happy to help in any way that we can.
Thank you. Will the Clerk please call the next set of public commenters.
Would Jamir Hughes, Carolina Pina, Gloria Cartagena Hart and Terry Highler come up to the podium please. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
Good afternoon, City Councilmembers. I appreciate -- I had good morning, but it's noon so --
Please state your name for the record and proceed with your comment.
My name is Gloria Cartagena Hart and I'm here on behalf of Kensington Corridor Trust, a nonprofit organization committed to fostering community-driven development in Kensington. As the nation's first neighborhood trust we currently store 28 assets on Kensington Avenue. Collectively owned by residents of the Kensington neighborhood, we have the privilege of stewarding a third space among those assets. of those 28 11 represent a native pollinator garden, vital green space for residents and promotes an urban biodiversity. Our garden is a convening space, a healing space and most importantly a representation of collective power of community reclamation. It showcases the beauty of community efforts transformed previously abandoned and neglected spaces and make them their own. A feat is now unnew to many of the gardeners and land stewards here as today. We are here in solidarity with our fellow gardeners and land stewards. The fight for land justice must happen for collective benefit of all neighborhoods and all Philadelphians. While our garden is not in immediate risk, we recognize that many of our gardens across Philadelphia do not have the same security. The Land Bank supports the critical for the survival and growth of these community gardens, farms and other green spaces which provide essential benefits like fresh food access, environmental sustainability and safe community gathering places. Despite these undeniable benefits, the current rate of land access for the garden has been slow. Over the past four years only 12 community gardens have acquired land through the Land Bank, while 59 applications remain in limbo as of March of 2024.
If you could just wrap that up in the next 30 seconds. Thank you so much.
Got you. The backlog is not only (inaudible) for the individual gardeners but also sympathetic heart of community seeking and maintaining (inaudible) green space, we urge the City to take steps to clear the backlog to reproduce garden licenses and leases that allow growers to secure land more efficiently. Moreover, we need dedicated resources, staff for the Land Bank to fill (inaudible) acquisitions along with the streamlined application process is that's accessible online. As we reflect on the Land Bank's 10-year performance, we have an opportunity to implement changes that can significantly enhance its impact. Partnerships and collaborative efforts are essential to the fight for land justice in Philadelphia and we are committed to being part of this ongoing work. Thank you for your time and I urge you to support these measures to strengthen the Land Bank's role in securing land for community gardens and green spaces.
Thank you so much for your comment and for your work.
Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
My name is Carolina Pina. Good afternoon, Madame Chair Gauthier and Councilmembers of the Housing Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on Resolution 4 240288 regarding the performance of the Land Bank. I am the sole owner and a certified minority and woman- owned architecture studio and real estate development company. Over the years I have dedicated myself to building the experience, skills and track record necessary for one day to qualify to acquire lots from the Land Bank. The past year I was fortunate enough to work closely with the Land Bank gaining firsthand insight into the values they place on affordability, quality and community impact in each project. These experiences underscored the importance of creating developments that generally uplift neighborhoods they serve while also addressing the critical need for accessible housing. Throughout my experience, the Land Bank staff were highly attentive and responsive, providing clear guidance and support as I navigated the requirements of the application process. I'm specially thankful of the commitment to fostering clarity and collaboration, which has been invaluable helping small business owners like myself understand the path to achieving these important community objectives. As I continue this journey, I look forward to deepening my partnership with the Land Bank, using my knowledge and expertise in architecture, real estate and construction to bring high quality affordable housing to Philadelphia. My hope is like me more business owners and small developers will have similar opportunities to keep the positive impact going. I envision a thriving ecosystem in which more people have access to their stability and pride of owning a home at an affordable price and where local job creation is at the heart of the projects --
If you could wrap up in the next 30 seconds, thank you so much.
By supporting this initiative, the Land Bank can play an instrumental role in generating meaningful employment for people within our communities and fostering economic empowerment at the neighborhood level. Thank you.
Thank you so much for your comment and wonderful to hear about your company. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your comment.
Hello and good afternoon. I am Malaika Hart Gilpin and I am the co-founder, co-creator and Executive Director of One Art Community Center. I want to thank everybody even our audience folks. Thank you for your patience. And I'd love to just invite us all to take a deep breath, a collective breath together. These green spaces and gardens that we come here to protect are a place for us to breathe and literally a fresh breath of air for our neighbors, the communities we serve and for our city. In such tumultuous times as these, the gardens and these places are those much needed moments of peace. They are sacred spaces. They are the spaces that we collectively heal, we go to ground, we go to grow in community and breathe and just endure in these difficult times to mourn and even find joy together. Just yesterday a dear neighbor texted while outside the courtroom during the sentencing of the man who murdered her son. She texted in urgency, I need to come and sit in the garden. She left the courtroom and came right to One Art, leaving the court, entering into the sanctuary of the garden. I consider it such a tremendous honor to be the steward of such a place of refuge. We have over 50 high schoolers that come to One Art every day for their apprenticeship programs to see their collective sense of relief when they make it on site and they make it to safety and have a place where they can just breathe. When there is such an immense need for these gardens and healing spaces, I have to question why it's so difficult to protect them and why we're having to travail. We're celebrating years on our land. One Art was once a junkyard and has been transformed into a nourishing, vibrant community's campus. I've been here. I've shared testimony multiple times at the Land Bank hearings. So many of you know our journey and we're still on land that's insecure. Although I do want to share that at the last Land Bank hearing we were finally granted the Land Bank transfer, the land swap, yay. (Applause.)
Yes, so 17 we continue to celebrate those 18 victories. We're so grateful and 19 there's so many more pieces to go. 20
Okay. Thank you. So this is four years in though. We were in this process. Councilwoman Gauthier, you guided us, you stayed with us even when our land -- we were moved out of your District. So there was this sense of fear of, oh, no, we're not with you anymore, but you guided us, you made sure, you ushered us into the protective council of Councilman Jones. And thankfully, the developer that we were working with hung on with us through the process and didn't pull out. But, yeah, let me see what's important here. Yes, these farmers, gardeners, land stewards you see in here have been doing the work. They are actively growing, and we're doing it. We are creating that cleaner, greener, safer Philadelphia by cultivating these sacred green spaces. We are here for the wellness of the communities we serve. We're also here for you when you need a moment to breathe and when you all need -- we're here. We want you to come out. Land Bank staff, Board, come out, come breathe with us. Come be on the land and experience that healing that we all need. Thank you all so much.
Thank you, Malika. We appreciate you. Thank you so much.
Thanks to all of you. Will the Clerk please call the next set of public commenters.
The next speakers are Lawrence McKnight, Isaac Singleton, Brennan Tomasetti, Shusha Moore, Jeff Carpieneta. Please step up to the podium. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
Good afternoon. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your comment.
Good afternoon. Thank you for hearing my testimony today. I'm Brennan Tomasetti, resident, avid gardener and co-founder of Civetta Property Group. Our company has been developing workforce housing in partnership with the City of Philadelphia since 2017. By far the most rewarding part of the work that we do is witnessing first-time homebuyers exit our office with the keys to a brand new home. Our buyers were not able to be here today, they had work commitments, but with their permission I will share a couple words on their behalf. Rashida Lockett, Brewerytown: I'm not used to having a permanent place to live. I used to always live with other people. Now, I have a place that I can call my own. We both get to have our own room. My daughter is usually sharing a room with me all the time. When she first walked into the house and when I saw the look on her face, it was like she was just happy and really excited. She felt free. I felt free. My current mortgage payment is $1348. It's less than what the rent would be. Shadequa Smith Spann, Grays Ferry: I bought a Turn the Key Home. I'm very excited, shocked that I'm a homeowner. I can't put words to it. My heart is just filled with so much joy right now. $1,312 which is good for new construction and three-bedroom. It allowed me to invest, to create generational wealth, just owning property, you know, being able to pass it down to my kids and hopefully they pass it down to their kids, so really just being able to invest which my ancestors would love. I'm so grateful to hear so much support for the Turn the Key initiative here today. The Turn the Key program is a shining example of what can be systemic change, benefiting Philadelphians who previously would not have access to such opportunity. This is how you change the landscape and future for hardworking individuals. Last week I was fortunate to meet mayors from four other cities along with our own Mayor as they came to visit our homes and see the work that the Land Bank and the City of Philadelphia is doing in the affordable space. They were extremely interested and wanting to know more in hopes that they can build programs in their own respective cities.
Thank you. If you could just wrap that up in the next 30 seconds.
Yep. The fact that this program has been executed at the level that we are today is all thanks to the team at the Land Bank. They work tirelessly. It's not always timely. They are I believe understaffed, but it's always with the focus of the citizens at the forefront, precisely as it should be. I just also want to comment on a personal note that I agree with the gentleman. I think it was Mr. Bloom, who spoke earlier that says we can and must do both. Thank you.
Thank you so much for your comment and your work. Hi, Isaac.
Hi. My name is Isaac Singleton. Good afternoon. I'm a partner at Project IV Development and I'm an employee of The HOW Group. Over the last year my experience with the Land Bank has been largely positive. Most recently I had the opportunity to apply for lots in the 3rd Council District, and I work closely with Todd Hestand and the Land Bank team. The application process was straightforward and the support I received from Todd and the team was invaluable. This has allowed us to focus on our actual goal of creating luxury affordable housing for hardworking City residents who are often neglected. Since this new policy was introduced, hundreds of luxury homes have been built and sold at affordable prices. And in the next nine months, hundreds of affordable homes will be sold and some of those homes will be homes that I develop. Halting this process will significantly reduce the amount of future affordable homes available, disrupting the progress we've made so far. This current policy has allowed developers like us to make a meaningful impact, transforming vacant lots into quality homes and improving neighborhoods and also helping to address the Philadelphia housing insecurity issue. Beyond providing housing stability, we're creating opportunities for residents to build generational wealth through homeownership, which is the number one form of creating wealth in America. To conclude, I urge you to continue supporting the work, this vital work. Speaking as a developer and a housing advocate, the current disposition process from the Land Bank is both predictable and effective offering a critical pathway to meet the urgent needs of affordable housing in Philadelphia. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Thank you for your comment and your work and I look forward to cutting those ribbons with you. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your comment. MR. McKNIGHT: Hi. Good afternoon. Lawrence McKnight. My name is Lawrence McKnight with BMK Properties. I'm the son of a Philly cop and also the son of a Catholic school teacher. So I'm here speaking to you both as a citizen, a lifelong citizen of Philadelphia but also as a developer who's building affordable housing in the city of Philadelphia. In 2017 we delivered the first ever privately-financed affordable housing project on North Marshall Street consisting of 11 houses. In 2019 we then delivered 12 the second ever privately-financed 13 affordable housing project in Francisville of 12 homes. In March of '22 we were awarded via RFP from PHDC land in Grays Ferry to develop 39 affordable units. On October 15, 2024 we held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for this wonderful project. So what happened in between the five years of our Francisville and our Grays Ferry Project? Well, obviously not a lot of affordable housing was built either by us or by other developers or even the City itself. During those five years we did submit plenty of applications for affordable housing. The problem we encountered was at the VPR disposition process. Fortunately, in 2019 PHDC was granted more power and control to streamline the disposition and turnover process. They have been --
Thank you. Could you just wrap it up in the next 30 seconds. MR. McKNIGHT: Wow. They've been instrumental in pushing more and more units through the marketplace in order for us to build affordable housing. Presently we're in the process of building over 100 affordable houses across the city of Philadelphia within the last two years of being awarded those projects. The problem isn't the PHDC. It's the agencies in the City of Philadelphia, both L&I, PWD, Streets Department and their lack of I would say urgency into turning around approvals as it relates to affordable housing, but also the alignment of all of the City agencies and the City of Philadelphia itself. As you can hear by testimony here, there isn't a uniform strategy as to who needs what the most and there shouldn't be. I grew up in the city of Philadelphia. I still live in the city of Philadelphia. My kids go to a playground that has green space. I enjoy green space, but there has to be some formal gateway or program -- not even program, just vision as to what the city needs. I think that's the biggest stumbling block right now. There's too many cooks in the kitchen is the easiest analogy I can say right now. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you. I think that's one of the most -- that's one of the clearest points that was made today, right, the need for a vision, the need for a strategic plan. I'm glad that we have a commitment on that. Thank you for your comment. And if you want to follow up with us about some of those other struggles and challenges that you mentioned with other City agencies, we're happy to receive that information after today. Thank you so much. MR. McKNIGHT: Thank you.
Please state your name for the record and proceed with your comment.
Is this on? Okay. Good. So my name is Jeff Carpineta and I am currently a Board member of the Arcadia Commons Project. That's a green space and garden kind of protection and creation project in East Kensington a couple blocks west of Fishtown. Thanks for the opportunity to be here. I think -- many people have given snapshots of some of the deep problems that exist administratively with the Land Bank. I've been thinking what are some things that I would hope that your family would know coming out of today. So just something that I think is important as we dig into this whole thing. When the Land Bank was being organized largely through the frontline work of WCRP and Nora Lichtash and Marcus Presley and all those folks, a little bit of New Kensington in the conversation, myself and other garden activist preservation folks, green space advocates were pulled in heavily at that time. Dozens of meetings. Many hours of actually authoring language with Jennifer Kates from Maria's office. It was a blessing. It was early in my time of community leadership in the neighborhood. It was really special. But I want you to know, and this isn't just my feeling. This feeling is shared among dozens of garden lovers and preservationists, is that we really feel like we were used to sort of birth the Land Bank. On the side, Mark Squilla spoke candidly and said, I don't have faith that this thing's really going to get where it needs to go, and that was interesting because Mark was a Councilperson who frequently would decide and guide fairly about the decisions about open space in the neighborhood. The push for the Land Bank was let's get away from Councilmanic control of the whole process, right. But a candid look at the last years is maybe we 9 would have done better with the old 10 system because we had a Councilperson that was reasonable and was a good arbiter of things. So just to quickly say, the Arcadia Commons Project, there's a couple different green spaces we're involved with and the journey with the Land Bank has been painful. Very little communication, years of, well, the new policies and we're going to get you new documents, and it's who does business like that. And I do real estate and work with nonprofits in my day job and it's not acceptable. The feeling is as if key files and things that are sacred to the people in the neighborhoods are just collecting dust.
And not just for weeks or months we get that. Sometimes there's procrastination, there's lack of resource, there's overload, but we're talking years here. And I feel like today we never -- I feel like you didn't get clear answers about why Jenny Greenberg and the amazing folks at NGT, all that they've done they're heroes, and years go by and that's a repeating story. So I'd ask you to keep in mind that history, we're feeling like things are really -- the state of the union is not well. And the garden community has a clear sense that underneath all there is a little bit of disdain and lack of appreciation and respect from the Land Bank and Council behind them and PHDC behind them. That's not expressed today clearly, but we have a sense that actually we're not really that excited about what you do. We don't really think it's that vital for the neighborhood. And I think -- so real quick, thank you for being patient with me. The one thing that I think needs to change separate than websites is there needs to be an overhaul of the culture, whether it's the clerks, the processors, Council, the Board leadership, everyone that's at that table and is lucky to be at that table to do that work has to be able to answer honest that they have a big picture on what matters in the neighborhood. Development, they have to have a heart for development and they have to have a true heart and care for open space, right. And it's not that way now. People come onto the leadership because they have fine expertise, sparkling expertise in housing. Those people also need to have a true heart for the open space thing and it needs to work both ways. The Philadelphia Land Justice Coalition also will need to stand before you and show that it has --
-- and show that it has a care for development as well. All right. So thank you for hearing that and I hope that it's your legacy to help us finally get these spaces transferred.
The gardeners deserve to be in this conversation and we're working to make sure that that happens. Thank you so much for being here today.
Will the Clerk please call the next set of public commenters.
David Langley, Jovian Patterson, Joshua Warner. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
Good afternoon. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your comment.
Thank you, Councilwoman. My name is David Langley. I'm the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Accelerator Fund. We are -- I'm happy to say we were recently approved as a CDFI, certified CDFI with just two people and already a loan portfolio well north of $6 million. We provide the most difficult to access financing for many of the developers you've already seen in front of you today, including Anthony, Isaac, Carolina, Erika and many, many more. We've issued more than a dozen and a half LOIs for Land Bank affordable housing disposition development projects and we want to do more. We really want the development of Turn the Key housing specifically to both expand and to be more equitable. There was some talk earlier about a lot of folks -- when they think of developers, they think of the developer who came into their neighborhood, gentrified their neighborhood, built very high-end $1.5 million high-end housing that changed the face of the neighborhood. That's one way to make a lot of money as a developer in the city. Another way is to be on the very, very low end and be a bad faith actor and exploit the system, find ways to not make capital investment. Often times you get those out-of-town landlords doing this kind of work. Within that middle, this is where our borrowers are, folks who are trying to do the right thing, who work in good faith, don't make a ton of money on this process, it's true, but build quality affordable housing that the City needs. Mo had mentioned earlier that the P&I, the principal interest payment on a Turn the Key house with a $75,000 buy-down from the City is around $1,100, $1,200. At today's interest rates it can be even more affordable. If we go back to pre-COVID interest rates, you can have people living in brand new three-bedroom rowhomes in Philadelphia paying under $1,000 a month. That will not solve every problem completely. Understand that for many Philadelphians $900 a month, $1,000 a month, $1,200 a month is still not deeply affordable enough. But I would urge support of Turn the Key, specifically with what we have so far and also as an expansion because it can be such a key piece of solving the City's affordable housing crisis. And I would really urge Council there are other ways of dealing with deeply, deeply affordable housing, low-income housing tax credits, housing choice vouchers, all kinds of programs that we support and should be expanded. But in terms of Turn the Key, we really must not make the perfect the enemy of the very, very, very, very good building this housing is essential and the Philadelphia Accelerator Fund is here to provide that financing to our many developers. And we look forward to continuing to do so in the years ahead. (Applause.)
Thank you so much for your comments. Don't let it be lost here that we truly appreciate the work of the Accelerator Fund. For my part we're building 90 Turn the Key homes in West Philadelphia with all Black and Brown developers financed through the Accelerator Fund. What you do is truly amazing. Thank you.
Please state your name for the record and proceed with your comment.
Good afternoon, Councilmembers. It's been a pleasure to hear you today. My name is Aleicia Phulwani. I am one of the events coordinators for the Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild. Please forgive me for having my notes on my phone. So I'm really here to testify in support of the community gardens and to speak about some of the impacts of the lack of land security from the beekeeping perspective. Unfortunately, beekeeping has a reputation for being old, white and male for a variety of issues of getting into it, but not the least of which is land access and vehicle access. And this is a thing we've become very aware of. If you don't own the land, putting in beehives they are heavy, they require money. Minimum $1,400 start for two hives. That basic (inaudible) so we have these financial limitations already on people. But we also offer a class that we do to try to encourage people to be as good beekeepers as they can. We've offered BIPOC scholarships. The problem is it's the next step, the access to land, the ability to just have everything you need stops. And we already have a more diverse club than average, but I'd like to see that continue. We just received a grant for a mobile honey extraction kitchen for $43,000, which I'm very grateful for. But the problem is we have to front the money and get reimbursed. And I know other organizations here probably face that same issue with grants. So when we're talking about capital, we're really talking about some serious issues. But for community gardens beekeeping can offer obviously not just pollinator services, but as we can bring our mobile gardens we can go to places where people don't have vehicles, where extraction would be much harder for them. And when they extract, they can distribute the honey to their community members. They can sell it to support their gardens to support small businesses and we at the Guild would love to support that. We just obviously got this grant. We're looking forward to it. We want to talk about equity. We want to talk about racial and financial equity in the city and we can't do it with it -we can't engage in these positive upstream effects until we manage to get land security.
Thank you so much for your comment and what you're doing in the community.
Please state your name for the record and proceed with your comment.
Hello. My name is Jovian Patterson. I'm the Executive Director of Original American Foundation, a small nonprofit out of Southwest Philly. We have a community garden on the intersections of Paschall and Allison Streets. It's a lot of plots down there. We did get some of the land plots from the Land Bank. We got the resolution for them but it just stopped at the resolution. It's been about two years. It started in 2022 and we're still waiting on, you know, whatever contact comes after that. And I know we discussed this a lot, but we're still confused as what happens next. Also, we filled out another application for some other land in that area, because in that area it's a lot of open land. It's been a lot of dumping. It's like down power lines, it's down trees, and we're definitely trying to you know beautify the area and make it better. With the resolution we were able to work with the USDA so we did get some things from there, but we don't have specific deeds or titles, however that works. And it's been about three months since we put the last application out, still no communications. But the resolution was good. It didn't come from City Council, so that's a good thing. So just trying to find out how the process is going to get streamlined or sped up in any kind of way. I know a lot of folks spoke on it, but it didn't seem like it was nothing etched in stone. So just want to just help beautify our community. We teach children, adults from 6 to 60 years old. We teach them how to garden. We teach them how to farm. We teach them how to build, the raised bed boxes that we use so it's a lot of good going on in the community in our green spaces and we just want to make sure the process is better, because it's more land in that area that we're going to end up applying for and we're going to try to beautify as much as we can and turn it into one of the biggest green spaces in the city. So that's it.
Thank you so much for your comment and for the work you're doing in the community and we're willing to help in whatever way we can.
Thank you to all of you. Are there additional public commenters?
Yes. Would Cole Merriweather, Aleicia Phulwani and Jeremy Blatstein come up to the podium. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
Good afternoon. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your comment.
Yes. My name is Cole Merriweather. And I just want to say very quickly that I noticed that when Mr. Grossman and his people came in, they were bringing a lot of really -- they didn't bring anything that said, hey, this is what we need, this is the problems that we're having and they are the controllers of the Land Bank. So as such in 10 years of time, many things have not gotten done and all they're saying is that everyone else needs to bring more or come together, but they're not bringing their own plans of what they have seen in 10 years not going right to bring to this. I would also like to say that I've seen a lot of the people who are defending the Land Bank are in suits and a lot of the people who need help from the Land Bank are wearing plain clothes. And I believe that if we start to connect all the gardens together and pull their resources, any waste that they have, we compost and we give back to the gardens. Any food that they have that doesn't get used, again compost it or we can biogas that stuff. There's a lot of different creative solutions that we could do that wouldn't take a lot of money that would help to secure our garden spaces, grow our garden spaces. I also believe that in the future we would want to take examples from places like Singapore who have integrated nature into their city and has brought back tourism and many people coming in to invest. If we build homes that maybe in the basement grow food like vertical farms, they do it indoors, if we can start doing something like that and then pulling our resources together as a city, then we can grow exponentially and protect all the people who can't do that individually. Because anyone who says people need to figure it out for food, water or shelter, they already have those things. No one who is fighting for those things and struggling for those things would never tell someone that they need to figure it out. And last but not least, I would like to say that instead of investing money into police like the City has continually done for years and years and years where we've seen crime go up and down, how about we invest in these garden spaces like we already know that will bring down crime, that will give people a place to go, that can bring community and jobs and people who can then go out and build more. Because Pennsylvania is, I think, the third largest state of organic farming --
If you just wrap that up with the next 4 seconds. Thank you. 5
Yeah. 6 We make billions of dollars here in 7 Pennsylvania and there's 53,000 8 farms and only 93 of those are 9 Black-owned in all of Pennsylvania, 10 so we really need some more 11 resources to make sure that our 12 Brown and Black populations and all 13 people are able to be covered and 14 fed. Thank you. 15
16 Thank you so much for your comment. 17 Please state your name 18 for the record and proceed with your 19 testimony. 20
Hello. My name is Jeremy Blatstein. I am the Director of Finance and Design for Orens Brothers. I also have a Twitter account, NextPhillyMayor, and I've also worked directly with Councilwoman Gauthier with transferring land from the Land Bank about almost a year ago. I'm here to talk, though, about the process, right. And I've made it very vocal. I've come to City Council and I've been talking about Turn the Key since I first spoke at Council last March, right. And it's definitely what Councilwoman Lozada said earlier is actually probably true, right, it is a messaging problem. It's an information problem. But one of the things that has been the issue is two things: One, as an experienced developer there's issues that we run into with the Land Bank, right. So that's something that I think can be approved on across the board, is the transparency and accountability of the tracking. Very good, good point, Council Landau, when you're talking about the database, right. That should be something that should be laid out so that everybody can see. The piece, though, that's missing that comes from the top down when it comes to legislatively is the qualification to get the land from the Land Bank. And if you want to change that process, then you have to legislate from City Council. And to put that earnest and to put that back on the Land Bank is not fair in my opinion, right, because you're asking them to do something that is outside their purview. So the first thing they come in is looking at their rules of do they qualify because they don't want to get into the same problem they were before of giving land to people from the Land Bank and they weren't building the houses, right. The last time they tried to do Turn the Key with 1,000 homes, they only got 116, right. I believe that was the final number under Councilman Clarke. So we are here today and you get past the one point, qualification. But the point that was only said maybe once today, and you both are very aware of what I'm going to say next, councilmanic prerogative. It still exists. No 13 land moves out of the Philadelphia Land Bank without the approval of that Councilperson.
Thank 19 you. And that's the piece that if 20 you want to change from the top down, let's make it from City Council, right. The Turn the Key program was a program that each and every person on City Council passed is the job of the Land Bank to produce those houses. They are following through on what was passed. If you want to be more affordable housing, let's pass that and get the funding from City Council to actually make this feasible. And that's the only -- the last thing I will say is what is the priorities in each of the Districts. And I'm all for protecting the established gardens and ones that have a plan for the future. But for the lots that have no existing gardens or plans for gardens, housing should be the priority. And I do think that that needs to be decided. If that's not the priority of City Council as a whole, and you're hearing it from soon to be hopefully President Harris from the top down of what's the housing plan, that has to be part of it, right. We have to streamline the process to build housing. That's what is going to be and that's the only way that we actually see affordable housing happen in the city of Philadelphia. Thank you.
Thank you so much for your comment. I do want to note for the record that in all of the testimony we've heard today about long processes and not getting responses on applications, we didn't hear Council, you know, the lack of a Council resolution being the cause of any of that, but thank you.
I do want to make one point of order on that point, right. And this is where the Land Bank --
Land Bank has a choice with limited resources of what to do. So what the -- and this is something that can be discussed and I didn't really hear it today. The Land Bank does not push through land that's not getting the approval and the support of that Councilperson. So the reason why you don't hear that is that it's a missing figure. It's hidden, right. So if you want to streamline this process, then let's make it fair and transparent and completely open because right now it's not. And you can see that, right. So then let's be able to track how much land are developers trying to push through. You've seen it in your District, Councilwoman Lozada, right, in the houses that you won't approve from some developers --
And that's just the point that I want to make, so that's why you're not seeing that data point. So I just would track that.