Anderson@Large

The High Cost of ‘Affordable’ Housing

There is an affordable housing crisis across the country. The demand for affordable housing far exceeds the supply. In the nation’s poorest big city, the Philadelphia Housing Authority spends nearly $400,000 for each new “affordable” rental unit. With 42,886 people on its wait list, PHA would need $17,154,400,000 -- more than four times the annual operating budget of the City of Philadelphia -- to provide housing for those currently on its wait list. And by the way, PHA’s wait list is closed:

PHA closed its Public Housing Program wait lists on April 15, 2013. The wait list will reopen when PHA determines that the average wait time for housing has reached an acceptable level. The public will be notified through advertisement on this website.

Frontline and NPR recently investigated how billions of dollars are spent to house the poor but fewer housing units are being built.

In December 2016, PHA welcomed residents to 57 new apartments that cost the housing authority a whopping $21.9 million. The project was partly financed with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). Before the paint was barely dry the contractor, Domus Inc., filed a lawsuit alleging PHA “repeatedly changed the terms of the contract, refused to cooperate with the contractor and delayed payment.”

If Domus wins its case, the cost for one unit of LIHTC-funded public housing could be more than $400,000. To put PHA’s construction costs in context, the median home value in Philadelphia is $143,000. The city’s median income is $41,233; 44 percent of households have an annual income of less than $35,000.

Domus and PHA will face off before Common Pleas Court Judge Patricia McInerney on July 18, 2017. Stay tuned.

Preservation Month 2017

May is Preservation Month, a time to celebrate places that matter to you.

On May 6, I led a Jane’s Walk, “Ridge Avenue Stroll through Philly’s Jazz History.” The first stop was the legendary Blue Note.

The Ray Bryant Trio was the Blue Note’s house band. It is interesting to note that Bryant co-wrote the smash hit, “The Madison Time,” which was released in 1959.

The highlight of the stroll was 2125 Ridge Avenue, the former location of the Checker Café, a “black and tan” (read: racially integrated) jazz club. The nightclub’s motto was “Good Food. Good Cooks. Good Service.” One of the servers was a teenage singing waitress named Pearl Bailey.

Since October 2016, I’ve been locked in battle with the Philadelphia Housing Authority which wants to demolish the building that has been a visual anchor for more than 100 years. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission agreed with me the building is of historical significance. Last week, PHA signed a programmatic agreement that saves the building for now. Under the agreement, PHA must stabilize the building.

I say for now because PHA has made it clear it wants to demolish the building. I guess it doesn’t fit their “vision” for a revitalized Ridge Avenue. In an area full of vacant lots, PHA wants to replace a building that is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places with yet another vacant lot.

I encouraged the 40+ people who participated in my Jane’s Walk to make some noise and tell decision-makers that this place matters. If you care about preserving Philadelphia’s cultural heritage, DM me on Twitter or send message to phillyjazzapp[@]gmail.com.

Historic Preservation and Social Justice

Two years ago on this day I launched All That Philly Jazz, a public history project that is telling the story of Philadelphia’s rich jazz legacy.

In documenting the places where jazz history unfolded, I also want to contextualize the impact of jazz musicians and the jazz culture. Fact is, the jazz culture was about “intersectionality” before the term was coined. As Philadelphia Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron notes in her column, “Ridge Avenue’s last standing jazz club,” gay performers such as the “Sepia Gloria Swanson” were an integral part of the scene.

In a piece for PlanPhilly, I wrote about why historic preservation matters:

1409 Lombard Street helps tell the story of artistic greats like Lady Day, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Nina Simone and McCoy Tyner. It also tells the story of disruption and defiance. In remarks to the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said jazz is “triumphant music.” If walls could talk, they would tell how the jazz culture broke down social barriers. The first racially integrated nightspot in Center City was a jazz club, the Downbeat. For the first time, blacks and whites mixed on an equal basis. Jazz musicians created a cultural identity that was “a steppingstone” to the Civil Rights Movement.

At its core, historic preservation is about storytelling. The question then becomes: Who decides what gets saved and whose story gets told? The built environment reflects racial inequalities. Given African Americans’ socioeconomic status, few of the buildings associated with black history meet preservation standards regarding architectural significance. Although unadorned, they are places that tell a more complete American story. The stories of faith, resistance, and triumph are relevant to today’s social justice activists.

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