Editors' Letter: SHORTAGE

While affordable housing is seemingly an evergreen issue in both National and local politics, it has become a top of mind priority that outpaces a litany of challenging problems. What makes it even more pervasive, is that it is not isolated to large metro areas that grab headlines. Take for example, Chambersburg, PA—a city of 22,354, whose 2020-2024 municipal plan includes tackling an unmet need of affordable housing options as one of their highest priorities. And they are not alone.  

What makes Philadelphia a unique place to have a pulse on this crisis is the open Mayoral primary taking place as we assemble this release of CONTEXT. As editors and residents of the city, we are able to get real time polling data on issues. According to the latest commissioned by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, housing comes in at number four behind crime, education, and the economy. Homelessness was right behind housing and is essentially linked, as there are an increasing number of housing insecure individuals and families as a direct result of a lack of affordable housing.  

The feeling of the polls are backed up by data as well. Throughout this issue there are a number of metrics that will be explored, but the top line is 40% of Philadelphia households are cost burdened with 22% being severely cost-burdened (greater than 50% of income is spent on housing). Philadelphia is not alone among peer cities with this statistic, but the numbers increase substantially at the lower income scale, where 76% of households earning between $10-30k per annum are cost burdened. Since Philly has been established as the poorest of the twenty-five largest cities, this puts a strain on a large portion of the population.  

However, challenging the problem is though, there are solutions out there. The contributors to this issue are prime examples of boots on the ground advocates actively supporting affordable housing. They demonstrate a variety of ways to share information and resources so that people can get together to form “community”, highlight the human scale energy uniting neighbors to form cultural identities, and they connect dreamers to capital to help turn their visions to reality. Finally, they shine a light on market factors and large forces beyond individual control that can shape policy and long-term thinking. 

Milton Lau, AIA  

Senior Associate at BLTa - A Perkins Eastman Studio  

Adjunct Faculty at the Boston Architectural College  
CONTEXT Editor  

Jeff Pastva, AIA, CPHC  

VP Development at Scannapieco   
Development  

CONTEXT Editor