Shhh! Don't tell Joe Long. I just received a news release from Lehigh County Exec Don Cunningham concerning affordable housing. At a time when rising home prices are making it impossible to buy real estate, Cunningham's proposal is absolutely necessary. Allentown: Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham announced this year’s round of grant awards from Lehigh County’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund today.
"It is painfully obvious that many of today’s working families in the Lehigh Valley are struggling with the high costs of housing and home ownership," said Cunningham. "That’s why we commissioned the affordable housing task force, and that’s why, for the first time in over three years, we’re leveraging over a million dollars of county funds to create new affordable housing, fund a home ownership assistance program and create pride in home ownership in struggling neighborhoods."
This year’s round of grants represent a total investment of $1,450,000, which leverages total investments of $34 million, creating 423 new housing units and helping at least 25 families purchase homes for the first time through a home ownership assistance program.
Money for this fund is not realized from property taxes or the County’s general fund. The Affordable Housing Trust Fund is funded by recording fees on mortgages and other recorded documents.
Last year Cunningham, together with Northampton County Executive John Stoffa, commissioned a bi-county affordable housing task force to make recommendations on how to create and preserve more affordable housing across the Lehigh Valley. One outgrowth of that activity was the creation of a Lehigh County Affordable Housing Advisory Committee. Cunningham accepted the committee’s recommendations to fund the following projects:
1) Neighborhood Housing Services of the Lehigh Valley will be awarded $200,000 for its Home Ownership Outreach, or HOOP, program. The HOOP program provides first-time home buyers with down payment and closing cost assistance as well as individual counseling related to the purchase of their first home.
2) Pennrose Properties, LLC, will be awarded $500,000 to fund the home ownership portion of its project in conjunction with the Allentown Housing Authority at Overlook Park in East Allentown. The Overlook Park Project includes the demolition of the former Hanover Acres Housing Projects and the construction of a mixed residential housing community on the same site.
3) Housing Association and Development Corporation of Allentown will be awarded $300,000 in 2007 and $200,000 in 2008 to help fund the construction of twenty-six owner-occupied townhouse units on North Street in Allentown. The North Street Project includes acquisition and demolition of an entire city block that had become an eyesore after fire and abandonment. The new owner-occupied units will feature a homeowner’s association and home ownership counseling.
4) Habitat for Humanity of the Lehigh Valley will be awarded $200,000 to fund site acquisition and construction of up to 6 homes. The homes will be constructed using the Habitat development model, which creates pride in ownership by having participants volunteer their time building houses for themselves and others.
5) The City of Allentown will receive $250,000 for site acquisition and development of new affordable housing units at 826 Turner Street in the city. This funding will be specifically applied to the new, affordable development of 826 Turner Street as part of Allentown’s larger "Old City" Project.
The grant awards must be approved by the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners before they become final. The Board is scheduled to discuss the grants at its December 12 meeting.
4 comments:
bernie, there are issues with every one of those 5 projects listed by cunningham. this is not the site for me to discuss my view of his mentality, but let me make a few statements. There are, especially in center city(where all these projects are anyway) lower priced homes for lower income people, which realtors will connect with no cost to the public. What is the administrative waste(cost) distributing 1.45 mil to five different outfits? good cunningham public relations, but bad business policy. what's next donny, maybe a proposal to increase the recording fee's.
Mike,
First, Cunningham can't unilaterally increase recording fees for affordable housing. That fiirst requires the state legislature, and then would require an ordinance from the LC Commissioners. It is my understanding that both LC and NC already charge the maximum possible amount for affordable housing in its recording fees.
Second, your other objections have some validity. According to commish-elect Dean Browning, between 15 and 20% of grant money can be used for administrative costs.
Under Browning's "One House at a Time" initiative, individual entrepreneurs would be encouraged to get involved, too.
I'll update my post with a link to Browning's proposal, which is a good one. But right now, the majority of the funding needs to go to the public sector, which has several programs in operation.
In addition to these grants and Browning's "One House at a Time" proposal, municipalities should give serious consideration to inclusionary zoning, which mitigates the dangers to low-icome residents posed by gentrification schemes.
Great . . .
Allentown has been awarded the opportunity to host an even greater share of the low income housing burden for the region.
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