Mayor Cherelle Parker’s $800 million bond initiative will provide funding for dozens of housing policies, and the first tranche of the bonds, worth $400 million, will be sold in the fall. The earliest the funds will start to flow to the housing initiatives is October. Parker administration officials have outlined how much funding they hope to see allocated to many of the programs in the Housing Opportunities Made Easy (H.O.M.E.) plan. Here are their biggest priorities:

• Turn the Key: Parker’s administration hopes to allocate $112 million to Turn the Key, a program that offers very cheap city-owned land to developers so they can build for-sale homes for first-time homebuyers who make less than 100% of area median income. The program also includes secondary mortgages paid for by the city that lower the up-front costs for homeownership.
• Basic Systems Repair Program: The administration wants to spend $84 million bolstering the popular, long-standing city policy that gives lower-income homeowners grants for house repairs. The administration wants the income limit for the program to be increased to 100% of AMI, expanding access.
• One Philly Mortgage and Philly First Home: Parker wants to put $50.7 million toward One Philly Mortgage, which would go to first-time homeowners who might not qualify for conventional mortgages. Meanwhile, $50 million would expand the Philly First Home program, another first-time homeowner-assistance program that covers down payment and loan closing costs for mortgages up to $250,000. 

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Source: Philadelphia Inquirer; 6/13/2025