The Philadelphia Housing Authority had placed the family on a wait list to get different housing, an agency spokesperson said Monday, but when a family outgrows their home, the lack of affordable housing means “it may take years to find a more appropriately sized unit.”
Philadelphia fire kills a dozen peoplelast week’s fire in a Fairmount row houseTwenty people were registered as living in the duplex in the 800 block of North 23rd Street where a fire killed 12 members of one family.ranging in age from 2 to 16. It was unclear how many people were inside at the time of the early morning fire. Fire officials initially said 26.
The Philadelphia Housing Authority is obligated to find larger units for families that outgrow their homes or to find separate units, according to PHA policies. PHA had placed the family on a wait list to get different housing, an agency spokesperson said Monday, but when a family outgrows their home, the lack of affordable housing means “it may take years to find a more appropriately sized unit.”
Housing advocates point to a lack of adequate housing that people can afford, underfunded public housing, and insufficient support for cost-burdened tenants. About 40% of Philadelphia households are cost burdened — meaning they spend 30% or more of their incomes on housing — according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. More than two-thirds of these households earn annual incomes below $30,000.
Margaret Wayne, grandmother of Virginia Thomas’ children, said that in a conversation the night before the fire, Thomas said she wanted to move out with her children. Thomas had recently asked a Facebook friend she hadn’t spoken to in three years whether he knew of a place she could stay. In addition to the immediate danger of having too many people living in a home, tenants forced into these situations may also be reluctant to flag potential safety concerns if they have people living with them who aren’t on their lease, said Rasheedah Phillips, director of housing at PolicyLink and a former housing attorney at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia.
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