Philadelphia Housing Authority Looks To Auction Off Vacant Property
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Philadelphia Housing Authority is unloading part of its unusually large inventory of vacant property by putting 400 sites up for sale by auction.
PHA director Michael Kelly stood in front of a boarded up rowhouse in a gentrifying area of North Philadelphia. Next door, its spruced up clone was decorated for Halloween, looking warm and inviting. The contrast showed the urgency of divesting some of the PHA's thousands of scattered sites.
"The housing authority would love to take full responsibility for bringing these wonderful units back to use as public housing but the reality is, especially in these hard times, we do not have the funds to do that."
Kelly says that presents an opportunity -- to get private owners to rehab the properties and use the money the PHA makes from the sale to make improvements on the homes it retains.
The auction will be held November 16th.
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Reported by Pat Loeb, KYW Newsradio
