From Plan Philly: Early next year, with the help of some state funding, the city is expected to launch a pilot program that will hand out loans to “small landlords” — those who own four or fewer units to make repairs. (Read more.)
From Generocity: Only 71.6 percent of households in the city had broadband in 2017, compared to 83.5 percent nationally. On the bright side, smartphone users in Center City can now use five of an eventual 100 kiosks to access the internet. (Read more.)
From Philadelphia Media Network: New census data released last week confirms what many in the city have long suspected: Big swaths of Philadelphia are nearly off the grid, with minimal access to fast internet services in their homes. (Read more.)
From Philadelphia Media Network: In grim and startling detail, a new five-year federal survey of poverty in Philadelphia shows a city still not recovered from the Great Recession — with white poverty exploding, inequality becoming the norm, and an out-of-the-way neighborhood experiencing some of the worst ravages of privation. (Read more.)
From Philadelphia Media Network: Our money bail system is a travesty. Every day in Philadelphia, people who are accused but not convicted of a crime are held in jail not because they are guilty, but because they are too poor to purchase their freedom. Judges here routinely put a price on a person’s liberty, and it is often one they cannot afford. One in four people is assigned money bail of $50,000 or more. (Read more.)
This is what family homelessness look like in Philadelphia — and how to solve it
From Philadelphia Media Network: The rate of unmarried white females having babies nearly tripled between 1980 and 2016, rising from 10 percent to almost 30 percent, according to Child Trends, a nonprofit research organization. That figure, which measures births to females ages 15 to 44, is about twice as high as the 15 percent of births to unmarried white females in 1990. (Read more.)
From Philadelphia Weekly: Almost half-way through its allotted 10-year timespan, the Promise Zone hasn’t yet made a big difference to many of those measures but has created links between the community, the City of Philadelphia and the federal government that didn’t exist before, and which are designed to lay the foundation for future progress. (Read more.)
From WURD: Liz Hersh is the Director of Homeless Services in Philadelphia. She joins Wake Up With WURD to talk about poverty, her position, and the programs that are available through the office. (Read more.)
From Philadelphia Media Network: It’s becoming a familiar story in this corner of the city, where an array of forces have conspired to drive up real estate prices and, in some cases, drive out low-income renters. (Read more.)
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