Gregory heller philadelphia

Heller are trying to bridge it. He is among hundreds of public servants and nonprofit employees nationwide who are scrambling to unload hundreds of millions in federal aid for tenants before a Dec.

Heller, senior vice president for community investment at the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation, is so engulfed in his efforts that he now supplements the work of his support staff by taking calls from tenants and landlords on his cellphone. That way he can pitch in on answering questions and review applications on the fly, part of a rush to stave off a wave of evictions , one tenant at a time.

Philadelphia is a case study in the simple-but-not-easy task of helping tenants with the rent. Social programs are often a partnership in which cities provide funding and lay out rules but delegate the execution to quasi-governmental nonprofit organizations like Mr. But through rounds of rejiggering and three phases of funding — each with its own maze of rules and requirements — Mr. Heller said. Almost from the moment the pandemic spread across the United States, advocacy groups have warned that the economic fallout could cause mass displacement of low-income tenants.

In a pattern that predated the pandemic, the programs have been complicated by bureaucratic hurdles, competing budget demands and a reluctance among landlords to take part.

States passed legislation that piled local rules on top of the federal rules. Each layer was ostensibly created to improve programs — preventing fraud, making sure the money went to the neediest tenants — but added numerous hurdles for both tenants and landlords, and in the end cost time. Others are redirecting the funds to different purposes, lest they go unspent. None of this is for lack of demand. In interviews, more than a dozen officials of nonprofit groups and housing administrators reported a deluge of applications, while reports show tenants are piling up credit card bills, back rent and loans.

Tenant advocates, landlord organizations and local-government associations have called on Congress to extend the Dec. Like most U. Rents are lower than in markets like New York and San Francisco, but the burden on tenants is still high.

Despite this, federal aid for housing has been declining for decades, part of a continued disinvestment in the social safety net. The line for the federal Section 8 program, which gives vouchers to low-income renters, is more than a decade long in Philadelphia. It would also run an experiment, giving one group of households rental vouchers while another group of families got unrestricted cash assistance. Read the op-ed. This CEO Wants to Change the Real Estate Game In , Next City selected Greg as part of its Vanguard program — a n annual experiential urban leadership gathering of the best and brightest young urban leaders working to improve cities across sectors.

The daylong multidisciplinary conference brought together 14 engaging speakers, performers, and participants to explore issues of access and equity, spark conversations that matter, and showcase great ideas for building more just cities. Greg spoke about how social-impact real estate can shape our communities and cities.

Greg believes deeply in the mission of the organization to help families with children to break the cycle of homelessness. Edmund N. Bacon Urban Design Awards , an annual international student design challenge, today run by the Philadelphia Center for Architecture. Year after year, students from across the globe submit innovative design concepts for solving important urban issues, and the Center also presents the Edmund N.

Bacon Prize to a professional who has made significant contributions to the field of urban planning. Gregory Heller Follow. It really takes a village. Coordination between govt and the courts is key! The U. Search for:. Reply on Twitter Retweet on Twitter 3 Like on Twitter 8 Twitter In Philly, in addition to the courts requiring landlords to apply for rent assist before filing, there's another order that protects tenants with complete rent assist applications from lockouts.

Reply on Twitter Retweet on Twitter Like on Twitter 1 Twitter For the cities, counties, and states that are running out of emergency rental assistance funding, it is critical that USTreasury redistribute funds quickly so these places can keep their programs open and help as many families as possible!