Philadelphia had spent $38 million of the $278 million approved for the first phase of Mayor Cherelle Parker’s signature housing initiative as of September 30, according to a city controller report released this week. That spending snapshot is separate from the city’s tally of homes built or preserved under Housing Opportunities Made Easy, or H.O.M.E., an $800 million bond-funded plan intended to build or preserve 30,000 units during Parker’s first term.
Spending Lags Behind the Budget
The city had spent money on four of H.O.M.E.’s 29 programs and strategies as of September 30, according to the controller’s report, as reported by Inquirer.com. That was roughly 13% of the first-phase budget. The four funded programs were existing initiatives receiving additional support, rather than newly created efforts. The Basic Systems Repair Program received just under $26 million, the most of any H.O.M.E. program. It provides critical repairs such as electrical, plumbing, heating and roofing work, as well as some structural repairs, according to WHYY.
What Basic Systems Repair Covers
The city describes the Basic Systems Repair Program as providing free emergency repairs to eligible owner-occupied single-family homes in Philadelphia, according to the City of Philadelphia.
Twenty-five other approved projects had no related expenditures by the end of September, according to the controller’s report. Brady said more of the approved funding needs to reach programs, while expressing support for H.O.M.E. and the role of affordable housing in neighborhood stability.
City Says Demand Is Strong, Spending Will Accelerate
Angela Brooks of the Parker administration said the four programs reviewed by the controller are on pace to use their full budgets and more, citing strong demand for repairs and accessibility modifications. She said the administration expects spending to accelerate over the rest of the fiscal year and that project spending is tied to milestones rather than a calendar, as reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Brooks said the four longstanding repair and eviction-prevention programs had put nearly $38 million of their budgets to work, accounting for more than half of their first-year budgets. She said repair and accessibility dollars mostly benefited residents in North, West and Southwest Philadelphia.
Unspent H.O.M.E. funds will remain available for city spending on the programs in the following fiscal year, and the city is budgeted to spend the remaining $240 million by June 30, 2027, as noted by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Still, bond proceeds lose real value over time as inflation chips away at the purchasing power of borrowed money during spending delays.
How the $278 Million Figure Took Shape
City Council approved $278 million for the first phase of H.O.M.E. in January, per the Inquirer's account of the controller's findings. Philadelphia City Council had separately reapproved authorization in January to issue $800 million in bonds to fund the plan, according to a report from inquirer.com, with the city budgeted to spend the remaining $240 million by the end of the current fiscal year on June 30, 2027. Philadelphia issued the first of two planned $400 million bond issuances in early 2026, City of Philadelphia reported City of Philadelphia. Earlier coverage from WHYY had described the first-year plan as committing roughly $277 million, a figure Philadelphia City Council itself put at more than $277 million when the legislation passed, while the controller's report and the Inquirer's seed account both cite $278 million for the first-phase authorization — a discrepancy the available record does not resolve.
Parker proposed H.O.M.E. in February 2025, building on a promise she made during her 2023 mayoral campaign to create 30,000 affordable housing units, per a report from The Philadelphia Inquirer. The plan is primarily funded by the $800 million in city bonds, split into two equal $400 million installments.
Unit Count Climbs, But Most Is Preservation
Philly Stat 360, the city’s data dashboard, tallied 16,394 homes built or preserved under H.O.M.E. as of Tuesday afternoon. That tally does not establish how many homes were directly funded by H.O.M.E.: the Parker administration did not respond to a request for that breakdown, and officials have said the count includes market-rate and affordable homes, including units built by private developers during Parker’s term.
More than 70% of that total is tied to the plan's preservation programs rather than new construction, per WHYY. The outlet also reported that more than 80% of H.O.M.E.'s preservation dollars have gone to households earning up to 50% of area median income, while more than 70% of production dollars have gone to households earning up to 120% of AMI — or $143,300 a year for a family of four. More than 400 homes have been built through Turn the Key, the program that uses vacant city land to help first-time buyers purchase houses, with the amended legislation allocating $43.5 million to that program.
New Programs Still Coming Online
The administration is also moving forward with zoning reforms and streamlined redevelopment processes as part of H.O.M.E., and plans to launch the One Philly Mortgage program later this year to help first-time homebuyers earning up to 120% of area median income. Separately, the city is pursuing an effort to bring up to five modular-home factories to Philadelphia, backed by $10 million in the current budget — part of a broader set of new programs that are still coming online or have yet to formally launch, according to WHYY's reporting.
The spending gap comes against a backdrop of fast-rising housing costs in the city. The typical monthly mortgage cost in Philadelphia rose 61% between 2019 and 2024, according to PolicyMap, while the median home sale price climbed to $240,000 in 2024, up 37% from 2019. Lower-quartile home prices rose even faster, up 56% to $145,000 over the same period. About one in three renters and one in five homeowners in Philadelphia earn at or below 30% of area median income, per WHYY's reporting on the plan.
