philadelphia housing crisis . introduction

Introduction

Mayor John Street on the Housing Crisis: "They say urban renewal, they mean urban removal"

The housing crisis in Philadelphia is one of the worst in the United States. The number of abandoned housing units far surpasses the number of individuals in need of housing. This alone is shocking. But the most startling reality is that there are people fully prepared to renovate the abandoned housing -- for families, community centers, non-profit organizations, community development corporations... and the city government strategically blocks these eforts. The problem is larger than any one department within the city, for it is strikingly clear that layers of whitewashing and bureacracy have been established within the City of Philadelphia to hide this harsh reality from the majority of Philadelphia's concerned citizens. City agencies have been established to give the façade of urban renewal and further hide the crisis beneath files and papers, which pass systematically between those agencies. Intentionally or unintentionally, this has made it nearly impossible to revitalize housing in poor neighborhoods.
This problem is much like a puzzle, with each piece making little sense separate from the others. After months of research and hands-on experience, we have carefully assembled the various pieces of this problem into an (somewhat) orderly arrangement, so that it's easier to put together, even from outside the political system. So whether you are the average citizen trying to understand this problem, or a large non-profit organization trying to acquire abandoned housing , this material is designed to take you on a tangeable journey into discovering the simple realities behind the current housing crisis.