Philadelphia has about 20 vacant school properties across the city, causing increased pressure from the community to do something with them.
There is now a new resolution that the Philadelphia Board of Education will vote on that would bring new life to these vacant school buildings, writes Raymond Strickland for CBS News Philadelphia.
If passed, the new resolution would give the School District of Philadelphia the ability to hand the properties over to the city. From there, those vacant school buildings could potentially be turned into affordable housing units.
“We need to put this land to its highest and best use. We need to improve the quality of life in neighborhoods by building housing to replace these old and blighted buildings,” Mayor Cherelle Parker said in a statement to CBS News Philadelphia.
According to Philadelphia Board of Education president Reginald Streater, the School District’s more than 300 school buildings average approximately 73 years old.
He added that while the School District is “chronically and constitutionally underfunded,” there is a responsibility to explore all options to focus on its limited resources while staying true to its core mission of educating students.
Read more about the city’s vacant school buildings, why they are a problem, and how this resolution could help solve many of them at CBS News Philadelphia.
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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on PHILADELPHIA Today in December 2025.
