PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia City Council wrapped up its 2022 session Thursday with a busy agenda.
Council passed three bills designed to strengthen abortion rights in the city by making reproductive health information private, protecting providers from being sued by out-of-state abortion opponents, and making it illegal to discriminate against someone because they’ve had an abortion.
“This legislation shows that we are responsive to the needs of our residents, and that whenever our rights are under attack, we won’t remain silent. We will stand up and fight back,” said Kendra Brooks, one of the bills’ sponsors.
Council set itself a busy agenda for when it returns in January. On Thursday, they introduced bills to create a new committee on neighborhood services, a special commission on city employee retention and recruitment, and a directory of affordable housing that sponsor Jamie Gauthier said was meant to preserve units.
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“We will have a unified way of keeping track of when affordability at a particular property is at risk, and provide a longer runway to create solutions that preserve affordability,” said Gauthier.
“Requiring property owners who intend to sell their affordable properties to notify affordable housing providers of their intent to sell will allow time for potential fundraising efforts to buy and maintain the properties as affordable.”
Supporters cheered when Council passed Gauthier’s bill that gives community land trusts priority to purchase public land for community gardens and affordable housing.
Council President Darrell Clarke and Councilmember Cindy Bass also proposed a bill to create more affordable housing by reviving the 10-year-tax abatement for development along a blighted swath of North Broad Street, if at least 30% of housing units are affordable.
Clarke’s bill would take advantage of a new state law that allows local governments to provide tax exemptions for improvements to “deteriorated areas and dwellings” as an incentive to revive or create affordable housing.
The law, introduced by state Rep. Jared Solomon, D-Philadelphia, passed in July. He predicted it would expand access to affordable housing in a dramatic and unprecedented way.
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The law allows taxing authorities to grant low-income taxpayers a refund or forgiveness of tax increases caused by a rate hike or a higher assessment within designated areas.
Clarke said there’s interest in using the strategy citywide.
“This is exciting. It’s a start because sometimes in City Council, we have to take baby steps,” said Clarke.
Council also passed bills regulating sales of catalytic converters to discourage theft and authorizing hearings on the status of the city’s COVID-19 recovery and on discrimination against renters who pay with housing vouchers.