I read with interest the Jan. 15 Chestnut Hill Local story, by Tommy Tucker, (“PHA plans $84 million revitalization of Germantown Settlement properties”) that Councilmember Cindy Bass and Kelvin Jeremiah, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA), announced plans to revitalize the former Germantown Settlement properties. While I admire their goal of removing blight by building and renovating 153 apartments and houses (1-5 bedrooms each), is spending $549,000 per unit the most efficient and effective way to provide affordable homes for Philadelphia’s low income families?

Consider that my Germantown-based company, Philly Office Retail, is spending $284,000 per unit to build brand new, ground-up apartments on Germantown Avenue, not far from these vacant, deteriorated properties. And graduates of my Jumpstart Germantown Training Program spent an average of $152,000 per house buying and renovating 2-5 bedroom, former PHA homes into safe, quality, deed-restricted affordable housing.

The need for deeply affordable housing in Philadelphia is unquestionable. According to a recent research brief by The Housing Initiative at Penn entitled “Current Housing Needs in Philadelphia,” our city has a shortage of more than 64,500 units of affordable housing available to low-income households. And 70% of renters and 63% of homeowners, with incomes below 30% of Average Median Income (AMI), spend more than half of their income on housing. Mayor Cherelle Parker’s H.O.M.E. Initiative highlights the need to produce at least 30,000 units of new and improved housing in our city.

We can be better stewards of the limited government funding available and use the $84 million to create much more than 153 units of affordable housing. I was glad to hear that PHA’s plan is preliminary so they can still change course and better invest in our Germantown community.

Consider that with $84 million, PHA can:

• Provide 365 families with $230,000 each (the average sale price of a house in Philadelphia) so they can buy their own home and begin to create a nest egg for themselves and their family.

• Offer 155 families, with limited incomes, a housing subsidy of $1,500 per month for 30 years, saving PHA expensive monthly maintenance costs.

• Transfer these blighted apartments and houses to small, local developers, with subsidies of $200,000 per unit, so they can build and renovate all 153 units in exchange for placing a 30-year, affordability deed restriction on each property. The remaining $53,400,000 could be used to extend the Section 8 program to an additional 99 families at $1,500 per month for 30 years. This strategy is my personal favorite because it enables local developers and community development corporations to do what they do best, provide quality, affordable housing, and allows PHA to continue what they do best, providing subsidies to mostly small, for-profit and nonprofit landlords.

We need to be smart about how we use our precious government resources. Local, state and federal government has an important role in making sure all Philadelphians can access basic human needs, including quality, affordable housing, but they should not be acting as real estate developers at nearly four times the cost of the private sector. Do the math!

Ken Weinstein is president of Philly Office Retail and founder of Jumpstart Germantown.