Affordability — viewed as a key issue in the upcoming midterm election — dominated conversation Wednesday on City Hall’s fourth floor.
City Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke, an at-large member representing the Working Families Party, organized a committee hearing to discuss his office’s 40-page cost of living report, which was developed by a task force over the last year.
“A foolish, costly war that the Trump administration started is stressing the seams of the world economy in a very tangible and real way,” O’Rourke said. “The massive gamble that this country has taken on AI comes with the explicit promise by its creators to kill jobs, to displace workers.
“We’re in a moment where we must grow more nimble as municipalities.”
Rising housing, utility and childcare costs are forcing families to cut back elsewhere, task force members and other stakeholders testified. For those in the lower-income brackets, these pressures are pushing people to the brink of homelessness and hunger, they added.
“This crisis is getting worse,” said Marianne Fray, president and CEO of the Maternity Care Coalition. “Last year when federal SNAP benefits lapsed, one mother told us, ‘If I have to choose between feeding my baby and changing her diaper, I’m going to pick feeding. But why am I being forced to make that choice?’”
Over the last two years, prices have risen 7.7% in the Delaware Valley, compared to 6.4% nationally, according to Saloni Tandon, of the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia.
“We need to fix the economy for our people and our neighborhoods,” Councilmember Jim Harrity, who lives in Kensington, remarked. “My neighbors can’t take another thing.”
Congress in July 2025 passed H.R. 1, or the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which implemented new work requirements for recipients of benefits through Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, previously known as food stamps.
Beth McConnell, of the city’s Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity (CEO), told lawmakers that 59,000 fewer Philadelphia residents were enrolled in SNAP in August, compared to the year prior. The work rules went into place in September 2025.
Even more are expected to be booted off Medicaid, which insures more than 40% of the city’s population, when the requirement goes into effect in January, she said.
CEO has been conducting a text campaign to reach individuals who may have fallen out of SNAP but still need food assistance, according to McConnell. Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration, she added, is also exploring the possibility of sharing data with state authorities to automatically exempt qualifying Medicaid recipients from the work mandate.
The task force report, entitled “Affordable Philly Now,” recommends establishing a locally funded SNAP supplement program and looking into a similar initiative for Medicaid.
Council should also examine legislation chartering municipal grocery stores, as Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration has done in New York, the document states.
Other suggestions include a summer air conditioning subsidy for low-income households and a ballot initiative to establish a Transit Access Fund. The fund, which has previously been pushed by O’Rourke, would provide a permanent source of revenue for the city’s Zero Fare program, which provides SEPTA passes to poor residents.
“We know that there are some bold recommendations in this report, but we think it’s important because right now is the time for bold recommendations,” said Vik Patel, a task force member and vice chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association. “We don’t have the luxury of moving slowly. Our neighbors, our family members are struggling every day.”
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