Los demócratas del Senado debaten la escasez y la falta de vivienda en una audiencia política 

Marzo 15, 2022

Senadora Katie Muth

FILADELFIA, 15 de marzo de 2022 - La senadora estatal Katie Muth (D- Berks/Chester/Montgomery), presidenta del Comité de Política Demócrata del Senado de Pensilvania, se unió a los senadores Sharif Street, Nikil Saval, Amanda Cappelletti, Tina Tartaglione y Art Haywood para celebrar una audiencia pública sobre la escasez de vivienda y la falta de vivienda contemporánea ayer en la Universidad de Temple.

"Tenemos que abordar la cuestión de la injusticia económica, desde el aumento de los salarios hasta salarios dignos reales y garantizar que los precios de los alquileres y la vivienda sean justos, transparentes y flexibles en función de la situación financiera de cada persona", afirmó Muth. "Todos los niveles de gobierno deben aplicar políticas que garanticen que el dinero público se destina realmente a ayudar a los ciudadanos, y no a los ricos, a las empresas inmobiliarias privadas y a las empresas de capital privado que ganan miles de millones con las subvenciones financiadas por los contribuyentes y desahucian a las personas que no pueden permitirse pagar unos precios de alquiler y vivienda que se disparan. Espero que nuestra audiencia y el apasionado testimonio proporcionado por Pennsylvanians reales que viven estos desafíos obliga a esta conversación en el debate presupuestario en curso y en todos los 67 condados y las prioridades del gobierno local."

The policy hearing featured three panels of participants who presented testimony and discussed personal stories about housing scarcity, houselessness, and the government’s responsibility to provide safe, affordable, and accessible housing in Pennsylvania.

“The recent tragic fire in Philadelphia’s Fairmount community that claimed the lives of 12, including 9 children, began with a failure of government. A family was forced to make the untenable choice of cramming eighteen individuals into a single unit because of a lack of resources. Housing is security and dignity. Years of divestment from every level of government have been an abdication of government’s duty to protect the communities they serve,” Street said. “The fundamental question for society and government is ‘how do we create accessible, safe and affordable housing for all?’  I look forward to joining my colleagues in creating policy to address the critical issue of housing scarcity.”

Testifiers at the hearing included Gail Loney, a North Central Philadelphia resident; Alisha Robinson, a Frankford resident; Kelvin Jeremiah, president and CEO, Philadelphia Housing Authority; Aaron Zappia, Senior Government Relations Manager, Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania; Andrew Frishkoff, Executive Director, Philadelphia Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC); and Stephanie Sena, Anti-Poverty Fellow & Housing Advocate, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law.

“The housing crisis is not unsolvable—we need to act to ameliorate it at every chance we get,” Saval added. “That means raising wages, building equity into our systems, and preserving affordable housing by giving people what they need to repair and maintain and stay in their homes.”

All submitted testimony from the policy hearing and the full video is available at SenatorMuth.com/Policy.

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Testimonio

Panel 1: Experiencia vivida

  • Gail Loney, residente en el centro norte de Filadelfia
  • Alisha Robinson, residente en Frankford

Panel 2: La Autoridad de Vivienda de Filadelfia

Panel 3: Soluciones políticas

Testimonio adicional