Priced out of Centre County? Here’s a look at the state of affordable housing
With a median rent of $930 and rising in Centre County, some local residents — or prospective residents — have expressed frustration over a lack of affordable housing options in the area.
But several grant awards and programs in Centre County allow the Department of Human Services to assist 50-60 households in various stages of housing need each year, according to county Director of Adult Services Faith Ryan.
Where to go for help
There are several big funding sources for the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement (PHARE) grant — the Marcellus Shale impact fee funds, a percentage of the realty transfer tax and private funds from the National Housing Trust.
In Centre County, the Marcellus Shale PHARE grant and the Rental and Mortgage Assistance Program provide around $12,500 in rental assistance every month. The county also connects people to resources like Section 811 Housing and Section 8 Housing from the Housing and Urban Development office, housing case management, bridge housing, rapid re-housing, permanent supportive housing and four emergency shelters.
The guidelines, though, are often stringent, Ryan said. For a family or individual to qualify for rental assistance, they must be two months behind on rent and have an eviction notice. To receive mortgage assistance through RMAP, they must provide Act 91 foreclosure paperwork. Some mortgage companies won’t accept any assistance money if the mortgage isn’t paid in full, said Betsy Barndt, with the Office of Adult Services.
They also have to turn people away when they run out of funding. The office opens at 9 a.m. and clients are helped on a first come, first serve basis. Sometimes they run out of rental and mortgage assistance money in 24 hours to a week. That left almost $8,000 in unmet need this past year.
PHARE grant funds paid for by Marcellus Shale impact fees must also be used in areas with unconventional gas wells, like Philipsburg Borough, Rush Township, Milesburg Borough, Howard and Port Matilda, said Ryan.
“The reason that we were able to serve 32 households this past year (using the PHARE grant) ... because of those areas, we do find that rents are still a little bit more ‘affordable,’ ” she said, adding that the definition of affordable depends on the structure and income of a person’s household.
The changing structure of the economy and rapidly rising real estate prices in the more urban areas of Centre County contribute to a large portion of Ryan’s clients simply not being able to afford the cost of living in the area. Many are low income, unemployed or underemployed — and a major car repair or medical emergency can leave them at risk for homelessness.
“When we’re working with folks in the State College/Bellefonte area, it’s becoming increasingly more challenging to help them be sustainable” in their rent or mortgage payments, Ryan said.
New programs
Last year, Centre County received a $26,000 PHARE grant through realty transfer tax money for the Homemaker Services Program, which provides in-home care to people between the ages of 18 and 59 who are disabled, on fixed income, low income, or need non-medical personal care assistance. With that money and the county’s match, they were able to serve 29 households with caregivers and support.
“We really do have a lot of people that are on the verge of homelessness because of the condition of their home or because of the condition of their personal hygiene,” Ryan said. Because of the new program, she said, a few clients were saved from eviction by their caregivers.
There is also a pending grant application to the state for $42,000 to start a Reentry Case Management Program, which would fund a case manager position to help inmates or ex-inmates of the Centre County Correctional Facility transition back into society and gain stable living situations.
“We find that we have a lot of housing instability ... coming out of the prison,” Ryan said. The case manager would connect clients to housing resources or rental assistance programs and check in with them regarding their transition.
Developing affordable housing
The opening of several new affordable housing complexes over the past five years, including Bellefonte Mews on High Street, Stonebridge Senior Apartments on Bristol Avenue and Atherton Place on South Atherton Street, has brought the total number of affordable housing complexes in Centre County up to 35.
But there’s still more work to be done, said Andy Haines, executive vice president of S&A Homes, a central Pennsylvania housing development company.
Pennsylvania lawmakers introduced a bill to establish a state housing tax credit modeled off the federal low-income housing tax credit in order to extend and integrate with the latter. Haines and other developers are talking to legislators about pushing the tax credit through to encourage private investment in affordable housing.
“The more we work together to create more funding, it provides more housing for people who need it,” he said.
Advocates for affordable housing, developers and nonprofits are also lobbying to free up a larger portion of the realty transfer tax for PHARE grant use, said Michelle Feldman, policy director for the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania in Jenkintown.
That won’t increase the realty transfer tax, said Feldman, but Haines said some realtors worry that by increasing the portion of the tax that goes to PHARE, the tax will eventually increase and scare people away from buying houses.
It’s also necessary to charge fair market prices on rental units, said Haines, so that property owners don’t price people out.