Planning and development present HOME initiative, Turn the Key progress and land-bank plans; tangled-title, garden acquisitions highlighted

Jesse Lawrence, director of the Department of Planning and Development (DPD), presented the department’s fiscal 2026 priorities to the Committee of the Whole, centering the HOME initiative to “create and preserve 30,000 housing units” and a set of neighborhood stabilization and land-management actions.

Lawrence told council DPD will coordinate comprehensive planning, affordable housing creation and preservation, land management via the Land Bank, and economic development programs tied to neighborhood infrastructure, foreclosure prevention and equity-focused appraisal changes.

Turn the Key and land-bank updates Angel Rodriguez, executive director of the Philadelphia Land Bank, provided metrics on Turn the Key and other land-bank activity. Rodriguez said the Land Bank has approved 800 properties for Turn the Key; about 400 are under construction; 235 have been completed and “over 200 have been sold.” He said 75 of the sold units were purchased by city employees and that the Land Bank has engaged about $13.1 million in Turn the Key secondary mortgages and $1.3 million for the Philly First Home program.

Rodriguez also told council the Land Bank secured roughly $5 million to resume sheriff-sale acquisitions and identified an additional roughly $1.5 million related to US Bank liens. He said the Land Bank planned a first bid on the city’s bid platform for a set of sheriff-sale properties in June and that acquisitions for those properties could occur then, subject to required legal notices and respondent options.

Community gardens and the US Bank lien properties Rodriguez said the city executed a memorandum of understanding to pursue acquisition of US Bank liens tied to properties that include community gardens. He said the sheriff-sale timeline and required statutory notices mean the Land Bank expects to record titles then proceed to disposition; he warned that dispositions requiring council resolution would likely occur in the fall because council is not in session during the June sheriff-sales period.

Tangled-title fund and foreclosure prevention Mark Dodds, deputy director for housing and community development, discussed tangled-title assistance and other foreclosure-avoidance supports. Dodds said the tangled-title fund currently covers costs up to $4,000 per case and that the department is communicating with legal aid partners about increased transfer-tax costs. “We do anticipate receiving somewhere in the neighborhood of $300,000 in FY26 as the increase in recording fees,” Dodds said, and staff are discussing how that revenue can help offset higher transaction costs for families.

Land Bank inventory and disposition DPD and Land Bank staff said the city’s inventory of public properties under agency management has been refined over the last decade; Angel Rodriguez said the Land Bank has disposed of about 1,017 properties since inception and currently manages about 6,000 properties in the public inventory. Rodriguez and DPD staff told council the Land Bank is increasing disposition capacity but needs additional project management and real-estate staffing to accelerate timelines.

Council questions and requests Council members asked for written breakdowns of MPI/HOME bridging plans, details about remaining MPI bond funds (council cited a $50 million figure), and clarity about which programs in HOME will be bridged from prior MPI commitments. Council also requested a streamlined application and support process for community garden groups that may be eligible to acquire US Bank lien properties, and DPD and the Land Bank said they would coordinate with nonprofit partners such as NGT on a specialized garden disposition application.

Why it matters HOME and Turn the Key represent large, cross-departmental efforts to expand affordable housing, reduce blight, and move public land into productive ownership. The Land Bank’s sheriff-sale work and tangled-title fund affect homeowners with complex title issues and community gardens at risk of losing stewardship rights if liens and sheriff-sale processes are not handled with notice and direct outreach.

Ending note DPD and Land Bank officials promised follow-up written materials and district-level briefings for council to clarify program timelines, inventory numbers and the planned June sheriff-sale process for US Bank lien properties.