Transforming Vacant Land
PHS partners with local businesses and community groups to transform vacant lots into vibrant green spaces that provide lasting benefits for neighborhoods.
Vacant Lot Beautification
With support from the City of Philadelphia, PHS partners with local businesses and community groups to transform vacant lots into vibrant green spaces that provide lasting benefits for neighborhoods. Through PHS LandCare, we replace waste with grass, trees, and plants in over 12,000 vacant lots across the city.
Building on more than two decades of results in Philadelphia, PHS LandCare launched in the City of Chester in 2026, our first expansion outside the city. In partnership with the Chester Partnership for Safe Neighborhoods, we’re bringing the same proven model of cleaning, greening, and caring for vacant land to Chester neighborhoods. Learn more.
Research demonstrates the following outcomes for nearby neighbors. Learn more about PHS’s program model and impact.
How it Works
PHS works with local neighbors and community groups to identify target neighborhoods and parcels of land that are abandoned, blighted, and subject to persistent illegal dumping. With approval from the City of Philadelphia, PHS is granted site access to clean and green these vacant lots. Since PHS doesn’t own the land, some lots are transformed into businesses, housing, commercial properties, or permanent green spaces.
Each site is maintained twice a month throughout the year. Vacant lots can receive the following programming:
- With the help of small business contractors, PHS stabilizes vacant lots by leveling the soil, clearing weeds and debris, growing grass, installing fencing, and planting trees. 87% of contractor businesses are minority and/or women owned.
- PHS collaborates with 21 community-based organizations to offer job opportunities to local residents, enabling them to maintain vacant lots in their neighborhoods.
- Select vacant lots include pollinator garden installations, community gardens, murals and other community-driven programming.
Businesses and community groups are encouraged to hire from the PHS Workforce Development program. PHS provides horticultural and landscape training, job placement, and ongoing support to Philadelphia residents impacted by underemployment. Many are placed to work with LandCare contractors and community organizations, allowing more lots to be revitalized.
With support from the City of Philadelphia
PHS partners with local businesses and community groups to transform vacant lots into vibrant green spaces that provide lasting benefits for neighborhoods. Through PHS LandCare, we replace waste with grass, trees, and plants in over 12,000 vacant lots across the city.
Our Impact
Research shows that residents living near PHS LandCare sites experience significant health benefits, including reduced stress and increased physical activity. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania and other institutions found that neighbors living near these green spaces reported a 40% decrease in feelings of depression. Additionally, another research study showed a 29% reduction in gun violence in neighborhoods near Philadelphia LandCare lots.
Read our 2025–2026 LandCare Program Evaluation Executive Summary to learn what neighbors across Philadelphia are saying about the program’s impact.
Wharton Research Shows Revitalizing Vacant Lots Pays Dividends
A study by the Institute for Urban Research, funded by Analytics at Wharton, found that properties within a 1,000-foot radius of a greened lot saw an average 4.3% increase in value after the first year, with a cumulative increase of 13% after six years.
Growing Climate-Resiliency
In 2020, National Wildlife Federation piloted a project with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Philadelphia LandCare program to transform a network of vacant lots into climate-resilient wildlife habitat. Funding for this project was provided by a grant award made by the Wildlife Conservation Society through its Climate Adaptation Fund. Support to establish the Climate Adaptation Fund was provided by a grant to Wildlife Conservation Society from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Pollinator Gardens in Vacant Lots
Pollinator gardens contain a variety of native plants that provide pollinators with food, shelter, and places to raise young. Given the importance of these pollinator sanctuaries, we’ve started to plant them on our cleaned up lots.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
PHS works with over two dozen local non-profit organizations and for-profit contractors to maintain the vacant land in Philadelphia. As such, we do not hire directly for vacant land maintenance. We do offer a workforce development program to onboard interested individuals into landscaping and horticultural positions.
Most of the sites in the PHS Landcare inventory are submitted to and approved by the City of Philadelphia. This makes them eligible to receive fencing, new topsoil, lawn, and trees under our Philadelphia Landcare program. However, not every vacant parcel is eligible for this process, but the PHS LandCare program is still able to tend to some of the parcels that need maintenance. Our community partners recommend sites they would like to maintain in their neighborhoods, and these are our Community Landcare sites that do not have our PHS fencing.
The PHS LandCare program only has the resources to provide bi-monthly grass cutting and wind-blown debris clean up. Periodically, we receive additional funding to clear larger dumping or debris on sites. However, we do not have the resources or capacity to offer any services or materials beyond this.
PHS submitted the vacant lot to the City of Philadelphia for approval. The property was in violation of the Philadelphia Property Maintenance Code. Because the owner failed to respond to a Notice of Violation and Order to Correct, the City of Philadelphia is abating this violation under its LandCare Program through a contract with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. This abatement includes ongoing maintenance. If you are the owner of this property and you seek to have the work on this property stopped under the LandCare contract, contact us at 215-988-1661, or email us at landcare@pennhort.org if you are the owner of a vacant lot we are servicing.