Mayor Cherelle Parker’s first city budget since she took office in January is moving toward final approval, with few surprises — other than a new plan for a more than $100 million drug treatment center in Northeast Philadelphia.
The mayor said on Thursday that existing cottages on a city-owned property on State Road, next to Philadelphia’s jails, are already being rehabilitated and two new buildings will be constructed. The facility will reportedly have space to house and treat more than 600 people.
The project will support Parker’s effort to tamp down the open-air fentanyl market in Kensington and provide care for people in addiction, including potentially hundreds who are currently living on the neighborhood’s streets.
The plan apparently replaces the mayor’s earlier proposal to create multiple “triage centers” for drug users around the city.
That concept faced pushback after it was revealed the city had already started expanding a homeless shelter in Fairmount, and could potentially add more drug treatment services there, without first notifying nearby residents or councilmembers.
Treatment spending is “a drop in the bucket”
Parker said when she decided to put the treatment facility next to the city’s prison complex, she knew she would “receive a great deal of criticism, because people would say that I was attempting to criminalize addiction.”
She defended the choice, saying Philadelphia already owns the land and the facility will provide more health services for homeless people and drug users than the city has ever offered.
“Someone drove by yesterday and said, ‘Well, it looks like a prison,’” she said. “I don’t apologize about that. The public safety and security of the surrounding community, it comes first — the lighting, the cameras, the overall quality of life there, and ensuring that the services provided behind those fences behind the gates, that they do so with a sense of dignity.”
The Inquirer reported that the treatment center will cost $134 million over three years, but Parker suggested the total cost will be much higher. The $100 million in borrowing that City Council approved “doesn’t even pay for everything that we need to build at that particular location,” she said. “It’s the start. It’s a drop in the bucket.”
Councilmember Mike Driscoll, whose district includes the prison complex, said he was among those consulted on the location of the new treatment facility, which will be called the Riverview Wellness Center.
“I will work to ensure the city takes all measures to fully secure the site for those living in the surrounding community and those who may receive assistance there,” he said. “It is also my goal to make sure residents of the Northeast community in which the proposed facility would be located are prioritized first for those services.”
Rebuilding the University City Town Homes
The budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 is otherwise largely unchanged from the spending plan Parker proposed in March, except for the addition of some housing-related projects and other programs councilmembers pushed the administration to fund.
The budget will amount to $6.37 billion, slightly down from the current year’s $6.43 billion, in addition to a separate capital plan that will include the treatment center and other projects. Parker did not continue past administrations’ practice of making small reductions to business tax rates, although a new Tax Reform Commission could propose cuts in the coming months.
Among the additions is $14 million to support construction of 70 units of affordable housing at the site of the former University City Townhomes in West Philadelphia.
The owner’s decision two years ago to end the complex’s affordable housing contract and eventually demolish the buildings led to protests and a legal fight with the city, which concluded with an agreement for the city to create new housing there.
“I look forward to welcoming back the working-class, Black and brown families that have called this place home since it was known as the Black Bottom,” said Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who pushed for the housing and the city funding.
Gauthier and other councilmembers also touted a $19 million boost, above Parker’s initial proposal, for rental assistance aimed at preventing evictions. There’s also $5 million more for the Philadelphia Energy Authority’s Built to Last program, which coordinates free home repairs, weatherization, appliance electrification and rooftop solar for low-income households.
The latter will help the authority “in drawing down millions in federal funds through the Inflation Reduction Act and strengthen our city’s growing green economy,” councilmembers Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O’Rourke said in a statement.
In addition, City Council approved an increase in the Homestead Exemption from $80,000 to $100,000 in response to a recent citywide property revaluation. By lowering the taxable value of eligible homes, it will provide homeowners with tax savings of up to $280, the administration said. A new program freezing property tax increases for low-income homeowners will also go into effect.
More funds for police, trash pickup, and schools
One area where Parker did not yield is the Parks & Recreation budget, which will be $77.8 million. That’s a slight drop from this year, although the administration says parks will additionally benefit from spending by other city departments.
It’s also much less than the nearly $93 million that advocacy groups had called for. Demonstrators blocked streets last month during a protest of the parks budget and demanded more funding for rec centers, which they said would help city youth and prevent gun violence.
The Police Department’s $877.4 million budget for next year also technically represents a slight drop, due in part to a one-time $45 million allocation this past year for a planned forensics lab.
But the department will actually see a big increase in personnel spending as it hires more victim advocates and other staff, boosts pay for dispatchers, and funds the most recent police union contract, officials said. The city plans to hire 400 officers to help fill a large number of vacancies and replace a steady stream of retirees.
A major priority of Parker’s has been her “Clean and Green” initiative, which focuses on trash pickup, street cleaning, and addressing abandoned cars, vacant lots, and other blight.
The administration has said it will spend $36 million in new funding on a number of Clean and Green programs, including an expansion of PHL Taking Care of Business, which picks up trash on commercial corridors; a new Residential Cleaning Program; a twice-weekly curbside pickup pilot in some neighborhoods; new illegal dumping collection crews; more surveillance cameras; and more public trash cans.
The city is also hiking its contribution to the School District budget, which the administration says will amount to $24 million more in fiscal 2025, and boost support for the Community College of Philadelphia by $5 million.
WHYY reporter Tom MacDonald contributed to this article.
