GAO/RCED-OO-249R Logan Updated Data

United States General Accounting Office

Washington, DC 20548

Resources, Community, and

Economic Development Division

B-285800

July 18, 2000

The Honorable Wayne Allard

Chairman

The Honorable Rick Santorum

Vice Chairman

Subcommittee on Housing and Transportation

Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs

United States Senate

The Honorable Arlen Specter

Chairman

Subcommittee on Labor, Health and

Human Services and Education

Committee on Appropriations

United States Senate

Subject: Community Development: Update of Data on the Efforts by the City of

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Relocate and Compensate Residents of the

Logan Triangle Area

In 1987, the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delineated the boundaries of a 17-block

area containing over 900 townhouses, known as the Logan Triangle Area, and

established a relocation plan to assist the property owners and tenants residing in this

area. The relocation of Logan Triangle residents was necessary because their homes,

which were built on an ash and cinder landfill between 1910 and 1930, were sinking.

Relocation under the city’s plan was voluntary and consisted of an offer to purchase

Logan homes and/or relocate tenants if they desired to move.

In June 2000, 1

we reported to you that as of December 31, 1999, Philadelphia’s Logan

Assistance Corporation had relocated and/or compensated 499 Logan Triangle

property owners and tenants, or about 70 percent of the 714 owners and tenants

eligible to be relocated and compensated. The remaining 215 eligible property owners

1

Community Development: Information on the Efforts by the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to

Relocate and Compensate Residents of the Logan Triangle Area (GAO/RCED-00-165R, June 9, 2000).
B-285800

2 GAO/RCED-OO-249R Logan Updated Data

who had not been relocated or compensated consisted of 186 property owners who

moved on their own without receiving compensation and 29 owners with occupied

properties.

You asked us to update the data that we presented in our June 2000 report on the

number of residents of the Logan Triangle area who relocated or were compensated

since January 1, 2000. Specifically, you asked us to determine the (1) total number of

eligible owners and tenants who had been relocated and/or compensated and (2)

number of eligible property owners who have not been relocated or compensated,

including whether these owners represented property owners who moved on their

own without receiving compensation or had currently occupied properties.

According to the Logan Assistance Corporation, as of June 28, 2000, 11 property

owners have been relocated or compensated since January 1, 2000—4 Logan owners

with occupied properties and 7 homeowners who moved on their own without

receiving compensation. Consequently, as of June 28, 2000, the Logan Assistance

Corporation had relocated and/or compensated a total of 510 Logan Triangle property

owners and tenants, or about 71 percent of the 714 eligible owners and tenants to be

relocated and compensated. The remaining 204 eligible property owners who have

not been relocated or compensated consist of 179 property owners who moved on

their own without receiving compensation and 25 owners with occupied properties.

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We are providing copies of this report to the Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo, the

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; Philadelphia’s Office of Housing and

Community Development; the Corporation; and Councilwoman Marian Tasco. We

will also make copies available to others on request.

Please call me at (202) 512-7631 if you or your staff have any questions about this

report. Key contributors to this report were James Vitarello, Patrick Doerning, and

Robert Procaccini.

Stanley J. Czerwinski

Associate Director, Housing and Community

Development Issues

(385873)
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