https://www.americancityandcounty.com/wp-content/themes/acc_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcast
    • Latest videos
    • Product Guides
  • Resources & Events
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • Municipal Cost Index – Archive
    • Equipment Watch Page
    • American City & County Awards
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Statement
    • Terms of Service
American City and County
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcasts
    • Latest videos
    • Product Guides
  • Resources/Events
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers/eBooks
    • IWCE Expo
    • Calendar of Events
    • How to Contribute
    • American City & County Awards
    • Municipal Cost Index
    • Equipment Watch Page
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Stament
    • Terms of Service
  • newsletter
  • Administration
  • Economy & Finance
  • Procurement
  • Public Safety
  • Public Works & Utilities
  • Smart Cities & Technology
  • Magazine
acc.com

Commentaries


Sponsored

Why Philadelphia says it doesn’t have a housing problem

Why Philadelphia says it doesn’t have a housing problem

Smart Cities Council Managing Editor Kevin Ebi explains why focusing on jobs can help fix a city's housing issues.
  • Written by contributor
  • 20th November 2017

By Kevin Ebi, Smart Cities Council 

If your city had a shortage of affordable housing in 2010, it’s probably in an affordable housing crisis today, according to a new analysis by mortgage lender Freddie Mac.

The report finds that the number of apartments within reach of very low income people has dropped by 60% over that period of time. In some states — North Carolina, Washington, Florida, Georgia and California, in particular — it found almost no units they could afford.

Freddie Mac says that without some government subsidy, the very concept of affordable housing is becoming extinct for very low income people, defined as people who make less than half the median wage for an area. It says the problem in the rental market is one of supply; after the housing market collapsed, people who were homeowners flooded the rental market.

A housing problem or a jobs problem?
But is it really a housing problem? Philadelphia councilman Allan Domb says to address the housing issue, cities really need to look to creating better jobs. The city has 400,000 living in poverty.

“We don’t have a housing problem as much as we have a jobs problem,” Domb told the audience at Philadelphia’s Smart Cities Council Readiness Workshop (applications for 2018 grants are now open). “If you get them a job, they can afford a house.”

When we think of high-paying jobs we think of high-tech jobs, and Domb said a misconception is that those jobs require a high level of education. One-third of coding jobs, he points out, don’t even require a college degree.

But it’s also about making other workers more valuable. Anne Froble, an IoT and digital transformation mentor at Cisco, says technology allows people to do jobs across departments — consider a garbage truck driver who could also read water meters — making them more valuable.

It’s also about keeping the well-educated
Cities also need to offer support to recent college graduates — people who have the skills to innovate and create new opportunities. Michael Borda, director of strategic initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, says while they’re students, people have access to a lot of resources (think: researchers, lab space, advanced computer equipment).

“The moment they graduate,” he says, “it’s kind of a big cliff they fall off.”

All those resources vanish and they’re forced to go it alone. The university finds many of the graduates end up leaving the area, heading for cities that have more resources and offer more of a start-up environment.

There is an opportunity, however, for cities to find a way to nurture those recent graduates, hopefully capturing their innovations to raise the living standards for everyone.

 

Kevin Ebi is the managing editor of the Smart Cities Council, which helps cities use technology to become more livable, workable and sustainable. Apply now to win one of the Council’s 2018 Readiness Challenge grants.

Tags: Expert Insights Smart Cities & Technology Smart Cities Solutions Commentaries Smart Cities Council Sponsored

Most Recent


  • identity
    How decentralized identity technology can make access to government services more equitable
    Governments debate how much they should spend on public services, as witnessed by the recent debt-ceiling standoff, and by the annual budget process that plays out in every city and county. But everyone can probably agree that access to public services should be simple and equitable. Too often, though, services are difficult to consume. As […]
  • cybersecurity
    State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program: Where local governments must allocate funds to support the future of cybersecurity
    This past February, the Department of Homeland Security’s State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program began to distribute funds to states with approved cybersecurity plans. For budget and resource strapped state, local and territorial governments (STLGs), these grants enable crucial cybersecurity investments to protect our nation from unprecedented cybersecurity risks and help bridge the gap between […]
  • citizen
    How to move to a citizen-focused engagement model
    We know that engaged citizens play a critical role in helping make government agencies more transparent, more effective and more accountable. In fact, putting increased attention on digital government services and the citizen experience was ranked as one of the biggest changes that state chief information officers expected to continue post-pandemic. But too often, many […]
  • digital
    How to leverage digital tools to drive innovation in government
    The rapid evolution of digital technologies transformed the way governments function, making them more efficient, transparent and citizen-friendly. Rather than relying on crystal trophies, governments can leverage digital tools to drive innovation and streamline processes, benefiting the population they serve. Open data and crowdsourcing Open data refers to making government data available to the public, […]

Related Content

  • North Texas alliance partners with Marketplace.city on smart government solutions
  • Harris County deploys next-generation security in 150 public buildings
  • Prioritizing rapid restore leads to stronger ransomware attack recovery
  • Today’s infrastructure needs greater than roads and bridges - It’s time to face our digital connectiveness

WHITE PAPERS


5 reasons why Plan Examiners need Objective Trapeze

30th May 2023

7 Permitting & Licensing Fails Slowing Community Growth

24th May 2023

The Secret Ingredient to Local Government Employee Retention

23rd May 2023
view all

Webinars


How to Centralize and Build a Grants Management Process at your Organization

24th May 2023

Making Permitting Easier: What We’ve Learned Helping America’s Largest Cities Improve Their Permitting Process

16th May 2023

Digital Property Tax Collection: Tales from the Trenches of Modernization

16th May 2023
view all

Podcast


Young Leaders Episode 4 – Cyril Jefferson – City Councilman, High Point, North Carolina

13th October 2020

Young Leaders Episode 3 – Shannon Hardin – City Council President, Columbus, Ohio

27th July 2020

Young Leaders Episode 2 – Christian Williams – Development Services Planner, Goodyear, Ariz.

1st July 2020
view all

GALLERIES


10 best suburbs for city-like living

1st June 2023

Gallery: Annual index ranks America’s top performing cities; most are in the West

30th May 2023

Gallery: Top 10 American cities for seasonal and summer jobs

25th May 2023
view all

Twitter


Newsletters

Sign up for American City & County’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about local governments.

Resale Insights Dashboard

The Resale Insights Dashboard provides model-level data for the entire used equipment market to help you save time and money.

Municipal Cost Index

Updated monthly since 1978, our exclusive Municipal Cost Index shows the effects of inflation on the cost of providing municipal services

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital audience? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IWCE’s Urgent Communications
  • IWCE Expo

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us

FOLLOW American City and County ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.