Based in West Philadelphia, ACHIEVEability develops and manages affordable housing, provides a wide variety of supportive services to families and the community, and engages in community organizing, commercial corridor development, and community-based participatory research in partnership with local universities. Econsult Solutions, Inc. (ESI) was retained by ACHIEVEability to estimate the impact that the nonprofit has on the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in addition to individuals and families associated with the program. Special focus was placed on quantifying ACHIEVEability’s impact by examining property values, construction work, operating expenditures, programmatic impact and its effect on retail corridors.
ESI measured the impact that ACHIEVEability’s construction activities have on nearby property values, and determined that houses within a quarter-mile of an ACHIEVEability-developed home appreciated at a rate 1.4 percentage points higher than the average house in West Philadelphia.
ESI estimated the total economic impact associated with ACHIEVEability’s housing development activities, using an input-output model, and determined that ACHIEVEability’s efforts stimulated economic activity, resulting in jobs created in construction and in other industries, and tax revenues generated.
Overall, ACHIEVEability’s work generates a significant economic return to the families it serves, in the form of increased earnings and decreased reliance on public subsidies. It also generates a significant economic return to the City and the Commonwealth as a whole, in the form of household wealth gains, jobs created, government expenditures on public subsidies reduced, tax revenues generated, and strengthened retail corridors.
