Mayor Parker’s $2 Billion H.O.M.E. plan to tackle housing & climate change

Here’s how the city plans to retrofit the aging housing stock and support existing repair programs.

Philadelphia is facing two challenges: the need to increase affordable housing and mitigate the effects of climate change, which include increased temperatures and precipitation. As climate change intensifies, how do we keep Philadelphians in their homes? 

For the Parker administration, one solution is funding. 

Parker’s plan: $2 Billion towards housing

City Council voted to give preliminary approval to Mayor Parker’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget on June 5th, which includes $2 billion towards the mayor’s Housing Opportunities Made Easy (aka H.O.M.E.) Initiative. H.O.M.E. aims to create and preserve 30,000 housing units for Philadelphians. Energy efficiency upgrades and weatherization of units will be necessary to keep residents in aging homes as Philadelphia slides into hotter and wetter weather patterns each year.

Philadelphia has an old housing stock; 64% of housing units were built before 1960. Renovating existing affordable multi-family housing to be more energy-efficient and climate-resilient, or “retrofitting” the houses, is a comparably cost-effective way to upgrade housing stock.

The H.O.M.E. Initiative will be considering retrofitting recommendations from a complementary project between the City and the Urban Land Institute (ULI-Philly). The project, which is under the Net Zero Imperative program, brings together experts in affordable housing and decarbonization to provide concrete steps for the city towards carbon-neutral building through a workshop. 

ULI Philly is working with both the Division of Housing and Community Development and the Housing Development Corporation to create a report summarizing the outcomes of the workshop. “The City of Philadelphia plans to utilize the recommendations for strategic planning in affordable housing preservation work,” according Jamila Davis, a spokesperson from the Department of Planning and Development, via an emailed statement. 

Neighboring state New York already has laws in place that require buildings to increase their energy efficiency and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The full report addresses housing affordability inequities as a barrier for climate preparedness. Reaching carbon neutrality is an out-of-reach goal for many low-income households without subsidies or grants. 

Expanding access to repairs & resilience

Mayor Parker’s  H.O.M.E. plan expands investments in a few existing programs that are geared to help Philadelphia homeowners access funding for repairs, energy upgrades, and weatherization. Namely, the initiative supports the Basic Systems Repair Program, which provides free emergency home repairs to eligible owner-occupied homes; and the Restore, Repair, Renew program, which provides low-interest loans to homeowners to invest in their properties through upgrades related to health, safety, and quality of life. Investing in both programs “is a key foundational step” for homeowners to address energy and weatherization needs by addressing immediate health and safety needs first, said Davis in the statement. 

Long-term planning is underway. Residents may have more information about climate-resilient homes from the Office of Sustainability (OOS) in four years. OOS is set to assemble a Residential Climate Resilience Toolkit in 2028, contingent on funding from a federal Housing and Urban Development “Pathways to Removing Obstacles” grant. 

Zoning and land use will also be changing through and alongside the initiative. Businesses and multi-family housing complexes previously ineligible for the Green Roof Bonus in the 5th City Council District may be eligible moving forward. District 5 Councilmember Jeffery Young removed a district overlay exemption from the bonus as part of the H.O.M.E. package on May 1st. 

The initiative further supports a Transit-Oriented Communities framework in future land use decisions, expanding opportunities for greater density housing and reduced parking requirements within a one-quarter-mile radius of transit stations. Legislation for the framework will be prepared in the Fall. 

Cover Photo: Edan Cohen via UnSplash

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