Uh huh. See? Of course, this is a GOOD IDEA that should be applied everywhere...even here in suburbia...click on the title for full article

Low-income tenants squeezed out
Affordable-housing advocates want developers to do more.
By Jennifer Lin
Inquirer Staff Writer

Lillie Mae and Ray Wilson got the news about their $300-a-month South Philadelphia apartment in a form letter, slid under the door on Aug. 11.

"We regret to inform you that the building has been sold..."

The Wilsons have until the end of September to move from their studio apartment at 12th and Fitzwater Streets.

They have applied at several senior-citizen apartment houses, all with long waiting lists.

They have looked, to no avail, for a new home in their neighborhood, the hot Hawthorne section of South Philadelphia.

With time running out, the couple will move in with a friend who lives miles away in Hunting Park.

"We should have more time to find a decent place to live," said Lillie Mae Wilson, 61, a former nurse's aide. "It's disgusting."

The plight of the Wilsons is part of the push and pull upsetting many of the city's fastest-growing neighborhoods.

Advocates for affordable housing say the rapid rise in rents and home values, lifted by an unprecedented wave of luxury-home building in Center City, is displacing low-income tenants in many neighborhoods.

Their solution: Require developers to include a portion of affordable units in every project or contribute money to an affordable-housing fund.

..."New development in our city is very welcome," said Nora Lichtash, a member of the coalition and director of the Women's Community Revitalization Project, which serves North Philadelphia. "But we need to make sure that people who have lived in these neighborhoods are not pushed out, and that's happening in neighborhood after neighborhood."

.... The concept of inclusionary housing is growing across the country, with about 300 towns and cities - including Boston, Denver, San Diego and San Francisco - having such laws.

Builders in Philadelphia are under no obligation to add affordable housing. Rather, the matter is handled on a project-by-project basis, with political pressure from City Council members playing a key role.

Local builders and developers say the idea of inclusionary housing couldn't come at a worse time.

"Interest rates are going up, material costs are going up, labor costs are going up, the market is cooling off. You don't want to add something else to the pot that would make the market any slower than it is," said William Reddish 3d, a Germantown-based builder and president of the Building Industry Association....