Housing efforts need some help from Harrisburg

Bob Heisse

People on the front lines of the campaign for affordable housing in Pennsylvania think the timing is right to elevate the issue in Harrisburg.

The state, they say, should finally set aside money specifically to help residents find housing they can afford, whether it’s in central Pennsylvania or any other region.

Their goal:

Challenge the General Assembly to put $100 million in a housing trust fund, similar to what’s in place in 38 other states. Money from such a fund would go toward expanding the low-cost housing supply, preserving old homes, working to prevent homelessness and ensuring the health of the housing industry.

The needs are clear across Pennsylvania, where a documented 15,000 residents are homeless and 50,000 qualified applicants are on waiting lists for low-cost homes.

Forty percent of Pennsylvania households have annual incomes below $35,000, yet that’s what they need to afford a modest $100,000 home.

The needs, too, are clear in Centre County, as outlined again last week in our “Paycheck to Paycheck” series.

Anyone reading the six-day series, which presented a look behind the statistics and now is packaged for reading on CentreDaily.com, would see the need for work-force housing to help residents struggling to make ends meet.

Locally, progress is being made, as the series showed, with much more work to be done.

A statewide effort would lend a hand, no doubt, and couldn’t come at a better time.

The Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania is leading the charge and plans to deliver endorsements for the housing trust fund initiative to legislators this week during its conference in Harrisburg.

“We’re operating with a sense of urgency,” said Liz Hersh, executive director of the Housing Alliance, adding that it would likely take two years to get any program in place.

The state has yet to provide dedicated housing help since the federal government diminished its role. It’s put Pennsylvania behind neighbors in yet another category.

“The problem has not gotten better on its own,” Hersh said. “Doing nothing has cost us more.”

There are early signs of support for the housing trust fund concept, Hersh said, based on initial meetings with legislators and potential for committee hearings on legislation.

The group’s proposal calls for assessing a 2 percent surcharge on property insurance premiums in the state.

The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency would administer the fund with the assistance of a community advisory board.

Ideally, the state would be more of a partner with local efforts, such as those in Centre County, and housing developers, providers and other entities would compete for the funding.

There are questions, of course, on where the money would come from and whether it could get distributed equally across the state. Any move seen as a “tax increase” would be unpopular, particularly in an election year, but the idea is worth exploring based simply on widespread reaction to the “Paycheck to Paycheck” series.

The challenges faced by working Centre Countians are being faced by Pennsylvanians from east to west. It’s time state leaders, who just received a highly publicized 3.5 percent cost-of-living increase, take a good look and work on ways to help.

Considering that legislators haven’t accomplished a whole lot this year, to be kind, a focus on these issues in 2008 in a bipartisan way just might salvage the session and put them in good graces with voters.

We can only hope.

As always, please contact me with concerns you have about anything in the Centre Daily Times or online at www.centredaily.com. Executive Editor Bob Heisse can be reached at bheisse@centredaily.com or 231-4640. His blog, “Back in Happy Valley,” is on the Web site.