Hundreds of vacant PHA homes deemed uninhabitable as thousands wait for housing

Brooke Lewis grew up coming to her grandmother’s home in Brewerytown. Now, she and her own family call it home. 

The neighbors, however, have changed. Lewis says raccoons have taken up residence next door. 

The home to the left of Lewis’ was demolished earlier this year — after sitting vacant for more than 30 years. The two houses to the right are boarded up and deemed uninhabitable by the city’s Office of Property Assessments. 

All three properties are owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

“It’s kind of sad because people that need homes,” Lewis said about the vacancies amid the 40,000+ waitlist for public housing. “They could be in them, living in them, renovating them, selling them. It’s kind of messed up.”

Lewis isn’t the only one living next to vacant PHA properties. 

The NBC10 Investigators spoke with residents in various neighborhoods who live next to PHA shells. Neighbors described overgrown trees and weeds, rodent infestations, water damage and concerns that the deteriorating structures could threaten their adjacent properties.

“We complained about the bricks in the back, they were separating, the mortar was coming out and I was afraid it was going to take my house with it,” said Jay Jones, who lives in North Philly next to a PHA property that was vacant for 15 years — until the city demolished it this fall. 

The Philadelphia Housing Authority declined to provide the NBC10 Investigators with a full inventory of its vacant properties, citing safety concerns. Unlike private property owners, the agency is not required to obtain vacant property licenses through the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections.

The city’s Office of Property Assessment does keep track of property conditions, grading them from 1 as new construction to 7 which are properties that are shells, sealed and structurally compromised. 

The NBC10 Investigators found that as of last year, PHA had 235 properties across Philadelphia that were classified by the city as “uninhabitable” or “structurally compromised.” Another 59 were labeled as having “substantial damage” and “less likely adequate for habitability.”

PHA President and CEO Kelvin Jeremiah said the agency does not have the funding needed to maintain or redevelop all of its properties.

“We receive approximately $50 million. We have approximately $2 billion worth of needs,” Jeremiah said. 

Jeremiah said every property in PHA’s portfolio has a plan, whether it is slated for rehabilitation, assembled into a larger redevelopment project, or sold. The agency rehabilitated about 1,100 properties last year and plans to rehab a similar number in 2026. 

“I would ask residents who are living next to some of these assets, please be patient with us. I don’t print money,” he said. “In some cases, these were assets that we got back in the 1960s and 70s in the very condition that they are in right now.” 

Lou Thomas, an assistant professor at Rowan University who studies housing and redevelopment, said older housing stock often requires costly remediation before it can be safely reoccupied.

“There’s extra layers of red tape, which are good because it means the housing that people eventually get is good quality,” Thomas said about public housing. “But it does mean it’s more expensive to get it done and harder.”

The NBC10 Investigators spoke with Thomas in front of a PHA-owned vacant home in South Philly that last had a tenant in 2018. 

Thomas said deferred maintenance can catch up to a property. 

“It’s often cheaper to tear it down and rebuild,” he said. 

In some cases, PHA properties deteriorate to such an unsafe or dangerous condition that the city demolished them.

That was the case with the house to the left of Lewis. 

City records show the property was deemed unsafe in 2015 and later cited as “imminently dangerous” in July 2024. The city demolished the structure in September, adding to the Housing Authority’s inventory of about 1,300 vacant lots.

PHA said it is in the final stages of transferring the properties next to Lewis’ home to an affordable housing developer. 

Lewis says she hopes that means getting new neighbors soon– before her third child is born. 

“It’s not safe for kids,” she said.