Day: June 4, 2006

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The "debate" over housing reorganization

  By Housing

 The “debate” over the reorganization of the city’s three agencies that deal with housing is showing Philadelphia politics at its worst. A struggle over housing agencies is taking place right now. Yet we know very little about the details of the plan the Mayor will propose. And thus there has been no serious discussion of the benefits and costs of that plan or alternatives to it. Councilwoman Blackwell has been fighting the plan but not by offering her own perspective on how our housing agencies should be organized. Instead she has been using the budget to hold the Housing Trust Fund and other housing dollars hostage. Continue reading

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Housing trust fund shenanigans, continued

  By Housing, Philadelphia

As I previously reported, the budget passed by Council a week and a half ago included an amendment, sponsored by Jannie Blackwell, that transferred Housing Trust Fund money from one line item to another, thereby blocking expenditures of Housing Trust Funds on the creation of affordable housing in the next Fiscal Year. Early last week, Councilman Darrell Clarke introduced a transfer amendment that would move the money back. After a meeting of the advisory committee on the Trust Fund, Councilwoman Blackwell promised to vote for the transfer amendment. And then new threats to the fund arose. Continue reading